French forts and the search for another route

The naval alternative begins with a land-strategy problem created by the Franco-Prussian War and France's fortified eastern frontier. France had lost Alsace-Lorraine and endured a German victory parade in Paris, then strengthened the obvious invasion route with Verdun and related fortifications. Schlieffen therefore wanted a powerful right wing to envelop and destroy the French army while only a minimum force held the expected French attack in the east. The objective was the rapid destruction of the field army rather than the occupation of French territory by itself. Switzerland's mountains and armed neutrality made a southern bypass unrealistic, so a Germany that still wanted a quick decision had to consider a very different way around the French army.