The plan also failed in the East, because Russia’s mobilization and troop deployment took place faster than had been assumed and because Austria-Hungary’s army had suffered significant losses in the first weeks of fighting. The battle resulted in a devastating defeat for the German army, which was forced to retreat beyond the Aisne River. On September 5, 1914, the French army initiated the counterattack known as the Battle of the Marne. The Germans’ plan of attack (the so-called Schlieffen Plan) failed in the first weeks of war, as both the Belgian and French armies offered stubborn resistance and could not, as the Central Powers had hoped, be defeated in one quick maneuver. This map shows the front lines in the East and West in the form they had assumed by November 1914, three months after the start of the war. Italy, Romania, Portugal, and Greece later joined the war on the side of the Entente, whereas Bulgaria joined the Central Powers. Belgium, which was initially neutral, was drawn into the war after being invaded by German troops the Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway continued to remain neutral. Germany and Europe in the First World War (1914-1918)ĭuring the First World War, the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and, as of November 1914, the Ottoman Empire) and the Entente Powers (France, Russia, and Great Britain) stood in hostile opposition to each other. Wilhelmine Germany and the First World War (1890-1918)
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