13.2: Foreign policy of Kaiser Wilhelm II: domestic conditions that impacted on German foreign policy; its impact/influence on other countries, including Britain, France, Russia and Austria-Hungary

Question 1

radical youtube comment
4p

Answer 1

1. ‘ll never accept any sleepwalker excuse after a century of learned scholarship and reasonable orthodox consensus.
2. Only one country had a warmongering, vicious, totally ignorant, sabre rattling, racist, supremacist leader.
3. Only one nation had an all or nothing aggressive, pre-emptive, strike at all costs, unalterable, international law breaking plan of action.
4. Huge complexities of incidents, espionage, assassination, chicanery, competitiveness, neurotic fear, etc, cannot alter the facts, that Germany could not prevent herself engaging in headlong aggressive war if two powers clashed insensitively to a disaster involving a dangerous intermediate factor, here Serbia between Russia and Austria-Hungary.

Since 1871, Germany would be ready to tough it, fight it, bully it OUT. Fischer was fundamentally correct. This book was one of many written to cash in on interest in W W 1 centenaries.

Question 2

First Fleet Act

Answer 2

1898

Question 3

the Second Fleet Act

Answer 3

1900; to match Royal Navy over the next 17 years:

• 2 flagships
• 36 battleships
• 11 large and 34 small cruisers

Question 4

A.J.P Taylor

3p

Answer 4

1. argued that the origins of the war were primarily rooted in the crisis-prone politics of the German Empire after 1906.
2. Foreign policy setbacks – the formation of the Triple Entente between 1904 and 1907 and an over-reliance on the Austro-Hungarian ally – and the increasing fragility of Bismarckian constitutional settlement of 1871 increased the willingness of German leaders to pursue highly risky policies.
3. He disputed that any single person “ruled at Berlin”, but he contended that the elites saw war as a solution to the growing domestic problems. Success in war served domestic agendas, buttressing authoritarian elites against democratic reforms.

Question 5

Taylor conclusion

Answer 5

the incompetence of Wilhelm II and Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg (1856-1921) and the aggressive ambitions of German generals caused the war.