Germany Doubles Navy: The Anglo-German Arms Race Ignites
The German Reichstag passed the Second Naval Law on June 14, 1900, doubling the planned size of the Imperial German Navy from 19 to 38 battleships. Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz designed the buildup around his "risk theory": Germany did not need to match the Royal Navy ship for ship, only to build a fleet large enough that Britain would risk unacceptable losses by attacking it. The strategy backfired catastrophically. Britain responded with the revolutionary HMS Dreadnought in 1906, which made all existing battleships obsolete and reset the arms race. The resulting Anglo-German naval rivalry drove Britain into alliances with France and Russia, exactly the diplomatic isolation Tirpitz had hoped to prevent. The naval arms race became one of the key factors contributing to World War I.
June 14, 1900
126 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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