Why did Germany invade France during World War 1?

Answer 1

Germany had been drawing up their plan for war, the Schlieffen plan, since 1897. It worked on the basis that they would be at war with Russia and France at the same time. The Germans thought that France would be weak and easy to capture, whereas Russia would be much stronger, but very slow to mobilise. So in essence the Germans could nip over to France, defeat it, and then come back and finish off the Russians. However, this plan started to go wrong on the 30th of July 1914, when Russia mobilised its army, but France didn't. In a panic, on August 3rd 1914, Germany was forced to invent a pretext to go to war with France. It's very difficult to actually find out what that pretext was, but the most I can gather is that the Germans said that the French attack was "imminent" on their Western Border, and that they were merely pre-empting it.

Answer 2

Why, because of train time tables that's why. Pre 1914 the European great powers were divided into two camps:- Russia, France and Britain in one and Germany, Italy and Austro-Hungary on the other. Think of this as kind of early version of the cold war. The two sides threatened to annihilate each other in an orgy of industrialised violence. So a kind of uneasy peace reigned over the continent. Surely no one would disturb such an arrangement.

Unfortunately an easy means of assured mutual destruction was not available at the start of the 20th century, in those days war meant massing millions of men and guns by rail. Remember also that the telephone was barely invented and there were no computer or other electronic information systems to ease the task. Therefore every troop movement had to be meticulously planned years in advance, and so each of the six powers drew up a vast series of complex train timetables to guide their armies to assemble.

There was however a major problem with all these plans, once started they could not be stopped. The planners assumed that a decision to start the troop massing was a decision to go to war. Such vast movements of men and material could not be recalled, they could not be altered, they could not be halted. In 1914 there was growing instability, when the Arch Duke Ferdinand was assassinated it sparked of a round of diplomatic arguments. These arguments grew ever more heated, Austria demanded recompense from Serbia (where Ferdinand was killed) Russia, supported it's ally. Germany was forced, by treaty to support it's ally Austria. The leaders of Russia, Germany and Austria decided to assemble their troops at the borders as a sign of strength.

Von Shlefan's plan for Germany was a full frontal attack on France, swinging through France in a sweeping action with the Alps as the axes. This attack was planned as part of the massing of troops at the Russian border. the German plans assumed that an attack on Russia would also include an attack on Russia's ally France.

So to conclude, the Germans invaded France because Russia threatened Austria. The invasion started because no one had planned to simply mass troops at the border, once started the train time table called for war. War was the result. And WWII was a natural consequence of WWI. These events then led to the cold war.

The thinking that lead to the outbreak of war in 1914 was that piling armaments into ever higher mountains of terror would make everyone wary of starting a war in Europe. This was the very same logic which dominated cold war thinking throughout most of the last half of the 20th century. Mutual assured destruction without compromise. It very nearly ended life as we know it. I certainly hope we never see such thinking again - otherwise WWII and WWI will seem like a picnic.

***

I am not going to remove the previous answer, but I am going to give my own answer.

Before WWI, there were 5 main European powers: Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia. Without going into too much detail, there was much competition between them, particularly between Britain and Germany.

At the same time, the Empire of Austria-Hungary was comprised of many different states such as Serbia, Bosnia; etc. that wanted independence from Austro-Hungarian rule.

It is also important to note that, before WWI, there were various alliances between the 5 European Powers.

Britain, France and Russia were in an alliance called the "Triple Entente".

Germany and Austria-Hungary also formed an alliance.

In 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He vowed to stop the oppression suffered by the people of the Empire. In an act of peace, he chose to tour the streets of Bosnia in June, 1914. Long story short, he and his wife were shot dead by a rebel group in Serbia called the "Black Hand".

Serbia was one of the nations in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Because of this act of terrorism against one of their royalty and the heir to the empirical throne, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.

Russia was traditionally the "protector" of all the Slavic countries, including Serbia. So when Austria- Hungary declared war on Serbia, Russia rushed in to defend Serbia and declared war on Austria-Hungary.

Remember that Germany was Austria-Hungary's ally, so Germany stepped in and declared war on Russia.

Now this is where Germany's invasion of France comes in.

Germany's military plan to be used in case of a war with Russia, which was created before WWI began, was called the "Schlieffen Plan". The Schlieffen Plan kept in mind that a war with Russia would also be a war with France because of their alliance in the "Triple Entente". Therefore the Schlieffen Plan stated that if Germany was ever to be at war with Russia, Germany would attack France first, defeat them in 6 weeks (they hoped), and then attack Russia. The reason for attacking France first was because Germany thought it would take Russia's army longer to mobilise, as Russian territory covered a vast area of land, and because Russia was weaker economically at this time compared to the other European powers.

To give a bit more information for anyone interested to know, an attack on France in accordance with the Schlieffen Plan meant that German troops would have to travel through Belgium to get to France. Before WWI Britain had promised Belgium neutrality in any future European conflict. Therefore, Britain also declared war on Germany for involving Belgium in the conflict.

This is the basic explanation as to the proximate events leading up to the outbreak of the First World War. Bear in mind that there are countless other longterm factors that also impacted on the outbreak of the war in Europe, too many to be stated here.

actually Germany invaded France and Belgium because France and Belgium were in an alliance together with great Britain and the only reason they didn't attack great Britain to is because there was a sea in between great Britain and Germany and the Germans were afraid the might get torpedoed by the u-boats. they could not see the u-boats on the sonar system so it ruined many ships. this is the right answer and i know because i am a student and we are currently studying this in my social studies class.

Answer 3

Long Answer: The policy of appeasement that practically invited Hitler to invade any country he saw fit was essentially a stop gap solution to allow Britain time to create an integrated fighter command system that would protect her from strategic bombing. British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin's comment that "The bomber will always get through" summed up the sentiment of the time (1930's) as most nations feared strategic bombing above all else. Although the Luftwaffe was forced, due to economic and industrialnecessityy, to focus on cheaper tactical air power (4 engined bombers take up the engines of 4 Stukas or fighters), many feared her numerical superiority. By 1939, Britain felt secure enough to be able to finally make a stand against Hitler by declaring a mutual defence pact with Poland. France and Britain were, after the First Wrold War, closely linked in terms of defence policy and knew that joint decisions would have to be made as their re-armament programs were well behind that of Germany and could only offer an effective deterrent by acting together. Hitler thought that the invasion of Poland would simply create another Munich Crisis (1938) and Britain and France would simply back down, he was wrong.

Answer 4

They didn't. The US declaration of war on Germany during World War I, the war that occurred during 1918, came in April of 1917. The main reason for the declaration was Germany's constant ignoring of the US's neutral rights.

Answer 5

because it was part of there plan to win the war in six weeks

Answer 6

Why did germany declare war on france?

Answer 7

They went against the treaty Versailles