The German army had fought its way into a good defensive position inside France and had permanently incapacitated 230,000 more French and British troops than it had lost itself. Despite this, communications problems and questionable command decisions cost Germany the chance of obtaining an early victory.
Yes, there was a point during World War I when Germany seemed to be winning the war. This was during the spring of 1918, when Germany launched a series of offensives on the Western Front in an attempt to defeat the Allied Powers before the United States could fully mobilize its forces and enter the war.
It would have been a negotiated armistice or a German victory. The Allies alone could not possibly have defeated Germany. Without U.S. entry, there would have no Versailles Treaty, termed a “diktat” by Hitler, who used it to arouse Germany against the Weimar Republic and Wilson's League of Nations.
Given that Germany was the cause of the war, it was more at risk of losing the war. Germany failed to succeed in World War One because of three main reasons, the failure of the Schlieffen plan, nationalism, and the allies' effective use of attrition warfare.
From 1890 on, Germany did pursue world power. This bid arose from deep roots within Germany's economic, political, and social structures. Once the war broke out, world power became Germany's essential goal.
Although one may argue that Germany played was not to blame for causing World War I because tensions between European nations made war inevitable, to a great extent Germany should be blamed for the war because Germany was responsible for initiating tangled alliance systems in Europe, German militarism started the ...
"The major cause of World War I was Imperial Germany's determination to become a “world power” or superpower by crippling Russia and France in what it hoped would be a brief and decisive war, like the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71."
Germany lost 13% of its land and 12% of its population to the Allies. This land made up 48% of Germany's iron production and a large proportion of its coal productions limiting its economic power. The German Army was limited to 100,000 soldiers, and the navy was limited to 15,000 sailors.
It must be baldly stated: Germany would have won World War I had the U.S. Army not intervened in France in 1918. The French and British were barely hanging on in 1918.
The new government established by the Bolsheviks signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the Central Powers in March 1918, taking it out of the war; leading to a Central Powers victory on the Eastern Front and Russian defeat in World War I.
In World War II, the three great Allied powers—Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union—formed a Grand Alliance that was the key to victory.
Thus, one could argue that much of the war could have been avoided if Russia and Germany had simply kept out of the matter. On the other hand, real tensions existed among many of the principal nations prior to the war, and these conflicting ambitions contributed to the war's escalation.
Poorly equipped men were sent into battle, and the nation failed to prepare adequately for their return home." History, historians like to say, will teach us if we let it. But because World War I doesn't resonate with the public as other wars do, some of the lessons of the Great War threaten to be lost.
A German Mediterranean option would have been very different than invading the Soviet Union. Instead of a huge Axis land army of 3 million men, the Mediterranean would have been a contest of ships and aircraft, supporting relatively small numbers of ground troops through the vast distances of the Middle East.
After assassination of the Austrian heir to the throne in June 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on the Russia's ally Serbia, which made Russia enter WW1 in support of Serbia. During the war, Russia had some success against Austria-Hungary, but suffered major defeats by Germany.
Had the German Army occupied Paris the war would have ended almost immediately. Germany would have demanded reparations, some French territory, perhaps a couple of French colonies. France would have paid up and everyone would have gone home.
At A Hefty Cost, World War I Made The U.S. A Major Military Power : Parallels The U.S. was a reluctant entrant into World War I. But when America joined the battle 100 years ago, on April 6, 1917, it transformed a small military in a major international force almost overnight.
If Germany had won on the Western Front, it would have acquired some French territory and maybe Belgium. The Germans probably wouldn't have been able to enjoy their victory for long. Britain would have retained its independence, protected by its navy that might have continued the hunger blockade against Germany.
But America's three major contributions, going back to 1914, unquestionably guided the war's course. Without the United States, the Allies, at best, would have fought to a stalemate.
Germany declared war on Russia on 1 August and France on 3 August. Germany's violation of Belgian neutrality and British fears of German domination in Europe brought Britain and its empire into the war on 4 August.
The Treaty of Versailles (signed in 1919) and the 1921 London Schedule of Payments required Germany to pay 132 billion gold marks (US$33 billion at the time) in reparations to cover civilian damage caused during the war.
In 1952, the London Agreement on German External Debts assessed the final reparation figure at $3 billion. Germany has yet to pay off its debts for World War II.
The largest share of responsibility lies with the German government. Germany's rulers made possible a Balkan war by urging Austria-Hungary to invade Serbia, well understanding that such a conflict might escalate. Without German backing it is unlikely that Austria-Hungary would have acted so drastically.
The German Army in 1914 comprised 25 corps (700,000 men). Within a week of mobilization some 3.8 million men were under arms. There were eight army commands and a further ten were created during the war. A cavalry regiment and other support forces were attached to each 2 divisions.
Key elements were Russia's defense of Orthodox Serbia, its pan-Slavic roles, its treaty obligations with France, and its concern with protecting its status as a world power.