The western front was the main theatre of war during world war 1. After the war began the Germans created the western front by invading Luxembourg and Belgium, as well as taking eastern parts of France. In the early days of the war some of the most crucial events happened on the western front like the race to the sea, in which French and German force dug a line of trenches that stretched from the French border with Switzerland to the north coast of Belgium. These lines of trench changed little until around 1917 to 1918. 

During the war there were a number of offensives carried out. The western front was also a testing ground for all the new weaponry invented during world war 1. Some of which included improved artillery, tanks, gases, machine guns, barbed wire, planes and much more. But there was also many battles on the western front, most of which were indecisive. The most devastating being the battle passchendaele with a combined 487,000 casualties, the battle of verdun with a combined 700,000 casualties, and the battle of the Somme with more than a million combined casualties. There was nearly 12,000,000 casualties on both side on the western front. This is nearly half of the total military casualties suffered during the war. 

Germany wanted a free passage through Belgium so they could invade France and reach Paris by catching them off guard. Germany really wanted to invade France before it was too late and even sent a letter to the Belgium government asking too be let through. Belgium didn’t know what do with this request as they were a neutral country and didn’t know who they should help. Germany’s letter said grant us passage through your country or suffer and become a enemy to the Imperial German army.Belgium declined Germany’s letter telling Germany to find another way Germany gave Belgium more of a threat than question. Germany invaded Belgium as they couldn’t wait any longer and was apart the Schlieffen plan. 

                                                                France 

On the 7th of august the French crossed the border into German-occupied Alsace lots of fighting and war took place. France kept moving forward and attempted to take over Mulhouse this caused the battle of Mulhouse between France and Germany. France occupied Mulhouse two times but Germany retook it both times. France was very hostile towards Germany as they had declared war and were attempting to get through Belgium to invade their country. France’s hate towards Germany had France get their allies Great Britain and form the Allied Forces (Belgium, France, Great Britain). 

                                            Britain and the British empire 

Britain was on the western front as they were allies with France and Belgium. Britain did not only fight on the western front but so did the whole British empire which was including Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, and South Africa. Inside this British empire all the different countries were helping and funding each other during the war. Some countries in the British empire really put themselves in danger and risked the deaths of their men, to help on the western front and in WW1 in general. A example of this is India as during WW1 they had around 1.5 million people volunteer. This shows how Britain and the British empire were willing to do anything to help.