Why the Central Powers LostName: - MR. BEST WORLD …



Why the Central Powers LostName:Outnumbered: The main cause of the Central Powers’ defeat during the war is actually quite simple. The central powers were dramatically outnumbered. Even at the beginning of the war, the Central Powers could field only 3 troops to the Entente’s 5 troops. This only grew worse as the war drew on and states such as Italy, Portugal, Romania, and the United States entered the war on the side of the allies. The Entente could draw from a total population base of around 1.27 billion—compared to the Central Powers population base of 156 million. In industrial output, the Central Powers were also outnumbered. The Entente’s gross domestic product in 1913 was 1.7 trillion. The Central Powers was 0.38 trillion. How much were the Central Powers outnumbered in men and GDP?Do you think it would be possible to overcome these disadvantages?Germany’s Plan: Germany recognized this problem 10 years before the war occurred. If the war became a “war of attrition” then Germany would certainly lose. What is a war of attrition? It is a kind of war in which the chief objective is to exhaust the enemy’s ability to fight by bleeding their population and draining their industrial capabilities. In these conflicts, your army doesn’t matter as much as your population and your industry. As you saw above, The Central Powers were at a huge disadvantage when it came to those things.Therefore, it was Germany’s plan to win the war as quickly as possible and in such a way that the German army’s superior training, equipment, and mobility could be used to decisively defeat the enemy before Germany’s lesser population became a factor. This is why the Schlieffen Plan was so bold and why it ignored Belgian neutrality. Germany could not afford to have a plan that was cautious. If the initial attack failed—German High Command believed that Germany would lose the war. What is a War of Attrition?Why couldn’t the Central Powers win a War of Attrition?How did a fear of a War of Attrition shape the Schlieffen Plan?Why didn’t the Schlieffen Plan work? The German war plans were probably the best thought out at the beginning of the war and France’s war plans (Plan 17) basically walked right into Germany’s trap. So why didn’t Germany win? Several reasons. The first is that offensive tech and tactics hadn’t caught up to defensive tech. So it was much easier to defend than to attack. France was getting beaten pretty hard at the beginning of the war but once France got its footing, Germany’s offensive died quickly.Furthermore, the offensive had been weakened. The plan assumed Russia would take a long time to get ready but that wasn’t true. Russia rushed into the field with a half-prepared army to force Germany to respond. The German High Command peeled off an entire army (250,000 soldiers) from the West and sent it east to counter Russia. The plan also called for a weak defense of Germany’s border with France but France’s initial attack scared German High Command and another army was peeled off to counter France’s attack. So while the Schlieffen Plan called for 1.2 million soldiers to invade France through Belgium, only 750,000 actually did so.List and explain 3 reasons the Schlieffen Plan failed:Terrible Allies: The Ottoman Empire was crumbling in 1914. It had been crumbling since the 1650s and simply refused to die. Other Europeans mockingly referred to it as “the sick old man of Europe.” Because of this, Germany never expected much of the Ottomans and the Ottomans delivered as expected—not very much. Mostly the Ottoman Empire served as a distraction as Britain and France spent much of the war carving up the Ottoman Empire, which would finally cease to exist after the war. However, Germany expected much more out of its other ally, the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They probably shouldn’t have. The Austro-Hungarian Army was composed of people from many backgrounds and ethnic tensions were extremely common. Misunderstandings were frequent for many of the soldiers were not native speakers of German, the language of the army. Even worse, the Austro-Hungarian army was miserably equipped and trained.The Austro-Hungarian army performed horribly in the war. Whenever Germany drew forces from the East to the West to try and fight France and Britain, The Russians would suddenly make huge gains against the hapless Austro-Hungarians and Germany would have to come running back to save the day yet again. Why were the Ottomans a bad ally?Why were the Austro-Hungarians a bad ally?How did Austro-Hungary make life harder for Germany? The War of Attrition: After the failure of the war plans and the start of Trench Warfare, WW1 became a War of Attrition. Now the Central Powers’ deficits in men and industry was a huge disadvantage. Furthermore, The USA started to send supplies to France and Britain but not Germany—mostly because British ships had established a blockade and did not allow supplies to travel to Germany. Why were the Central Powers likely to lose now?Russia Collapses and the Spring Offensive: All this aside, the Central Powers still had one last chance to win the war. All of the armies were sick of fighting and at any moment, one of them could have collapsed. Austro-Hungary almost collapsed twice, France’s army nearly revolted, but it was Russia that collapsed first. Revolution overthrew the Tsar and after a short period of uncertainty, Russia left the war. Now the Central Powers could bring millions of soldiers from the Eastern Front to the West. First they converged on Italy and nearly crushed the Italian Army. Satisfied and needing to move quickly, Germany brought its troops to France. In Spring 1918, Germany launched its last offensive. Suddenly outnumbering the Entente in the West and using special new tactics, Germany broke through the line in 4 places but in each place it was stopped before it could defeat the Entente. After a fifth attack, Germany was exhausted.Why did Russia leave the war?Why did this give the Central Powers a last chance?How successful was the Spring Offensive?America and the German Revolution: The USA spent a long time debating whether or not to join the war. At the beginning, Americans had been very fond of Germany. Many Americans are ethnically German. However, Germany’s treatment of Belgium, its use of submarines to destroy civilian transports, and its bombing of cities slowly turned America against it. America finally joined the war in 1917 but its troops would not reach Europe until 1918—Just as Germany’s Spring Offensive was in full gear.France and Britain repeatedly begged America to join the fighting but very few Americans fought in any of the battles of the Spring Offensive. Finally, Americans entered into the battle just as Germany had exhausted itself trying to win the war. Another million American troops with millions of more on the way was the end of it for Germany. The German army collapsed in the face of the Entente’s final offensive. Back home in Germany, the people were starving and were sick of it. A bloodless revolution overthrew the Kaiser and the new German government surrendered.What turned America against Germany?What impact did American troops have? ................
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