Military and Hms Dreadnought Essay

Submitted By roellarules
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Militarism8
The military competition that occurred was a long term cause of the First World War. It is long term because tension was created by the competition over the amount of military equipment that each country could obtain and the time in which they could prepare their armies for battle. All of this competitive behaviour led to the leaders of the different countries preparing themselves subconsciously for war. This cause is also linked to Imperialism as in the late 1800s through to the early 1900s; France, Belgium, Germany, Great Britain and Italy were conquering colonies in Africa. The countries that were conquered then became the empires of the countries they were dominated by. Tension was caused over this when Germany’s leaders decided that, they wanted more colonies because other countries (like Britain and France) obtained more than they did. As a result of this, Germany began to build up their army. Britain was the country that attained the most empires; when they saw that Germany was preparing their army, they began to do the same to protect their colonies and themselves. The fact that Britain was an island (quite a bit smaller than Germany) meant that Britain’s navy had to form quickly to protect Britain.

France and Germany’s armies had more than doubled between the years 1870 and 1914. This showed that even though war wasn’t declared until 28th July 1914, it was already pre-empted. This knowledge at such an early stage made the rivalry between the different countries more intense (Germany and Britain especially). The rate at which the German navy was developing began to worry Britain into action. Also f the triple alliance that Italy, Austria and Germany formed in 1882, meant that they would join together in the event of a war and defend each other if there was a need to do so. This could prove fatal for Britain for the reason that if Italian, German and Austrian navies were prepared before Britain, they could invade whilst Britain’s navy was not at its most efficient. However Britain wasn’t the only country that had insecurities about their military forces. By the time that Britain had twenty-nine HMS Dreadnought battleships, Germany only had seventeen. This was a big problem for the Germany because at the moment it looked like they would not be in a good position to win the war. There was a marginal difference between the amount of ships that Britain had and the amount of ships that they obtained. The fact that
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