HST 702 Lecture 5: HST702- Lecture 5 No End in Sight.docx
8 Dec 2013
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No end in sight: to the eastern front, ypres and beyond. 1 - fighting the two front war: the german and russian armies. Germans want to go through belgium to take france (schlieffen plan) Belgium had a treaty with great britain guaranteeing their sovereignty and neutrality. Germans get through 25 miles to paris, but get pushed back 75 miles. German army had a lot going for it. Exploring all the problems that they could face. Huge army filled with lots of enthusiastic nationalist recruits. Germany had an army of 800,000 soldiers in 1914. First to grasp the potential of the machine gun. Germany had such a strong army because they stayed in the system for a very long time. Basically from 18 to 45 years of age. Germany is outnumbered 2:1 because hey have to fight the russians and the french/british. Germans get stuck in france, russians take the opportunity to attack. Russia is under pressure to aid the serbians.
