The Naval and Arms Race of Ww1

The naval and arms race
The naval arms race of the early 20th Century is believed to be one of the several causes for the outbreak World War I. It was mainly fought between the United Kingdom and the German Empire. However, there were some more naval build-ups in numerous countries which were emerging as great powers, such as Japan and the United states. The German army at the time was the largest and the best trained, while the British had the Largest navy, this was said to balance the two countries in their military power, in 1900 Kaiser Wilhelm began to further develop the German navy (Tirpiz's Navy Law), proclaiming that he planned for Germans to sail around the world and claim for Germany 'a place in the sun'.  An increased German navy would assist in German attempts to gain colonies, as well as further Germany's commercial and economic interests in other areas around the world. The Kaiser was intent to make his country a strong colonial power in the Africa and the Pacific.

One of the large contributing factors to much of the tensions between the great powers which led to the outbreak of World War One was the immense competition between Britain and Germany in constructing armaments. There were mainly 2 races between the two countries; the development of mass armies and the naval race. In 1889, the British government acknowledged the importance of having a strong navy for an island nation, so Britain started to modernise her Royal navy. Britain also believed that her Royal Navy should contain twice as many ships than that of the next two largest navies in the world, Russia and France, combined together. But, around the mid-1890s, The Kaiser wanted to pursue his policy for world power, so with that Germany began to increase her naval forces. This decision begins the Anglo-German naval arms race. 
While the deployed soldiers numbers were not that large the reserves armies of skilled men numbered in hundreds of thousands. Throughout Europe, past the late...