''Weltpolitik'' (, "world politics") was the

imperialist Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic and ...

foreign policy adopted by the German Empire during the reign of Emperor

Wilhelm II , house = Hohenzollern , father = Frederick III, German Emperor , mother = Victoria, Princess Royal , religion = Lutheranism (Prussian United) , signature = Wilhelm II, German Emperor Signature-.svg Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor ...

. The aim of the policy was to transform Germany into a

global power In international relations, power is defined in several different ways. Material definitions of state power emphasize economic and military power. Other definitions of power emphasize the ability to structure and constitute the nature of social ...

. Though considered a logical consequence of the

German unification The unification of Germany (, ) was the process of building the modern German nation state with federal features based on the concept of Lesser Germany (one without multinational Austria), which commenced on 18 August 1866 with adoption of t ...

by a broad spectrum of Wilhelmine society, it marked a decisive break with the defensive ''

Realpolitik ''Realpolitik'' (; ) refers to enacting or engaging in diplomatic or political policies based primarily on considerations of given circumstances and factors, rather than strictly binding itself to explicit ideological notions or moral and ethical ...

'' of the Bismarck era. The origins of the policy can be traced to a Reichstag debate on 6 December 1897 during which German Foreign Secretary Bernhard von Bülow stated, "in one word: We wish to throw no one into the shade, but we also demand our own place in the sun." ("''Mit einem Worte: wir wollen niemand in den Schatten stellen, aber wir verlangen auch unseren Platz an der Sonne''.") Nancy Mitchell says that the creation of ''Weltpolitik'' was a change in the appliance of German foreign policy. Up until Wilhelm's dismissal of Bismarck, Germany had concentrated its efforts on stopping the possibility of a

two-front war According to military terminology, a two-front war occurs when opposing forces encounter on two geographically separate fronts. The forces of two or more allied parties usually simultaneously engage an opponent in order to increase their chance ...

in Europe. Prior to ''Weltpolitik'', there was a greater focus on using its army and subtle diplomacy to maintain its status. In particular, Bismarck had initially been wary of acquiring overseas colonies and wished to reserve the role of Germany as an "honest broker" in continental affairs, though the 1878

Congress of Berlin The Congress of Berlin (13 June – 13 July 1878) was a diplomatic conference to reorganise the states in the Balkan Peninsula after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, which had been won by Russia against the Ottoman Empire. Represented at th ...

had revealed the limits of his mediation. However, despite Bismarck's initial scepticism, the foundations of the German colonial empire were already laid during his tenure from 1884 onwards, when the government began to place the privately acquired properties of colonisers like

Adolf Lüderitz Franz Adolf Eduard Lüderitz (16 July 1834 – end of October 1886) was a German merchant and the founder of German South West Africa, Imperial Germany's first colony. The coastal town of Lüderitz, located in the ǁKaras Region of southern N ...

, Adolph Woermann,

Carl Peters Carl Peters (27 September 1856 – 10 September 1918), was a German colonial ruler, explorer, politician and author and a major promoter of the establishment of the German colony of East Africa (part of the modern republic Tanzania). Life H ...

and Clemens Denhardt under the protection of the German Empire, necessitating costly action such as in the 1888

Abushiri revolt The Abushiri revolt, also known as the slave trader revolt (german: Sklavenhändlerrevolte), was an insurrection in 1888–1889 by the Arab and Swahili population of the areas of the coast of East Africa that were granted, under protest, to G ...

. According to the German historian

Hans-Ulrich Wehler Hans-Ulrich Wehler (September 11, 1931 – July 5, 2014) was a German left-liberal historian known for his role in promoting social history through the " Bielefeld School", and for his critical studies of 19th-century Germany. Life Wehler was bo ...

, German colonial policy in the 1880s was an example of a "pragmatic"

social imperialism As a political term, social imperialism is the political ideology of people, parties, or nations that are, according to Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin, "socialist in words, imperialist in deeds". In academic use, it refers to governments that enga ...

, a device that allowed the government to distract public attention from domestic problems and preserve the existing social and political order. Eley, Geoff "Social Imperialism" pp. 925–926 from ''Modern Germany'' Volume 2 New York, Garland Publishing, 1998 p. 925. Under ''Weltpolitik'', despite a two-front war still being at the forefront of Germany's concerns as proven through the

Schlieffen Plan The Schlieffen Plan (german: Schlieffen-Plan, ) is a name given after the First World War to German war plans, due to the influence of Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen and his thinking on an invasion of France and Belgium, which began on ...

, Kaiser Wilhelm II was far more ambitious. Colonial policies officially became a matter of

national National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

prestige, promoted by pressure groups like the Pan-German League; in the ongoing Scramble for Africa, Germany was a latecomer and had to stand firm to catch up. However, only relatively small acquisitions were made, such as Kiautschou Bay and

Neukamerun Neukamerun was the name of Central African territories ceded by the Third French Republic to the German Empire in 1911. Upon taking office in 1907, Theodor Seitz, governor of Kamerun, advocated the acquisition of territories from the French Co ...

, whereas Wilhelm's support for a policy of colonization was shown in his Kruger telegram in 1896 and response to the

Venezuelan crisis of 1902–03 Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

; Wilhelm's

social Darwinist Social Darwinism refers to various theories and societal practices that purport to apply biological concepts of natural selection and survival of the fittest to sociology, economics and politics, and which were largely defined by scholars in We ...

attitude was similarly reflected in the

Herero and Namaqua genocide The Herero and Namaqua genocide or the Herero and Nama genocide was a campaign of ethnic extermination and collective punishment waged by the German Empire against the Herero (Ovaherero) and the Nama in German South West Africa (now Namibia). I ...

from 1904 onwards and the suppression of the

Maji Maji Rebellion The Maji Maji Rebellion (german: Maji-Maji-Aufstand, sw, Vita vya Maji Maji), was an armed rebellion of Islamic and animist Africans against German colonial rule in German East Africa (modern-day Tanzania). The war was triggered by German Colon ...

from 1907, as well as in the

First First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

and

Second Moroccan Crisis The Agadir Crisis, Agadir Incident, or Second Moroccan Crisis was a brief crisis sparked by the deployment of a substantial force of French troops in the interior of Morocco in April 1911 and the deployment of the German gunboat to Agadir, a ...

of 1905 and 1911. The

Anglo-German naval arms race The arms race between Great Britain and Germany that occurred from the last decade of the nineteenth century until the advent of World War I in 1914 was one of the intertwined causes of that conflict. While based in a bilateral relationship tha ...

was likely lost when Germany failed to keep up with the British after the advent of

dreadnought The dreadnought (alternatively spelled dreadnaught) was the predominant type of battleship in the early 20th century. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's , had such an impact when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her ...

battleships from 1906 onwards; with the

Anglo-Russian Convention The Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 (russian: Англо-Русская Конвенция 1907 г., translit=Anglo-Russkaya Konventsiya 1907 g.), or Convention between the United Kingdom and Russia relating to Persia, Afghanistan, and Tibet (; ...

and the

Triple Entente The Triple Entente (from French '' entente'' meaning "friendship, understanding, agreement") describes the informal understanding between the Russian Empire, the French Third Republic, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland as well a ...

of 1907, German ''Weltpolitik'' showed itself unable to forestall the threat of a two-front war. The policy's ultimate failure would be sealed in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

References

Further reading