World War I is infamous for being the bloodiest and deadliest war at the time. After the first few months of the War, it was quite clear that Germany was on the verge of a great loss against the Allied Powers. Unlike Britain, Germany didn’t have a strategy and went into war thinking that it would end quickly, without them planning ahead. Towards 1917, Germany began to deteriorate in all aspects (militarily, economically, culturally and even political) while the allied powers had just joined forces with the USA and were standing united against a non-existent German army. After the failure of the Von Schlieffen Plan, and Germany’s hopes of the war ending quickly being shattered problems began in all other aspects of German society and the war, including military, economic, culturally and even political.
The key reason Germany and her Allies lost the war, was the failure of the Von Schlieffen plan and the lack of planning ahead, in case their initial plan failed, which it did. Four years before the war even begun, Germany prepared the Von Schlieffen plan in-case of a war against France and Russia. The plan was to attack France through, the up to now neutral, Belgium and try to mobilize into Belgium before Russia. This would have enabled the German’s to concentrate on their Eastern Front, against Russia. Germany tried to execute the plan but it failed as they underestimated not only Belgium but also France’s Western Front. At the same time, Russia had already begun mobilizing much faster than Germany had planned. Germany attacking Belgium, also allowed the British to enter with the auspicious reason that Belgium was neutral. This led to the creation of the image that German’s are barbarians for attacking Belgium. At this point I want to mention that it has been widely speculated that even if the Germans didn’t execute their plan, that the British would have begun a war anyway. The Germans, instead of regrouping, persisted with executing such a risky plan and when it ultimately failed, they were left with no other strategies. When the fast capture of Belgium failed, the German’s were stuck fighting in trenches and only engaging in small attacks until an opportunity arose. This shows that not only the German military leaders were incapable of leading a country to war but also that they underestimated their enemies, even though they had just begun becoming a powerful country.
German propaganda also ridiculed the worth of the enemy and the soldiers trusted that everything the propaganda said was true but when the war actually begun, they were shocked as what they had been told was far from the truth. They didn’t expect the harsh brutality, which was a result of British propaganda presenting Germans as barbarians, and didn’t have time to prepare for what they faced. The British, with their propaganda, adjusted their soldiers to know what to expect and fight with all their might to defeat the barbarians, as they presented them, that pillaged a neutral country.
In addition, Alliances played a big part in Germany losing the war. Before the war broke out, Germany was allied with Austro-Hungary and Italy. As soon as the war begun, Italy left because their contract read that they would help Germany if they were under attack. Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire joined Germany’s Alliance later but both were weak and depended on Germany rather than providing Germany with resources. That in conjunction with the fact that they had no communication with their allies, led to Germany giving more than what they received from their allies. Germany’s war effort relied mainly on their own strength and by the end of the war; they were at war with over 20 countries, by themselves. The allied powers though, made positive contributions to the allied victories. Britain helped the vast expenses of the war and the French proved to be great allies since they were prepared to fight rather than surrender. Also Russia had a lot of man power, which took attention away from the Allies on the Western Front.
Additionally, Germany followed an Authoritarian Government, which is run by a leader that is usually royalty. This was very ineffective in Germany as all decisions were made by Kaiser Wilhelm, a very militaristic minded person. Wilhelm was unwilling to listen to others more experienced in the field, and they made all the decisions without considering the opinions of others and if their plan failed, they had no back-up. Also, Germany was a force to be reckoned with at the beginning of the war but in reality their economy and geography were very limited. In 1914, Germany was one of the richest countries in the world, but after the war had begun it constantly lost money. The biggest drawback of Germany was that it didn’t have a formal tax system, and depended on the people donating money and goods to the government. This also led to problems after the war when people had lost faith in their government and stopped donating money. Furthermore, their weapon manufacturers were private so the German government had to pay to get its weapons and ammunition. Germany had begun expanding, imperialism, and was considered a large empire at this point. The problem was that Germany was in the middle of Europe and when the war had begun, Germany found themselves surrounded and as a result had to fight on many different fronts (Russians in the east, British / French in the west). The British, having an actual strategy, ordered their fleet to create a blockade on German ports to stop other countries from supplying Germany. Being surrounded and outnumbered, impending doom was imminent for the Germans.
Furthermore, a big factor towards the end of the war was the entry of the US against Germany. At this point I want to mention that the US entered the war with the auspicious reason that Germany sank the Lusitania which was allegedly a civilian ship, but in reality it carried soldiers, weapons and resources for the allies. Germany also provoked the USA when rumours spread that Germany was planning an alliance with Mexico to enable them to take back states from the US(which couldn’t have happened, because there was a war within Mexico).The USA had soldiers, money and supplies whereas Germany was running out of all these resources. Germany knew that if the US decided to mobilized, they would surely face defeat. Knowing this, Germany launched a massive attack on France, tried to split the British and the French but they failed. The entry of the US greatly increased the morale of the Allied army as they were fresh and they were excited to join the fight, while Germany’s morale was in an all – time low. As soon as the Americans started bringing troops to France, the war was basically over because other countries were running out of trained troops and they resorted in putting young untrained civilians into the war.
World War I was significant because it was the first war that involved a large amount of countries. The Central Alliance was weak from the beginning because they didn’t have an alternative strategy, or any real support for Germany. Mistakes were made by the government of Germany and instead of relying on the war ending fast, Germany should have actually planned out exactly what they would have done, or at least a back-up plan. Because of the military failure of the Von Schlieffen plan, the weak alliances, the insufficient propaganda machine and the late entry of the USA, Germany and its alliance system declined until ultimately failing in the 11th of November 1918. Germany gained nothing from this war, and lost not only millions of people but also, under the Treaty of Versailles, lost their right to have their own government and were forced to pay unimaginable fees which they couldn’t pay because of how much money they lost during the war.
