HST 504 Lecture 4: HST 504 - Week 4.docx
12 Sep 2012
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Document Summary
The opening manoeuvres: strategies and aims in 1914. At the beginning of the great war, all the great powers activated their war plans and launched offensives to defeat their enemies. On the eastern front, the russians were defeated at the battle of tannenberg by the germans but managed to score victories against austria-hungary. On the western front, the schlieffen plan pushed the german armies through belgium and into france. Yet, as the germans advanced deep into french territory, their offensive ran out of steam. At the battle of the marne, the german advancement towards paris was stopped. What remained was the race to the sea as the armies tried to outflank each other. By november of 1914, no decisive victory could be proclaimed and so a deadlock ensued as each side built lines of trenches and barbwire. The war of attrition had begun even though no state had prepared for a long drawn-out war.
