WWI Question 80-98

Martin Gilbert states that the use of chlorine gas was to break the trench lines but the use of the gas just created a stalemate. What adaptions did other nations use to defend themselves from this gas?

World War One

The war on land, the war at sea, and the war at home all played a role for the victory of the Allied powers. The allied powers I think were more economically stable and were able to provide more resources. I think the most significant was the war on land for one example the Schlieffin Plan. This plan was devised to avoid a two font war so Germany planned on moving through Belgium quickly to get to Paris, but this plan didn’t work as they had hoped. Their troops were finding it hard to keep up with the marching schedules and when Germany reached France and began to fight Germany started to fall behind. I think a big reason the plan didn’t work is because Germany was overconfident in their military powers and didn’t plan for anyone fighting back. Since Germany was falling behind this was a major blow to the Central Powers and allowed the allied powers to gain more ground.

Germany and WWI

Fritz Fischer is a Post-Revisionist and argued that Germany was largely responsible for starting the war. Germany was aware that their actions could lead to a war but thought it was worth the risk. They didn’t expect Russia and the French would get involved, but that it would cause their alliance to weaken. Germany overestimated their abilities and thought that they could overpower everybody else, and they underestimated the abilities of the rest of Europe. Fischer states that “Germany demanded that the ultimatum to Serbia should be drawn up in those sharp terms..” meaning that Germany pushed for a localized  war with Austria-Hungary and Serbia. As events progressed and Russia, the French, and other nations decided to join the war Germany tired to pull out of the war because they realized that they couldn’t overpower the other nations.