{"id":719,"date":"2017-09-02T18:43:06","date_gmt":"2017-09-02T18:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/?p=719"},"modified":"2026-04-24T07:56:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T07:56:49","slug":"naval-race-before-world-war-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/naval-race-before-world-war-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Naval Race Before\u00a0World War I: A Detailed Summary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The naval race of\u00a0World War I<\/a>\u00a0was an important competition between\u00a0Britain<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Germany<\/a>\u00a0for naval supremacy.\u00a0 Each nation raced to build more ships and capabilities, which led to an extreme increase in tensions between them.\u00a0 As such, historians consider the naval race between these two major European nations to be a\u00a0main cause of World War I<\/a>.\u00a0 In fact, along with the arms race between France<\/a> and Germany, the naval race of World War I was part of a major build up in the military across Europe.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What was Militarism in World War I?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Historians have identified four main long-term causes of World War I<\/a>: Militarism<\/a>, Alliances<\/a>, Imperialism<\/a> and Nationalism<\/a>. Militarism can best be understood as the buildup or expansion of the ability of a country\u2019s military to wage war.\u00a0 In the decades before World War I<\/a> many European countries began to practice militarism and worked to expand and strengthen their military forces.\u00a0 For example, there was an intense arms race and naval race between several European nations in the buildup to World War I.\u00a0 Specifically, France and Germany were heavily involved in an arms race in which each country doubled their armies between 1870 and 1914.\u00a0 As well, there was a competitive naval race between Britain and Germany that centered around the construction of new naval ships.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Militarism
Militarism was one of the M.A.I.N. causes of World War I, alongside alliances, imperialism and nationalism.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Which Countries Participated in the Naval Race Before World War I?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At the time, Britain had the largest navy in the world.  This was due in part to the Age of Imperialism and Britain\u2019s vast colonial empire.  For example, at the outbreak of World War I, Britain had the largest colonial empire in the world with a particular focus in Africa and Asia.  As such, Britain required a powerful navy in order to maintain supply lines to its colonies.  As well, since Britain was an island nation it needed a strong naval force to ensure it had the ability to carry out trade by sea.  As stated above, Britain\u2019s naval power was threatening to other European nations and caused many to build up their own naval forces.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Germany viewed the British navy as a threat and sought to develop its own navy to match.  Mostly Germany needed a strong navy to challenge British ships in the North Sea, which was located to the north of Germany and to the east of Britain.  The North Sea was Germany’s only coastal access but was difficult for Germany since the North Sea was connected to Britain and the British navy dominated the area.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Naval
Kaiser Wilhelm II on the naval race before World War I. (Created by historycrunch.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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What was the Dreadnought?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of the key areas that this naval race between Britain and Germany can best be seen is in the construction of new battleships referred to as \u2018dreadnoughts<\/a>\u2019. \u00a0The dreadnought was a class of battleship that existed in the timeframe of World War I.\u00a0 However, the first dreadnought was the HMS Dreadnought from the British Royal Navy.\u00a0 The name is meant to refer to a sense of \u2018fearlessness\u2019.\u00a0 It was first launched in 1906, and completely changed the history of naval warfare at the time.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naval ships before the HMS Dreadnought were generally smaller, slower and had a smaller array of main guns.  The HMS Dreadnought was such a leap forward in naval technology that it caused other nations to copy the British.  In response, Germany developed its own version of the dreadnought and worked to challenge the power of the British.  By the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Britain had 29 dreadnoughts and Germany had 17.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dreadnought\"
HMS Dreadnought (Colorized by historycrunch.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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How did the Naval Race Impact World War I?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The naval race between Germany and Britain was a major cause of World War I due to its role in increasing tensions between the two nations.\u00a0 Britain and Germany were in opposing alliance systems and were competitive in nature in terms of their colonies in Africa.\u00a0 For instance, Britain was a member nation of the\u00a0Triple Entente<\/a>, while Germany was a member nation of the\u00a0Triple Alliance<\/a>.\u00a0 As such, the two nations did not always get along, and the naval race before World War I highlighted their sense of competition and lingering tensions.\u00a0 This caused World War I, because it pushed the two nations (and other nations such as France) to participate in the war.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dreadnought
German Dreadnought ‘SMS Kaiser’. (Colorized by historycrunch.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Naval Race before World War I was between Britain and Germany. The two nations competed to build up the most ships and control the seas around Europe. The Naval Race before World War I was important because it contributed to the outbreak of the war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":22,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[15,20],"class_list":["post-719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-war-i","tag-history","tag-world-war-i"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10374,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719\/revisions\/10374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}