So the Schlieffen Plan was to attack France through belgium. I get that they were attempting to avoid the maginot line by bypassing it altogether and that they knew because they were violating Belgiums sovereignty there was a chance this gamble would bring England into the war. So my question is why didn’t they invade through Switzerland? The swiss share a border with both germany and france. Was it a matter of geography or politics? What made Belgium more appealing to them than Switzerland?
im not much of a historian but i do know a little about geography and history
going through belgium would probably be less trouble then going through switserland
also i think i remember that the germans slightly underestimated the belgians and they tought they could quickly knock them out,there's also the factor of distance going though belgium would make it less distance to Parice then through switserland. Switserland also had armed neutrality meaning that most men could immidiatly be called into service (switserland still has its borders prepared to blow up if they have to)
Belgium was and still is somewhat divided by language and during world war one there was also the factor of dutch speaking soldiers being led by french speaking officers without the option of a dutch speaker to be promoted to an officer wich on multiple occasions led to mutiny (mostly) by flemish nationalists ( a poster about that )
I dont know if the king of Belgium being the kaiser's cousin played any part in it
hope this helps