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Y314: The Challenge of German Nationalism 1789–1919

Depth study: Wilhelmine Germany and the growth of Nationalism 1884–1914 — Wilhelm II, Weltpolitik and the navy

  • 2 things to know
  • Unit group 3

Overview

Recall questions on Wilhelm II’s background and ideas, Bismarck’s fall, Weltpolitik, the Navy Laws and Tirpitz’s risk theory, the failure of the naval programme, the Moroccan crises and the Reichstag’s powers.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Who and when

Why did Bismarck fall in 1890?

Key term

Define Weltpolitik.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What in Wilhelm II's background shaped his character?

    Model answer

    A withered left arm and painful treatments, a difficult relationship with his English mother, a strict education and an idealised immersion in the Prussian army left him vain, impulsive, needing constant admiration and prone to bombastic speeches he later regretted.

  2. 2

    Summarise Wilhelm II's political ideas.

    Model answer

    He believed his crown came from God, spoke of personal rule and of being his own chancellor, despised parliamentary politics and party leaders, revered the army as the true foundation of the state, and wanted Germany to have a world role appropriate to her power.

  3. 3

    Why did Bismarck fall in 1890?

    Model answer

    The young Kaiser wanted to rule himself and to court the workers, while Bismarck sought to renew and toughen the anti-socialist law and, when outvoted, contemplated a coup; the two also clashed over an old cabinet order restricting ministers' access to the monarch, and Wilhelm demanded his resignation.

  4. 4

    What was the immediate consequence of Bismarck's fall for foreign policy?

    Model answer

    His successors let the Reinsurance Treaty with Russia lapse in 1890, believing it incompatible with the Austrian alliance, and Russia turned to France, producing the Franco-Russian alliance of 1894 and the two-front problem Bismarck had worked to avoid.

  5. 5

    Define Weltpolitik.

    Model answer

    The pursuit from the later 1890s of world power status through colonies, overseas bases such as Kiautschou, economic penetration exemplified by the Berlin to Baghdad railway, a great navy and assertive diplomacy, summed up in the claim that Germany demanded her place in the sun.

  6. 6

    State what the Navy Laws of 1898 and 1900 provided.

    Model answer

    They authorised a long-term building programme, fixed in law so that the Reichstag could not cut it year by year, which was intended to double the fleet and create a battle fleet of some thirty-eight battleships.

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