Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia all planned to fight on two fronts without out the physical capabilities to do so. Therefore they all concentrated against the power it hoped would be the easier to defeat before they turned to the threat they believed would be more slow to mobilise.# In Germany's case, Russia.
Britain and France did not have to worry about fighting on two fronts. France's main concern was fighting the invading German army and the regaining of the lost provinces Alsace and Lorraine.
Britain became involved partly due to their part in the Entente and belief in the defence of small powers. They, also only had to worry about fighting on one front, in support of their allies.
The expectations of the politicians and soldiers for the war being over by christmas showed a profound failure to understand the changes in warfare, which was happening in the mid-to late nineteenth century.# Those who made the plans stuck to .
"Classical concepts of war in which the aim of any army was to out manoeuvre the enemy force, .
envelop and defeat its enemy'#.
Not only did the planners plan for a traditional war but they assumed the traditional weapons, such as bayonet, sabre and lance would serve the purpose. These held traditional military ideals of honour and glory.# This belief was also held by the soldiers themselves as Private Donald Drake Kyler of the 16th US Infantry stated,.
'I Had Great respect for the value of hand and rifle grenades, but regarded them as secondary in importance to the rifle and bayonet'#.
Technology, however, impacted on how the war was waged with the provision of weapons that had a wider range , were more accurate and had a faster rate of fire. These included by 1890's,weapons such as magazines rifles, quick firing artillery and machine guns.#.
The war was not immediately characterised by trench warfare and for the first few months was a classic war of movement.