1914 Marne—Paris Is Saved..........................................................

Lecture 32

O

n September 2, 1914, French Flight Lieutenant Watteau took off on
a reconnaissance mission that would change history. In less than a
month, the German armies had swept through Belgium and across
northern France and were within 40 miles of Paris. Watteau’s mission was
to scout the movements of the westernmost pincer of the German assault,
the army of General Alexander von Kluck. But Watteau noted that instead
of continuing their westward push, the German soldiers were marching east.
When the French high command received this report, they realized that this
WXUQH[SRVHGWKHÀDQNRI.OXFN¶VDUP\WRSRVVLEOHDWWDFN7KHVXEVHTXHQW
battle, fought along the Marne River, would result in an allied victory so
dramatic that it is often called “the miracle of the Marne.”

The Opponents
x By 1914, the nations of Europe were bound together in a complex
web of treaties and agreements that virtually ensured that if any
two of them went to war, all the rest would be drawn in, as well.
Against this diplomatic background, tensions were rising that made
WKHRXWEUHDNRIFRQÀLFWLQFUHDVLQJO\OLNHO\

x Among these tensions were the ongoing naval arms race between

Britain and Germany, ethnic unrest in the Balkans, German imperial

ambitions, French resentments lingering from the Franco-Prussian

War, and territorial rivalries between Austria-Hungary and Russia.

As it turned out, the spark that ignited World War I and set into

motion the preordained chain of alliances and declarations of war

was the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand by

a Serbian.

x The greatest challenge for the Germans in a general European war

was facing France on one side and Russia on the other. In 1894,

then Chief of Staff Alfred von Schlieffen created a plan that had

Germany immediately launching a massive offensive against