Why Did The Schlieffen Plan Fail

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The Schlieffen Plan was a plan made by Alfred von Schlieffen. This was a plan that was made so that Germany would not have to fight a two front war. The Schlieffen Plan was to basically to attack france head on with a medium army while a large army would go around and meet up deeper in France, causing French troops to be driven back. Then the German army would go to fight Russia. The Schlieffen Plan was then changed by Helmuth von Moltke. He first changed it where it only invaded Belgium, to get to France, and not the Netherlands. Helmuth also had more men than Schlieffen did. These changes were not enough, the Schlieffen Plan still failed for many different reasons. One of the reasons the Schlieffen Plan failed was it relied on fast transportation which at that time was trains. …show more content…
Another thing that slowed down the Germans was that the battles were taking longer than expected. These are just some of the main reasons the Schlieffen Plan failed. After the Schlieffen Plan failed Germany was forced to fight a two front war. This means Germany would have to face France in the West while facing Russia in the East. The only way Germany could do that is if they split up their army, some going West to fight the French, and some going East to fight the Russians. On the West, Germans were defending themselves in parts of France they gained through the Schlieffen Plan. The Germans and the French were both using trench warfare making almost no