“Britain was, in fact, relatively friendly with Germany for much of the last quarter of the 19th century, not least because Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter was married to the German Crown Prince, Frederick, who succeeded to the imperial throne in March 1888. Frederick died from cancer after reigning for barely three months, and the accession of his estranged and impulsive son, Wilhelm II, heralded fresh competition with Britain for colonies and overseas markets as the new Kaiser sought world power status for Germany. Even so, it was the German Navy Laws of 1898 and 1900 that did most to alienate Britain. Shaped by the German Naval Secretary, Rear Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, with the Kaiser’s enthusiastic support, these measures disclosed Germany’s intention to construct a fleet, including 38 battleships, within 20 years. Regarding Britain as Germany’s ‘most dangerous naval enemy’, Tirpitz envisaged the German fleet as a political pawn which would strengthen his country’s hand in world affairs. To this end he wished to provide Germany with sufficient capital ships to mount a genuine challenge in the North Sea and give it the capability of inflicting such damage on the Royal Navy that the latter would fall below the ‘Two Power Standard’. The launching of 14 battleships in Germany between 1900 and 1905 inaugurated a naval arms race that would enter an even more menacing phase when Britain launched the revolutionary turbine-driven ‘all-big-gun’ battleship HMS Dreadnought in 1906.”

Adapted from Simkins, Peter, et all. The First World War: The War to End All Wars. Bloomsbury, 2003.