PJ Larkin was a History teacher; this is a student examination revision book. Old fashioned in presentation, it was, however, well-researched and up-to-date, and took great pains to be factually correct, and to present the factual information necessary to understand the events.
Britain and France, western democratic nations, were linked up with autocratic, imperial Russia. Germany, ultra-modern in its economy and highly efficient militarily, was allied to an old multi-national empire, and to Turkey, a semi-Asiatic imperial power. The longer the war went on, the more the basic aim hardened into survival or destruction as a nation state, for each of the major powers. If France fell, British trade, sea power and national security would be in dire danger. France fought to defend her national independence and to survive as a European power.
Russia's aim was to keep Austria out of the Balkans and to preserve the free passage of the Straits on which so much of her trade depended. Austria went into the war to crush Serbia, whirls she saw as a threat to her security and as an obstacle to her expansion south-eastwards.
Germany claimed that her alliance with Austria was the cornerstone of her whole policy and of her position in Europe. By , Germany was also vitally interested in the fate of the Turkish Empire. B The Balance Between the Powers i The Allies had the advantage of the moral cause which Germany lost by the invasion of Belgium, and later by unrestricted submarine warfare. They also enjoyed naval superiority, of vital importance in the blockade of Germany and in keeping the Allied supply lines open.
They could also attack Germany from two fronts for most of the war, though the closing of the Straits by Turkey, which cut off effective military aid from the Russians, was a severe disadvantage. Belgium, a flat country, was particularly suited to easy movement, and speedy advance. This was the essence of the Schlieffen Plan. Brussels, the Belgium capital, fell on August 20, and Namur, a key defence point, on August The British Expeditionary Force met the Germans in The Allies faced the difficulty of longer lines of communication, since they were fighting from the outside against the AustroGerman advantageous central position.
