Page:The guilt of William Hohenzollern.djvu/238

234 All this was done to gain a strategic advantage which was soon to prove quite worthless. For in the age of modern science there is no natural strategic frontier the obstacles of which a wealthy and technically as well as economically developed State cannot overcome by artificial means.

The new Franco-German frontier was so formidably fortified there could be no question of a German army penetrating it quickly. And yet this appeared to be necessary for Germany in a war on two fronts, if she was to dispose of France as quickly as possible, in order to be able to turn with all her strength on Russia alone.

It did not seem possible to break through quickly on the Alsace front. The northern French frontier was therefore all the more tempting. Strangely enough, the French had only fortified the Alsace frontier very strongly. They felt themselves so secured by Belgium that they did not sufficiently fortify the northern frontier. And even in July, 1914, when the danger of war arose, and all the world was arming and concentrating troops, the French Army devoted its attention mainly to the east and not to the north.

The northern frontier was France's weak spot. If Germany made a surprise break-through at this point, she might hope to overcome all resistance in a few vigorous blows, occupy Paris, and not only Paris but also Calais, the sally-gate against England. From the purely military point of view, then, the break-through via Belgium was certainly the obvious thing to do. It is true that the example of Alsace-Lorraine might have shown how dangerous may be the effect of militarist opportunism gaining the upper hand over a far-seeing national policy, which not only considers