Regardless of the pros and cons to their plans, Europe's major powers were ready for war.
A World War (1915-1917) .
Summary .
Though the major battle lines had been drawn in Europe, the war was not confined to the Continent. Recognizing the stalemate in the west, the Allies purposely opened fronts on the periphery of the conflict--in Italy, in the North Sea, in the Ottoman Empire--so as to require their German enemy to divert large portions of its army away from the Western Front.
In 1915, Italy entered the war on the side of Allies, encouraged by the promise of control of the Adriatic Sea after the war was over. France and Britain, therefore, opened a front in southern Europe with nearly nine hundred thousand Italian troops in the front lines.
In the north, Britain pondered how best to use its superiority at sea. Though Germany held the advantage in submarine warfare, the German navy was no match for the experienced British battleship, lord of the sea for over a century. The only major naval battle of the Great War, the Battle of Jutland, occurred in the North Sea in early 1916. Neither side gained a decisive victory not because they were equal in strength, but because neither Germany nor Britain wanted to risk destruction of expensive battleships in a conflict sure to cause heavy damage. Britain, therefore, committed its navy to blockading German shipping lanes while Germany used its U-boats, or submarines, for unrestricted submarine warfare throughout the Atlantic Ocean. Unrestricted submarine warfare was a simple military policy: contrary to the prevailing rules of conduct, German U-boats attacked merchant marine and civilian vessels as well as battleships and, also contrary to the rules of conduct, refused to warn surface- bound vessels when a U-boat was in a position to attack, arguing that such warning undermined the very purpose of the submarine.
Germany, too, was well aware of its need to expand the base of its allies so as to divide the forces of Britain, France, Italy, and Russia across Europe.