The Plan of Campaign

To some extent, every major power had developed military plans for a continental war. Germany had the most detailed plans. Count Alfred von Schlieffen, chief of the German general staff from 1891 to 1905, had developed a strategy for the invasion of France and had set up a timetable for troop movements and operations.

The Schlieffen Plan, as it came to be known, called for a large force to march west through Belgium and then south, to Paris. A small force would be deployed at the French border to lure the French forward, causing them to expose their west flank and rear. Schlieffen calculated that Russia would mobilize very slowly, thus not posing a threat to Germany's eastern frontier until after operations in the west were concluded. Then, Germany could turn its forces toward Russia.

Austria-Hungary's plan was to mount a coordinated Austro-German offensive in the east to knock Russia out of the war. However, the High Command accepted the Schlieffen Plan and agreed to contain Russia while Germany sought to gain a quick victory in the west.

France's plans were much less detailed than Germany's. The French generals planned a series of offensives along the Franco-German border to reclaim Alsace and Lorraine, territories seized by the Germans in the Franco-Prussian War. When this plan was executed, however, the attacks were not well coordinated and were easily repelled by the Germans.

Unlike the other powers, Great Britain did not have any detailed military plans in the event of war. When the war broke out, Britain sent a small expeditionary force to hold the position on the west flank of the French army.

Russian strategy called for the defeat of Austria-Hungary before engaging Germany. However, the Russians abandoned their plan when they were prodded by the French into an invasion of East Prussia, in order to help relieve the German pressure on the Western Front.