Germans initiate Schlieffen Plan

German Empire starts its western campaign according to pre-war war plans.

German Empire began the war with an all-out offensive move in the west. The plan was simple. Facing the French Republic and Russian Empire at once was going to leave the Empire in a rather.... troublesome situation. Because of that, the war plans were drafted with minimizing this threat.   While Russia had a lot of space to retreat that could dull all attempts at finishing the war quickly, France wasn't as lucky. Paris, its capital, was relatively close to the border. What's more, it was a country heavily centralized. Successful capture of Paris early on could lead to the Republic collapsing or at least suffering massive internal problems. If that happened, it could be taken out of the picture before the tsar armies could finish mobilizing.   While the plans were good when they were drafted... they were outdated in 1914. Russia mobilized much faster than the German Empire have foreseen. What's more, Belgium didn't capitulate right away, but instead stalled the offensive for days - what's more, attempts of breaking their fighting spirit lead to sudden worsening of the German image in the neutral countries.   Despite this, the French Republic lost the battle near the borders - and did so badly, but not decisively - and was soon pushed back almost to Paris. German soldiers were exhausted by the speed of the offensive (a major downside of the plan was that it wasn't 'too' offensive), and two army corps were redirected east right before the Entente last stand near Paris, as Russian Empire forces attacked Prussia.