The War on Its Fronts, 1914–1918 – The First World War (1914-1918) (Senior 6 History (Languages)) | Ganzaa

The First World War (1914-1918)

Lessons

Senior 6 · History (Languages)

The First World War (1914-1918)

4 lessons

Lesson 2 of 4

The War on Its Fronts, 1914–1918

25 min

A plan that had to work in six weeks

Germany's generals faced a problem of geography: France to the west, Russia to the east. Their answer, the Schlieffen Plan, was to defeat France in about six weeks by sweeping through Belgium, and then rush the army east by rail before slow-moving Russia was ready. Everything depended on speed. Follow the timeline to see what happened instead.

Figure 1. The main turning points. Above the line, the Western Front in France and Belgium; below it, the Eastern Front and the wider war.

Definition

Stalemate: a situation in which neither side can advance or win.

War of attrition: a strategy of wearing the enemy down by steady losses of men and materials, rather than by a decisive breakthrough.

Unrestricted submarine warfare: sinking merchant ships, including neutral ones, without warning.

Armistice: an agreement to stop fighting, which comes before a peace treaty.

The Western Front: from movement to trenches

German armies came within reach of Paris, but at the Battle of the Marne in September 1914 French and British forces pushed them back. Both sides then dug in. By the end of 1914 a line of trenches ran from the North Sea coast to the Swiss border. Machine guns, barbed wire and artillery made defence far stronger than attack, so for three years the line barely moved. Generals tried to break the deadlock with new weapons (poison gas from 1915, tanks from 1916, aircraft) and with huge battles of attrition such as Verdun and the Somme in 1916, which cost hundreds of thousands of casualties on each side for a few kilometres of ground.

The Eastern Front: a war of movement that broke Russia

In the east the front moved over hundreds of kilometres. Germany crushed a Russian army at Tannenberg in August 1914. Russia's Brusilov Offensive of 1916 badly damaged Austria-Hungary, but Russia lacked rifles, shells, food and railways. Losses and hunger brought revolution in 1917: the Tsar abdicated in March, and in November the Bolsheviks under Lenin seized power, promising "peace, land and bread". By the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (3 March 1918) Russia left the war, giving up Poland, the Baltic lands, Finland and Ukraine.

The war beyond Europe and at sea

Gallipoli (April 1915 to January 1916): an Allied attempt to knock out the Ottoman Empire and open a sea route to Russia failed and was abandoned.
Africa: German colonies were attacked by Allied forces. In East Africa the campaign lasted the whole war; the last German force surrendered on 25 November 1918, two weeks after the armistice.
At sea: Britain's blockade slowly starved Germany of food and raw materials. Germany answered with U-boats.

Russia out, the United States in

In early 1917 Germany gambled. It resumed unrestricted submarine warfare, hoping to starve Britain before America could act, and the Zimmermann Telegram (a German offer of alliance to Mexico) was intercepted and published. On 6 April 1917 the United States declared war. Russia's exit freed German divisions for the west, but by mid-1918 fresh American troops were arriving in large numbers.

Germany's surrender

Germany's Spring Offensive of March 1918 gained ground but exhausted its best troops. From 8 August the Allies attacked continuously in the Hundred Days Offensive. Germany's partners collapsed one by one: Bulgaria (29 September), the Ottoman Empire (30 October) and Austria-Hungary (3 November). Sailors mutinied at Kiel, revolution spread, and Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated on 9 November. The armistice was signed in a railway carriage at Compiègne and took effect at 11 a.m. on 11 November 1918.

Worked example: "Why did Germany lose the First World War?"

Two fronts: the Schlieffen Plan failed at the Marne, so Germany fought east and west for over three years.
Resources: the British blockade cut food and raw materials; the Allies drew on empires and, from 1917, on the United States.
Weak allies: Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire needed German support and collapsed in autumn 1918.
Strategic gambles: unrestricted submarine warfare brought America in; the Spring Offensive used up the last reserves.
Home front collapse: hunger, strikes and the Kiel mutiny made further fighting impossible.

Judgement: no single cause; the decisive one was the imbalance of resources, which time made worse for Germany.

Kings and Generals, "Why did Germany Lose World War I?" (animated documentary with maps, about 19 minutes). Watch for the reasons it gives for Germany's defeat and compare them with the five points in the worked example.

Warning

Two common errors. Russia's withdrawal did not mean Germany was winning: it came just as American troops began to arrive. And the United States did not win the war on its own; it tipped a balance that blockade, attrition and the collapse of Germany's allies had already shifted.

Tip

West stuck, east moving. Remember the contrast: the Western Front was static (trenches, attrition), the Eastern Front was mobile (huge advances and retreats). Most "compare the fronts" questions turn on that one idea.

Important

Discuss. Was the entry of the United States or the withdrawal of Russia the more important turning point of 1917 to 1918? Argue both sides.

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Practice

What was the Schlieffen Plan, and why did it fail?
Define a war of attrition and name one battle fought in that way.
Give two reasons why the United States entered the war in April 1917.
What did Russia give up at Brest-Litovsk?
Arrange in order: Kaiser abdicates; Bulgaria makes peace; Spring Offensive; armistice takes effect.
"The Western Front was where the war was decided." Assess this claim.

Show answersHide answers

A plan to defeat France quickly through Belgium, then turn on Russia. It failed because Belgian resistance and British entry slowed it, Russia mobilised faster than expected, and the French and British stopped the Germans at the Marne in September 1914.
Wearing the enemy down by continuous losses; Verdun or the Somme (1916).
Unrestricted submarine warfare sank American ships and lives; the Zimmermann Telegram proposed a German alliance with Mexico. (Trade and loans tying the US to the Allies is also acceptable.)
Poland, the Baltic lands, Finland and Ukraine.
Spring Offensive (March 1918); Bulgaria makes peace (29 September); Kaiser abdicates (9 November); armistice (11 November).
Partly true: Germany's final defeat came in the west in 1918. But the blockade at sea, the collapse of Russia and of Germany's allies, and hunger at home all shaped the outcome, so the war was decided by several fronts together.

Sources and credits

Photo: At the Peace Conference in Brest-Litovsk (arrival of the Russian delegation), United States War Department, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
Dates checked against World War I and Armistice of 11 November 1918, Wikipedia contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; no text adapted.
Video: Why did Germany Lose World War I?, Kings and Generals, embedded from YouTube.

Written by Ganzaa: the timeline, the analysis, the worked example and the exercises.

1A plan that had to work in six weeks

2The Western Front: from movement to trenches

3The Eastern Front: a war of movement that broke Russia

4The war beyond Europe and at sea

5Russia out, the United States in

6Germany's surrender