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As you say the delay in mobilization and poor overall leadership meant they lost the initiative and were defeated in detail before they could concentrate their forces. Coupled with losing a large part of the army and its political leadership by having it withdraw into a fort where it was...

Actually as pointed out by both of us the French only really decided on all out offensive in 1913. The issue for the French imperial army on 1870 wasn't that if was fighting on the defensive but that its slower and disorganised mobilization meant that it was caught fragmented and unprepared and...

SG The French loss in 1870 wasn't because they were fighting defensively, which if anything was more due to the poor organisation and slow moblisation of the French army which was the primary reason for their defeat. Coupled with the superior Prussian artillery at the time. IIRC the...

The key point I meant in France being in a better position in ~1905 rather than 1914 was that they had a more practical doctrine rather than the frontal assault of fortifications of Plan XVII. Here its the Germans doing the blk of the attacking, against fortifications if their not going through...

On the last one definitely Berlin. SG's basic idea is that Russia is weak enough that France can still be attacked and crushed fairly reliably and also Britain hasn't been alienated enough by German actions against it so France would be seen as vulnerable to a quick and crushing attack. Note...