What is the significance of schlieffen plan

France had to be defeated — and this did not happen. Photograph of General Count Alfred von Schlieffen. Count Alfred von Schlieffen. It was Schlieffen's plan…. In such a narrow theater, the participation of the British army would have been superfluous. Unburdened by its treaty commitment to uphold Belgian neutrality, British involvement might have been limited to bottling up the German High Seas fleet in the Baltic and to defending the French coasts from naval attack by the German fleet.

British involvement might have stopped well short of committing ground troops, much less mobilizing the manpower of the Empire. Schlieffen's plan to quickly knock France out of the war meant that the rapid mobilization of troops was not just an important tactical advantage but a critical element for achieving victory. On August 1, in response to the German declaration of war against Russia, the French government ordered a full mobilization. The Germans followed suit. On August 3, after Paris had refused to answer Berlin's demand to remain neutral, Germany declared war on France.

Simultaneously, Germany informed King Albert's neutral Belgian government that, "it would treat it as an enemy" if it did not permit the free transit of German troops across its land. Belgium immediately ordered a full mobilization. Less than twenty-four hours later, in accordance with the strategy laid out in the latest version of the Schlieffen Plan, Germany invaded Belgium. In London on the stroke of midnight, August 4, Prime Minister Herbert Asquith's government, having received no German guarantees to respect Belgium's neutrality, began a full mobilization of the army and fleet, and declared war on Germany.

By the first week of August, even as Europe was still in the midst of an all-out mobilization, hostilities had already commenced. The term mobilization is used freely to describe the process of calling up reservists in each of the belligerent countries.

The process, however, was fundamentally different in each country. German military units were geographically based. Their muster stations and arms depots were local.

Once a mobilization order was issued a unit could be assembled, armed and dispatched within 24 hours. Given Germany's extensive and efficient rail network, a military unit could be on the front within 48 hours of being called up.

French mobilization was slower because the composition of French military units was geographically diverse. A tactic designed to ensure the loyalty of French troops in the event of a regional disturbance or revolt.

Muster stations for French recruits were typically further away, requiring a train journey to the muster station and then, once assembled and armed, a second journey to their designated deployment. That difference meant that French mobilization was, at best, two to three days slower than that of Germany. Most of the time France lagged about a week behind Germany in mobilizing and deploying its troops. In both the French and German cases, reservists would have undergone some prior military training.

Russian mobilization was an altogether different process. Russia's western front was organized into six military districts. Each district had multiple muster stations. Typically, these were located well back from the front lines—in some cases, as much as miles back. Three of these military districts fronted on German territory and three fronted on Austrian territory. In August , there were approximately 5, miles of paved roads in Russia, less than one percent of all roads.

Russian track mileage was slightly greater than that of Germany, but it had to service an area many times larger. Reservists had to travel long distances to their muster stations, often by foot. It was only after they had arrived at the military depots that they were assigned to their military units.

Only then would Russian recruits meet their fellow soldiers and more importantly their officers. Few of those recruits had received prior military training. Over 60 percent of them were illiterate.

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