World War I and Alliances

In the one hundred years since the Congress of Vienna, there had been no Europe-wide conflict among the industrialized neations of the continent. Indeed, a complex system of defensive alliances (see map) created two opposing camps--the Central powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire; and the Allied powers of Britain, France, and Russia.

There were plenty of opportunities for competition and tension, however. The "Scramble for Africa," expanding industiral competition, and the emergence of an expansionistic and militaristic Germany under the leadership of the bellicose Wilhelm II (pictured), all led to the creation of a tinerbox that needed only the spark of assassination to detonate a World War.


Part of the problem in 1914 was the development of complex and intricate war/mobilization plans that called for high levels of speed and planning. Germany's famous "Schlieffen Plan" was one such mobilization scheme. Because of the realities of geography (see map), Germany would be forced to fight a two-front war: Russia on one side and Britian and France on the other.


The Shlieffen Plan assumed a slow and disorganized Russian mobilization and focused Imperial Germany's resources on France and Britain with a lightning drive through Belgium (see map).


After securing victory there, Germany would then shift its resources to the Russians in the east. But when Russia mobilized following the crisis of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, Germany was boxed (as they saw it) to an even greater comitment to the speed and mobilzation of the Shlieffen Plan. Below is a link to a BBC documentary on the Battle of the Somme.