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.
The war was caused by grudges countries had held against each other from previous wars. Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy were the Triple Alliance. Britain, France and Russia were the Triple Entente (friendly agreement). These agreements meant that if ever war broke out you would help the country you are in agreements with. 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.
Fischer’s argument that the outbreak of the First World War was due to Germany’s aggressive foreign policy, with a harsh focus on annexation, can be regarded as one of much significance. This theory has been backed up by historians such as Berghahn who claims that Germany ‘[tried] to shift the balance of power in their favour’, and did this through a weltpolitik policy of aggressiveness. This, it can be argued, can be shown by The Navy Race, in which Germany attempted to expand their navy in order to compete with Britain. Despite this being regarded by some as an attempt to
* Germany was competing with the UK to build battleships. * The British feared an attack on their Empire. * Germany was competing with Russia and France to expand their armies A= Alliances * Agreement with another country. * Competition caused European countries to make alliances with each other (retain peace and increase strenght). * The Triple Alliances was between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy.
There are many events which highlight the importance of this policy no more so than the first and second Moroccan crisis. This event pronounced German military strength as the gunboat panther moored off the coast of Agadir during a minor revolt in French colony of Morocco. Consequently Germany was given land in Congo in order to pacify the growing state. He goes on to say ‘ as early as 1906, Germany had in place a plan for an aggressive war’ which suggests that Germany had planned for war in order to secure assets such as ‘lebensraum’ which would satisfy the desire of the growing pan German movement and raw materials which would satisfy the desire of the ever growing Industrial machine. Fischer strengthens this
“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.
Also there was a growth in Nationalist interest and citizens started to become proud of German culture and language which encouraged them to unite as one. The final reason why the states united was because Prussia which was the leading German state had 3 successful wars against Demark, Austria and France this showed together they were a formidable military power which also contributed to why the states united. The second Reich was a autocratic government this means that the it was solely ruled by one person who is known as the Kaiser who at this time was Wilhelm II he had the ruling of all government decisions, under him were the Reichstag which were the countries parliament, the Reichsrat who represented the 25 states and could approve laws and The chancellor who was in charge of the government and was appointed personally by the Kaiser. All of these could be undermined by the Kaiser this is an Autocracy. The strengths of the second Reich were that it had made Germany one of the economic super powers of Europe, as by 1913 the population had grown by 50% and urbanisation started to occur meaning people started moving to the cities and industry began to boom.
Hitler became leader of Germany because he was leader of the most popular party’ How far do you agree with this statement? By 1933 Hitler had consolidated full power over Germany, it can be argued that the main reason he was able to achieve this power was purely down to the fact that he was the leader of the most popular party. However it seems to be clear that there are other factors, which resulted in Hitler becoming leader in Germany, such as the collapse of the Weimar constitution, the effects of the Great depression and the political actions of people such as Von Papen and Schleicher. Some may argue that Hitler had become such a powerful leader due to the popularity of the Nazi party. Anti – democratic figures had seen the Nazi party as potential allies to provide popular support for an authoritarian regime.
What has the Navy ever done for us? In the past, the Navy has done a lot for Britain and the United Kingdom. Nowadays, it can be said that the Navy is less needed because of the high increase in air travel and such, but many people still consider our Navy to be the best in the world. The Navy was first and foremost the sea army, protecting the country from the enemy (other countries). It did this by travelling all of the seas and fighting and other ships that threaten them.
Germany quickly tried to produce battleships to counter it. Alliances The two opposing groups that fought in World War I were the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey) and the Triple Entente (Britain, France, and Russia), who would come to be known as the allies. These alliances were formed to produce powerful combinations