Barbarossa

Initially, Entente counter attack using "armadillos," armoured vehicles mounted on tracks and equipped with light artillery and machine guns threatened to halt the advances. However, there were too few of these oddities available and those that there were, soon fell prey to newly devised ammunition that was rushed to frontline units..

Throughout that summer, the German advance continued. French town after French town fell to the remorseless hordes, the defenders dying, retreating or joined those in the vast POW camps established along the Rhine. Finally on the 11th of August 1917, and twenty hours after the capture of Le Mans, the French government unconditionally capitulated. With loss of two key allies the British government too agreed to an end of hostilities. The Great War was over.

The media throughout the world predicted that the Kaiser would emasculate France, striping her of colonies and forcing a heavy indemnity of them. Some even forecast the annexation of Lorraine. Except of the indemnity, they were correct. In the Treaty of Versailles, la belle France was reduced to a client state of her enemy. Parts of her empire in Africa, Asia and the Pacific was transferred lock stock and barrel to the victor whilst severe limits were put on the future size of her army and navy. In addition, new bases were established at Brest and Bordeaux for exclusive use of the Imperial High Seas Fleet. Thus the Royal Navy would be, it was hoped, outflanked in any future conflicted. In separate clauses to the treaty, all German colonies occupied by the British were returned to their original owner.

The members of the one-time Entente (it had been formally dissolved) were not the only losers. The Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires had been so decimated by the War that they too were reduced to client states of their victorious ally. The own consolation that their people had was that as nominal allies, they were not reduced to the level of France or the newly created states in Eastern Europe. In spite of that, their plight was not really any better. They were now completely beholden to Germany for their defence as well as dependent on their ally for much of their economic prosperity. In a series of mutual commercial agreements, German businesses were given full access to Austro-Hungarian and Turkish home markets (as well as of course those of the former Russian Empire, France and the Balkans) and within months completely dominated them. In theory the arrangement was reciprocal but in practice the businessmen of the other countries were unable to compete with Teutonic efficiency.

German gains did not end with just their allies and defeated enemies. In the next three years, rather than face occupation "to deter English aggression", the rest of the Balkans as well as Denmark signed agreements similar to those signed by the Austro-Hungarians and Turks. Italy and Switzerland alone were permitted to remain as islands in a sea of German states, and only because the Kaiser’s government wished to concentrate on absorbing its other conquests.

To conclude, even if the General Staff not abandoned the Schlieffen Plan, it is still certain that they would have still won the Great War. Yes the British would have entered the war earlier and whilst the German army may not have reached Paris, it would have still occupied most of Belgium and north eastern France. From then on, the participants in the West would have become like two punch drunk giants with too much pride to quit yet without enough strength to knock the other out.

The eventual collapse of Russia would never been in doubt; most academics predict that it would have been in 1918 with only a few mavericks going for only one year earlier. The war would have then degenerated into a stalemate until the British surrendered to superior Teutonic efficiency by abandoning her ally.

Whilst the Lusitania incident was an accident waiting to happen, it is unlikely that it would have led to the Americans committing ground forces in a European war. Given the population of the USA enough troops could have been committed to tip the balance in the favour of the Entente. Although previous US governments had sent troops aboard in to fight in various colonial wars, academics generally agree that none before the Roosevelt administration of 1937 had the stomach to commit troops to any but the smallest foreign adventure. Such a possibility only exists in words of fiction writers.