As one nation expanded their military it prompted a growth in armaments in all of the opposing countries to better their survival. In Bernhard Von Bulow’s speech The Hammer or The Anvil on December 11, 1899, he stated, “We don’t ever want to become the ‘slaves of humanity’... In the coming century the German people will be a hammer or an anvil.” This quote addresses the idea of being in power or being under the power of someone else. The hammer is said to represent the superior being to the anvil (Bulow). Thus presenting a large conflict in WWI, known as the arms