Germany started to build more battleships. Copying British technology, the country started becoming more and more powerful. This looked very good for the Kaiser because he created a stronger country, but it became worrying for Britain as Germany began to catch up with their naval superiority, so they also started to build more battleships, and this is what created the “naval race”. Even though Britain was well ahead in the Naval Race, it was worried that it could not fund many more of these ships to be built and that Germany would continue to build more of these battleships and threaten Britain's naval supremacy. Before 1900 Britain was the world's leading industrial power, with it's main rival being France. Britain was by far the leading European power, but it feared other countries building up a larger navy and catching it up, especially Germany. So this competition was one bad part of the Kaisers leadership. Britain knew that that Germany's leaders had strong ambitions to build up a world-wide empire and also that Germany had caught up with its industrial production.
This growth in industrial production and technological progress was another part of the Kaisers leadership that showed his strength to an international audience. Companies such as Bosch and Siemens some of the biggest in engineering and it was Germany who invented the electric dynamo and petrol engine. The population in Germany was expanding rapidly, “there were 41million in 1971 compared to 51million in 1895 with a third of these are 15years old.” The coal industry was second only to Britain, and its steel industry was bigger than Britain, France and Russia put together. Exports tripled from 1890 to 1913 almost becoming the worlds leading exporters just behind Britain, so there was more money being brought into the country. This prodigious industrial growth was matched with very productive agriculture. This made Germany into a larger power and civilians within Germany were kept happy with the increased number of jobs. However this also threatened the balance of power, and was something that the Kaiser did not deal with well.
After Kaiser William II accepted Bismarck’s resignation in 1890, Germany lost a great leader, and the Kaiser tried to replace him with a series of PM’s that each had their own solution to Germany’s problems. However, these men were not chosen for their ability or idea’s, but because they could be easily manipulated. They were selected ministers who sucked up to the Kaiser and pretended to like him to feed his ego and vein personality. This created a very weak political structure but to the Kaiser this didn’t matter. When things went well and were successful, the Kaiser was allowed to take all the praise and credit, but when things went wrong (which often happened) he was able to blame it on all his government ministers. As a result of this ruling, Germany became the worst governed country in Europe with all politics described as “outdated and anachronistic”. This made Germany internally weak, making many German people unhappy with the governing of the country.
There were many reasons that the people within the country were not happy with the Kaiser. There was not a lot of choice with the parties becoming polarised around the left and right extremists. They also believed that the Kaiser should concentrate on social reform within Germany, and not the Weltpolitik that occupied most of his time. The accumulation of the socialist problem was important to state of empire in 1914. By 1914 socialism had grown into as powerful force that threatened the authority of the Kaiser, the conservatives, and his advisors. However, socialism was by no means a united force with many differences in beliefs occurring. Bismarck had failed in his dealings with the increase of socialism within Germany, all of his policies had failed and his predecessors encountered similar problems. Disagreements meant that the Kaiser overestimated the ability of socialists to whip up support. Government funding had been scarce even in Bismarck’s era, so tariff laws were brought in create more money. The situation worsened however, as the navel spending increased dramatically and the loss of tariff income occurred. It was the naval spending that was increasing the countries expenditure, so a policy was introduced to “stimulate trade and industry… push stock market prices up, save many assets and bring about a consolidation of the economy.” The solution to the problem was direct taxation, so the problem was realised but not solved between 1890-1914 which added to the crisis that had been created. This showed that the Kaiser kept his naval competition with Britain, even though his country began to suffer as a result.
There was to be no changing the Kaiser as he was only set on trying to increase the Countries Empire. It was this aggressive personality that left the Kaiser with one of his biggest problems. After Bismarck fell, the erratic Kaiser Wilhelm II gave German policy little coherence and the commanding position that Bismarck had achieved for Germany in international diplomacy was lost. Immediately, France and Russia came together and formed the military alliance (1892-4) that Bismarck had worked so hard to avoid. Now Germany was confronted with the possibility of war on two fronts a big problem that left Germany under threat. The Kaiser did nothing to change his foreign policies, so more alliances were made to exclude Germany.
In 1904 France and Britain became allies. Fear of Germany's apparently aggressive policies, like the naval race, led these countries to join in military alliance. Russia was also worried about Germany's growth, and so it made a similar defensive agreement with France and they became allies in 1907. This alliance between Britain, France and Russia was known as the Triple Entente, and it surrounded Germany. This worried Germany’s leaders and they started to make military plans, in case France and Russia jointly declared war on them. The countries in the Triple Entente knew that they were in a good position. They desperately wanted to weaken Germany and stop it becoming a very powerful country. This was one of the Kaisers problems with being too focused on the Militarism in Germany and not diplomatic relations with his rivals.
Austria-Hungary was another country that surrounded Germany but it was not part of the Triple Entente and instead joined with Germany and Italy to form the “Triple Alliance”. So by 1910 there were two defensive agreements, the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente. Each country promised to help and defend its allies if they were attacked. Some people thought that the defensive agreements were a good idea, because they would prevent countries from declaring war because it would lead to their own destruction. Others thought that it was not such a good idea and it was very dangerous because instead of smaller wars between two countries like the Franco-Prussian war, a huge war involving all of the powers would evolve, which would be started by a minor dispute between just two countries. Also it was dangerous because diplomats from both sides sometimes tested and threatened the other side to see how they reacted. An example of this is the Moroccan Crisis in which where the alliances tested each other’s strength The Kaiser knew that his Alliance would still be too weak to take on the Triple Entente.
The Triple Entente had placed what was known as "a ring of steel" around Germany so they would have stood no chance if the Triple Entente chose to attack it before 1906. However, in 1906 Germany's war Minister Count Alfred von Schlieffen became very worried about this, and so he made military plans to defeat both the French and the Russians, should they declare war on Germany. This plan was called the Schlieffen Plan. He thought that if there were going to be a war, then the huge country of Russia would be slow to mobilise because they would have such long way to go with a very backward transport system. Germany thought that it would take Russia a couple of months to have it's forces ready, he planned to defeat the French first and then go and deal with the Russians. It was planned that the Germans would invade France through the neutral country of Belgium, so that the French wouldn't realise what was happening until the Germans got close to their country. The Germans then planned to surround Paris, win the battle and move the bulk of the army away again to fight the Russians. It was this attacking attitude between the European countries that was one of the causes of the First World War.
This showed the Kaiser’s aggression, and also his personality as a “ruthless and exuberant” leader. He found it increasingly difficult to see any other opinion but his own. It seemed that “his personality had the greatest impact on policy making.” This was not necessarily a good thing for the country as many people described him as “obsessive and paranoid”. It has been quoted that he often got into “violent rages” with his “angry determination” to succeed in his proposals. These mood-swings hinted at the Kaiser’s mental instability as he was “completely distorted by rage”. This was proven by his breakdown in 1908 and perhaps proves why he was a passionate supporter of German militarism and imperialism, so focused on expanding his empire.
Before the end of the First World War, the Kaiser was intent to holding onto his power and leadership in 1917, unwilling to give over a beaten country. He was finally forced to abdicate on 9th November 1918, a beaten leader, blamed for starting and losing the war. He fled the country with the rest of his family and lived in Holland for the rest of his life. So at the time, the Kaiser was not remembered for the strengths that he brought to the country, like the increased industrial and technological growth or the expansion of the German Navy. Instead he was remembered for his failed Weltpolitik ideas and the cause of the First World War. So although the Kaiser did many good things that benefited Germany during his reign in power between 1890 and 1918, he will be remembered for his weak government and the loss of the War.
