"The New Imperialism is one of the fundamental causes of World War I, period. That is the biggest reason. Now, don't get rid of the gold interpretation completely, because obviously as Britain and Germany become huge economic rivals, big economic rivals, as the Germans are not only nipping at the heels of the city, British industrial production and British naval production, but passing them in things like chemistry, and production of steel, and the production of big battleships. All this stuff runs together. Your victory is your craven reptile opponent's loss. That's the way they viewed it.
(...)
What is the nature of this increasingly bitter rivalry between Germany and Britain? One is obvious — Africa. That's one. Second, economic in that the German economy is growing by leaps and bounds. It is the number one country in chemistry. Those of you that are chemists, the whole university system — in Britain the university system isn't terribly practical, but in Germany chemistry is part of what they do in the German universities, which are great universities. They began to lap the British in chemistry, chemical productions, and they catch up and go ahead, and steel, too. This is a big rivalry.
The British government begins to run scared because the City is running scared. Third is this famous naval rivalry, about which Paul Kennedy, my colleague and friend has written a book, The Anglo-German Naval Rivalry. The Germans start turning out these huge ships. Then the British respond. They produce the Dreadnaught, which becomes a symbol for these huge powerful battleships like nothing that had ever been seen before. The naval leagues in both countries — again, this is a culture of imperialism, the culture of aggressive nationalism — put huge pressure on governments to throw every available resource in the building of more and more ships."
© John Merriman
Yale Lectures on European Civilization, 1648-1945 (2008)
[link #1]
[link #2]
(...)
What is the nature of this increasingly bitter rivalry between Germany and Britain? One is obvious — Africa. That's one. Second, economic in that the German economy is growing by leaps and bounds. It is the number one country in chemistry. Those of you that are chemists, the whole university system — in Britain the university system isn't terribly practical, but in Germany chemistry is part of what they do in the German universities, which are great universities. They began to lap the British in chemistry, chemical productions, and they catch up and go ahead, and steel, too. This is a big rivalry.
The British government begins to run scared because the City is running scared. Third is this famous naval rivalry, about which Paul Kennedy, my colleague and friend has written a book, The Anglo-German Naval Rivalry. The Germans start turning out these huge ships. Then the British respond. They produce the Dreadnaught, which becomes a symbol for these huge powerful battleships like nothing that had ever been seen before. The naval leagues in both countries — again, this is a culture of imperialism, the culture of aggressive nationalism — put huge pressure on governments to throw every available resource in the building of more and more ships."
© John Merriman
Yale Lectures on European Civilization, 1648-1945 (2008)
[link #1]
[link #2]
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