Logically it cannot have been true that each Power benefited from fighting in 1914. Yet, each reached this conclusion in August of that year. Germany and Austria saw the rise of Russian power as forcing their hand. Neither considered a defensive strategy in the West and an early attack on Russia which would have had the advantage of keeping Britain out of the war. France and Russia wanted to make sure they supported each other (as they had not done in a series of prewar crises). The solidity of alliances was thus as important to them as winning the opening battles.