The war to end all wars began in 1914; it would later become known as World War I. At one point all the great European powers were involved in it. What all these powers had were individual war plans that laid out how they would overcome their enemies and claim victory. Unfortunately for some, not all of these plans are created equally. Unlike the other European powers, Germany had created only one plan known as the Schlieffen Plan. The Schlieffen Plan was created to be used as the perfect tool to win a war, unfortunately the plan was born from the arrogance of Alfred von Schlieffen and later altered by Helmuth von Moltke. Because of the way the Schlieffen Plan was created and modified, both von Schlieffen and von Moltke were doomed to bring Germany its only failure in a multi-front war. In 1888, Kaiser Wilhelm II ascended the throne of the German Empire and a new era of foreign policy began for Germany. Two years later, in 1890, Wilhelm dismissed German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Bismarck had united the various German kingdoms of the 19th century and created the German Empire of the late 19th century. Bismarck had also helped forge various alliances across Europe to keep the German political and military position favorable in terms of numbers. In less than two decades, Wilhelm had essentially destroyed most of the alliance systems created by Bismarck and put Germany in a position where it was allied with Europe's weakest major powers and at a disadvantage when it came to numbers. Wilhelm went from isolating France, Germany's enemy in the nineteenth century, to having Germany almost isolated politically and surrounded by enemies. 1870-1916. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Kennedy, Paul M. 1979. The War Plans of the Great Powers, 1880-1914. London: Allen & Unwin. Ritter, Gerhard. 1979. The Schlieffen Plan: Critique of a Myth. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. Bodleian Library. "Cordial understanding." Last accessed: 6 October 2011.http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/projects/entente/entente.htmlFawcett, Bill. 2006. How to Lose a Battle: Foolish Plans and Big Military Mistakes. New York: Harper. Mombauer, Annika. 2001. Helmuth von Moltke and the Origins of the First World War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ousby, Ian. 2002. The Road to Verdun: The Greatest Battle of the First World War and the Madness of Nationalism. New York: Doubleday.Shapiro, Seymour and Gerhard Ritter. 1959. "The Schlieffen Plan." Military affairs. 23 (2):107-108.