was not in fact a precursor to the war, rather one of its major surprises. The mobilization of Russian forces after Germany declared war on France may have led the war to progress to one of world importance, instead of being a quick victory for Germany. This event was made pivotal because of the German contingency plan for the war known as the Schlieffen Plan. The problem with this was that it was Germany's one and only plan for war. In short, it had two major stipulations. First, Germany planned to march on Paris and take the city after surrounding it. They figured that this would be a swift capture and then they would swiftly mobilize back to their eastern front to engage the Russian force that they were positive would be slow in mobilizing. This plan was to take approximately three weeks, at the conclusion of which Germany would arise as the super-power of Europe. The major flaw of this plan was the incredible oversight of in regards to Russian forces. Russia was able to mobilize their troops into position within 24 hours, when the German contingency plan allotted a much longer period of time for this movement. This caused the Germans to break off their attack of Paris to defend their country, rather than to fight it offensively. This mobilization ended up causing the war that eventually occurred because of it.If the Russians hadn't surprised almost all of Europe with the quickness with which they were able to pose a threat to Germany, Germany's plan may well have succeeded. In the opinion of many historians, the taking of Paris was proceeding favorably for them. They also had more than enough power and resources to defeat an ill supplied Russian army. However, with both going on simultaneously, Germany was spread too thin. Germany mistook Russian advancement as a serious threat, when in actuality, it turned out to be poorly supplied and may have been easily defeated with a full German force that was expected to encou...
