Thursday, October 28, 2010
Why did the Central Powers lose?
How is it that the Central Powers managed to lose the war when they had so much momentum in the beginning? German armies were able to overrun all of Russian Poland and had developed clorine gas, Russia was in turmoil and being severly weakened, and the Central Powers were winning battles left and right, all while the Allies were being increasingly weakened and defeated. Germany was using unrestricted submarine warfare which was extremely effective in wiping out entire navies. How did the war turn around? There are a few reasons that I can think of, the British blockade of supplies going to Germany, which we talked about in the other book was for sure a huge factor, but what else? That can't be the only cause, for sure, the entrace of the US into the war was significant, but not as significant and I believe it's made out to be. At the beginning of the war the Central Powers had so much momentum it's hard to believe they lost.
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I think a major part of this was the fact that the allies WERE losing.. maybe defeat seemed very real to them, as real as victory seemed to the Central powers, and so there was an icrease in moral. I think there's a psychological term for that, but i didn't like psych :(
ReplyDeleteI think a large part of Germany losing its momentum was that it didn't have a plan B. Once Germany was stopped in France the momentum was lost, and I thnk the lack of a second plan of attack slowed everything down and trancended to Germany's allies.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kate, and would like to add that the war was a war of attrition. Apparent Germany victories against Russia took their toll in lost resources and men, and when coupled with their losses against France and Britain in the West, the Allied blockade, Germany and the Central Powers just ran out of everything.
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