Following the Tangier affair in 1905, England did begin -- haltingly and never full-heartedly -- to develop a plan for coordinated action with France operating on the basic premise that Germany would attept a large flanking attack through Belgium so as to avoid assaulting the heavily fortified zone between Verdun and the Swiss border. To the extent that this contributed to the "entangling alliances" that helped create conflict, England does bear some culpability. However, the UK did not jump in whole-heartedly and Belgium was critical to their decision.
The violation of Belgian neutrality was the real reason for war and it is possible that Grey could not have procured a Declaration of War without Germany's violation of that neutrality, despite the growing anti-German sentiment of the British populace and the efforts of Britain's G-1 team. Belgium became THE issue that would bring the British in fully as an ally of France. The need to insure that Germany was the one to make such a violation was so important to the French government that they ordered the French Army to back up 10km along the ENTIRE frontier so as to make certain that no accidental violation of Belgian or Lux neutrality was made by some patrol or some commander who got confused. This order was made DESPITE the fact that France's primary strategy was an attack immediately South of the Ardennes -- backing up is rarely the best means of building momentum.
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