The core reason that France and Russia entered into the alliance that so worried German military planners was that the Kaiser was a belligerent asshole. If he had simply not been such an asshole – or better yet if Bismarck had not put supreme military power in the hands of the German emperor in the first place – then the grand alliance scheme that was supposably responsible for the war would not have been there.
Even with that alliance in place, Germany’s perceived need to quickly stomp the shit out of France before turning on a slow-to-mobilize Russia in order to have any chance of winning – which was their main reason for wanting the war to start when it did and was why they backed Austria’s farcical ultimatum to Serbia – was proven to be ridiculously wrong by the events of the actual war. In actual fact, Germany was able keep France (with British troops thrown in for good measure no less) completely at bay while kicking the shit out of Russia for most of the war. Germany lost because of America’s entry into the war, and they weren’t even involved in the supposed “powder keg” that started it all.
I get you, but I mean the grand alliance scheme to be including what ultimately became the Quadruple Alliance/Central Powers. The Kaiser’s bellicose disposition is noteworthy but doesn’t mean he wasn’t strategizing around the Entente any less.
The core reason that France and Russia entered into the alliance that so worried German military planners was that the Kaiser was a belligerent asshole. If he had simply not been such an asshole – or better yet if Bismarck had not put supreme military power in the hands of the German emperor in the first place – then the grand alliance scheme that was supposably responsible for the war would not have been there.
Even with that alliance in place, Germany’s perceived need to quickly stomp the shit out of France before turning on a slow-to-mobilize Russia in order to have any chance of winning – which was their main reason for wanting the war to start when it did and was why they backed Austria’s farcical ultimatum to Serbia – was proven to be ridiculously wrong by the events of the actual war. In actual fact, Germany was able keep France (with British troops thrown in for good measure no less) completely at bay while kicking the shit out of Russia for most of the war. Germany lost because of America’s entry into the war, and they weren’t even involved in the supposed “powder keg” that started it all.
I get you, but I mean the grand alliance scheme to be including what ultimately became the Quadruple Alliance/Central Powers. The Kaiser’s bellicose disposition is noteworthy but doesn’t mean he wasn’t strategizing around the Entente any less.