Germany’s foreign policy

Bismarck, fearing French revenge and a war on two fronts, built a system of alliances: an alliance with Austria-Hungary in 1879 and the Triple Alliance when Italy joined in 1882. In the 1880s Germany acquired colonies in Africa: South-West Africa (a protectorate in 1884), Togo and Cameroon (1884) and East Africa (1885); in the Pacific the Marshall Islands (1885) and other islands, and in 1898 a part of China’s Shandong province was leased to it. Under Wilhelm II a “world policy” was announced: under the slogan “Germany’s future lies on the sea” a large navy was built and the Kiel Canal (1895) linked the North Sea with the Baltic; this strained relations with Britain. Germany drew close to the Ottoman state (Turkey) and began the Baghdad Railway (this push into the Balkans and the Middle East is called “Drang nach Osten”, the “Drive to the East”); Britain responded by setting up a protectorate over Kuwait in 1899. The Moroccan question sharpened rivalry with France, and colonial and naval questions with Britain; in 1905 the General Staff drew up a plan for war on two fronts. After the Entente took shape in 1907, Germany began to feel encircled.