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Y218: International Relations 1890–1941

The causes and nature of the First World War: the nature of the fighting and reasons for the outcome

  • 3 things to know
  • Unit group 2

Overview

Recall questions on the failure of the Schlieffen Plan, trench warfare, Verdun and the Somme, the generals, the Eastern Front and Tannenberg, technology, Jutland, American entry and the reasons for Allied victory and Russian defeat.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Key term

Give three reasons for the Allied victory on the Western Front in 1918.

Who and when

Why did the Schlieffen Plan fail in 1914?

Key term

What were the aims and outcomes of the German offensive at Verdun in 1916?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Why did the Schlieffen Plan fail in 1914?

    Model answer

    Belgian resistance and British intervention cost time, the advancing armies outran their supplies and communications, troops were detached to the east, and the French counter-attack on the Marne forced a retreat to the Aisne.

  2. 2

    Explain why the Western Front settled into trench warfare.

    Model answer

    After the race to the sea the line reached from the Channel to Switzerland with no flank to turn, and magazine rifles, machine guns, quick-firing artillery and barbed wire gave the defence such advantage that men had to dig in to survive.

  3. 3

    What were the aims and outcomes of the German offensive at Verdun in 1916?

    Model answer

    Falkenhayn aimed to bleed the French army white at a fortress they could not abandon; the offensive ground on for most of the year, cost both sides enormous casualties and ended with the French holding the position.

  4. 4

    What did the Somme offensive of 1916 achieve at what cost?

    Model answer

    It relieved pressure on Verdun and wore down the German army, and it saw the first use of tanks, but it advanced only a few miles and cost the British nearly 60,000 casualties on the first day alone.

  5. 5

    Assess the criticism that the generals were incompetent butchers.

    Model answer

    Commanders were slow to abandon costly frontal attacks and were remote from the front, but they were also managing mass citizen armies with communications that broke down beyond the parapet, and by 1918 they had developed the combined artillery, tank, aircraft and infantry tactics that won the war.

  6. 6

    How did the Eastern Front differ from the Western Front?

    Model answer

    It was far longer and thinly held, so movement remained possible and armies advanced and retreated hundreds of miles, but supply, transport and industrial weakness mattered more than trench technique.

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