World War I Essay Samples

The First World War is often said to have started, majorly, when a naval race between Germany and Britain ensued. By the time the First World War started – in 1914 – the Great Britain had held the view that their navy was the strongest and thus held a key role in their status as the overall world power. True to this long-held view, their navy held enormous might in both number and equipment. In stark contrast, however, Britain had a very small army. The navy was therefore delegated most of the duties of guarding Britain’s trade routes and colonies. This made the country invest hugely moneywise and in effort in order to hold a ‘dual-power’ standard. This standard dictated that Britain was to continue maintaining as large a navy as possible, a navy that could be large enough to form the next two naval powers – combined – in rank. In the early years of the twentieth century, Britain invested in a huge program that sought reforms in the navy, both in training and equipment. This resulted in the manufacturing of better ships.
At around 1904, Germany also reached at a resolution to expand their naval force since it was seen by everyone that naval power was the track to domintion. Although the Kaiser was quick to deny this notion of Germany’s intention, Britain arrived at a frightening conclusion: that Germany wanted to threaten the Royal Navy. Germany seemed to want to cudgel the Great Britain so that they would at least give them colonial concessions as they had agreed. They also wanted Britain to boost their industries as well as unite some regions in Germany. These divided regions faced division threats due to alienation by a military project that had been started by the elitist army. But Britain could not agree to this. Instead, they substituted Germany with Russia in their dual-power calculations. This act was enough to stimulate an arms race. In 1906, the Great Britain introduced their first large war ship. Called the HMS Dreadnought, this ship changed the whole outlook of things in any naval force. The HMS Dreadnought a very large ship that proved all other battleships obsolete. This meant that all the great powers now had a big duty to at least supplement their naval forces with Dreadnoughts. As a result of this, there were so many sentiments that were aired and that were meant to offer competitive grounds. This was between Germany and Britain.
With slogans as “we want eight and won’t wait”, there were all the reasons to start the naval race between them. Each country tried as much as possible to outdo the other in the production of more and more Dreadnoughts. However, an amazing picture comes into play considering the rivalry between the two countries. Some had backed a strategy that was designed to tear off the other country’s naval power. Nonetheless, much of their rivalry was quite friendly as it was based on naval race to try and out-performeach other in the production of battleships. Britain’s role in the naval race was somehow understandable considering that it was an island owning a huge global empire. However, Germany’s role is somewhat confusing. This is because Germany, as a nation, was largely landlocked and therefore needed little defense by sea. All in all, both countries spent very huge sums of money in the naval race.