ABSTRACT
The empire founded under Bismarck's leadership lasted for forty-seven years, collapsing at the end of the first of the two great world wars of the twentieth century. The kaiser was forced to abdicate in November 1918, bringing to a close a war that was in good part the result of imperial overreach. But German imperialism was far from fmished despite defeat in the First World War. It would take another world war to put an end to Germany's imperial ambitions.
