The Road to World War I: The Anglo-German Naval Race
This article is part of the series The Road to World War I .
German attitudes towards the Navy
Kaiser Wilhelm’s “Weltpolitik” implied that Germany would be made a world power. For this to be achieved, colonies and an expansion of the German Empire were necessary. In order to become a dominating world power, therefore, Wilhelm believed it essential to have a strong navy.
British attitudes towards the Navy
Over the years, Great Britain had managed to expand its Empire throughout the globe. Due to a required protection of her colonial empire and, since Britain was an island with her colonies at far distance, it was believed that the safeguard of her world power status was dependant on her navy.
Naval Expansion
| Date | German naval expansion | British naval expansion |
|---|---|---|
| Background | Admiral Tirpitz’s “Risk Theory” (German fleet had to damage any attacker sufficiently to make it not worth risking a battle) | “Two Power Standard” [1889] issued (Royal Navy would always equal to the sum of the fleets of Britain’s next two nearest rivals) |
| 1898 | First Navy Law passed (12 new battleships and some smaller ships added to the existing fleet) | n/a |
| 1900 | Second Navy Law passed (38 battleships to be built over the next twenty years) | n/a |
| 1903 | New naval bases built at Rosyth, Ireland; parliament approves plans for the formation of a North Sea fleet | |
| 1906 (Feb) | n/a | Launching of the “Dreadnought” (with superior armament, greater range and higher speed) renders all German ships obsolete |
| 1906 (May) | Tonnage of ships under construction increased; six cruisers added to the building programme; plans issued to widen the Kiel canal to take “Dreadnought” type ships | n/a |
| 1907 | “Rheinland” ships (similar to “Dreadnoughts”) built | n/a |
| 1908 | Navy Law amended (4 “Rheinlands” now to be built until 1911 instead of 3) | n/a |
| 1909 | n/a | Britain alarmed by German fleet - 8 “Dreadnoughts” ordered to be built instead of 3 |
| 1912 (Mar) | Germany announces an increase in ships and men as well as the creation of third fleet in commission | n/a |
| 1912 (Jul) | n/a | Franco-Russian naval convention and Anglo-French agreement (British ships to be transferred from the Mediterranean to the North Sea and French ships from Brest to the Mediterranean) |
Consequences of the Naval Race
The expansion of the German fleet directly threatened the British Empire and soured Anglo-German relations severely. German intentions to “threaten” Britain into an alliance actually had the opposite effect by creating an atmosphere of suspicion and hostility, particularly in public opinion. The aftermath of the Second Moroccan Crisis (1911) had the consequence of poisoning the relations even further and resulted in a greater naval expansion. Tirpitz’s “Risk Theory” was in effect diplomatic blackmail. The German expansion inevitably brought Britain closer to France and Russia, whereas she might have been a natural ally of Germany.