The country also felt threatened as its neighbouring country, Russia was part of the Triple Entente and was itself building up a vast army. Keeping a strong army was important to Germany because it helped to demonstrate to the rest of the world that they were a rising power. In addition, Germany was also in competition with Great Britain. At the time Britain had the largest navy; something Germany envied. Once Britain started introducing their new battleships, named the Dreadnoughts, Germany followed suit.
Germany was 30-40 years old and wanted to have a bigger empire and navy than Britain, which had the biggest empire and biggest navy out of all of the countries. When Britain found out about Germanys plans they begun to worry. Germany was lead by Kaiser Wilhelm II. He decided to test the Entente Cordiale in 1905 when Kaiser had caused trouble with France when he attempted to turn the Moroccan people over throw their ruler Sultan. Germany was trying to gain the Moroccan land which France had already taken over as a colony.
Germany had only been a united country since 1871 however by 1914 it had built up a strong army, navy and had the beginnings of an overseas empire. As you can see, Germany since its unison had been very competitive and ambitious against the other ‘leading’ countries. I feel that this may have brought the other countries resentment, especially Britain. Britain had been known as and was the main industrial country in Europe for over 100 years but Germany had very quickly grown into a powerful country. This would have caused Britain some concern, especially because the leader over Britain was cousins with the Kaiser, this would have brought extra tension between them as they both wanted their country to be the best.
All these tensions in Europe between very powerful nations led up to WW1. Even though the Build up of alliances and arms was a tremendous factor in the start of ww1 creating a state of total war. The most important underlying cause of WW1 was imperialism. The Triple Entente had the largest amount of colonies, which meant more military support and a larger budget to spend on their military forces
“Militarism is the glorification of one’s military. Also the belief of a nation or its people to build and maintain a strong military, with the intention to use it whenever it is felt necessary.” In the early 1900 the two strongest countries, Germany and Great Britain, decided to create a Naval Race. Although Germany had stronger ground forces, Great Britain had the Dreadknought class battle ships for better naval protection. Because of the advantage Great Britain had with the Dreadknought class battleship, Germany decided to build the same class of battle ship for themselves (Wilde). While both countries were trying to outdo each other, by building more ships, tensions rose.
This policy, along with Wilhelm ll’s decision to create a colonial empire, caused rivalry between the major European powers, particularly Britain. In the 19th century colonialism was very popular as major European powers tried to increase their territory, resources and power. By the 20th century the British Empire had 1/4 of the world’s land surface which gave them trade opportunities and transport advantages (McCallum and Ringer, 2005, p237). Wilhelm ll, with a nation only thirty years old, wanted an empire but had missed out on the overseas colonies such as India and Nigeria which belonged to Britain. Germany’s new colonies in China and Africa made Britain concerned.
WHY DID WAR BREAK OUT IN 1914? The Great War in 1914-18 began in August 1914. The causes of the war has been debated by politicians and historians ever since. One of a few things they have seemed to agree on is that the war was a result of many different complex factors working together. In Europe in 1014 it seemed very tense, this happened to spark off a war, this was then a result of millions killed.
archduke franz Ferdinand The Most Important Cause of WWI was the Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Do you Agree? World war 1 was a controversial war, which was also said to be the war to stop all wars. Germany, a powerful empire in the early years of the twentieth century, fought the First World War (1914-1918) alongside the Austrian empire and against the Allies (England, France and Russia.). The murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was just a prominent cause for the outbreak of the war; yet, there were other causes as well.
He linked industrial growth with a stronger nation politically and economically, and was inspired by the more developed nations in the west. He invited foreign experts from more industrialised countries like Britain, France and Germany to Russia to advise him on modernisation. He realised that he would have to have policies that would allow individual business people to start factories and encourage metalwork. His policies were successful, because industrial growth increased on average by 8% a year between 1890 and 1899, which was the highest growth rate of any of the world’s major economies. When Witte placed emphasis on industrialisation, it meant that jobs were created in towns and cities.
It began in Britain because at the time, it was one of the most powerful empires in the world. During the industrial revolution, many new inventions were invented to make the way of living easier and more efficient. The biggest technological advancement was the steam-powered engine invented in 1760 by James Watt. The machine ran on new fuels like petroleum and coal and was an important power source. The steam engine helped the textile and manufacturing industries produce more products.