ABSTRACT
Great Britain had little to do with the start of the First World War. The roots of the First World War grew in the second half of the nineteenth century, seeded by the re-unification of Germany, her defeat of France in 1870-1871, and the slow decline of Austria-Hungary and Russia.1 The slow encirclement of Germany made her increasingly nervous as the century ended. When France signed an alliance with Russia in the 1890s, the German elite felt hemmed in. The internal unrest which accompanied industrialization added to the pressure on German rulers. To preserve their power, they resorted to ‘manipulative strategies of national distraction’.2 One of those strategies was war. By 1912, the Germans believed that Russia, reforming and modernizing her Army, would not be able to field an effective fighting force before 1916. Until then, she remained vulnerable. This belief shaped their preparations for war. Among these external strategies was the creation of a large Navy and the aggressive quest for a colonial empire. Britain, mostly aloof until then, finally began to mark the German menace.3
