Good one.Ian wrote:What if the Schlieffen Plan had succeeded, and Germany was able to force a settlement to end the war on the western front in autumn, 1914?
In some ways, it might have turned out similar to how WW II did, when the Germans did manage to knock out the French. But there would still be a lot of variables. I think the Russians might well have been beaten a lot earlier (say 1915/1916), and who knows how that might have affected subsequent political events in Russia?
Would the French have sued for a peace that left most of the country intact and (initially at least) in French hands, just as in WW II?
I think the British would still have attempted to blockade the Germans, and the Germans High Seas Fleet would probably have still tried to force a decisive confrontation. Unrestricted submarine warfare would still have been introduced. I can't see the British being in any way inclined to settle for a general peace, given the threat that Germany would have posed to the British Empire.
Would there have been greater emphasis on peripheral confrontations across the globe?
Would the US have been more or less inclined to enter the War? That's possibly the biggest question of all ...
. And then when they come back, they can 
