🚢 What was new
Dreadnought carried ten 12-inch guns, when most battleships had four. Its steam turbine engines gave it a speed of 21 knots, faster than any other battleship. It could sink older ships before they got close enough to hit back.
The Growth of Tension in Europe, 1905-14 » Anglo-German Rivalry: The Naval Race and the Moroccan Crises
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Edexcel spec: Paper 2 Section A, Investigation A1, Key topic 2
- Why Germany's new navy alarmed Britain, and how the Dreadnought changed the race
- What happened in the Moroccan Crises of 1905-06 and 1911
- How each quarrel pushed Britain closer to France
- Why Anglo-German rivalry mattered for the coming of war
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Unlock This CourseWhy the navy mattered so much
Britain was an island with a small army. It bought much of its food from overseas, and its empire was held together by sea routes. So its safety depended on the Royal Navy. Since 1889 Britain had followed the two-power standard.
Germany already had the strongest army in Europe. From 1898 it began to build a great navy as well. Kaiser Wilhelm II loved ships and wanted a fleet to match Germany's new place in the world. His navy minister, Admiral Tirpitz, steered Navy Laws through the German parliament in 1898 and 1900. The second law planned a fleet of 38 battleships.
Tirpitz knew he could not out-build Britain. His idea was a fleet big enough that Britain would not dare risk a battle with it, and would have to treat Germany with respect. Germany's ships were to be based in the North Sea, close to Britain's own coast. To the British, a fleet like that could only be aimed at them.
Key terms:
- Two-power standard: Britain's rule that its navy should be at least as strong as the next two largest navies put together
- Navy Laws: German laws, starting in 1898, that set out and paid for a large fleet of battleships
- Dreadnought: a fast, all-big-gun battleship of the type first built by Britain in 1906
- Protectorate: a country that keeps its own ruler but is controlled by a stronger power
The Dreadnought and the naval race
Britain's answer came from Admiral Sir John Fisher, the head of the Royal Navy. In February 1906 Britain launched HMS Dreadnought. It was finished by the end of that year, after only about a year of building.
⚠️ The catch
The new ship made every older battleship out of date, and that included Britain's own huge fleet. The race started again almost from nothing. Germany now had a real chance to catch up.
Germany took that chance. It launched its first dreadnought in 1908, and a new Navy Law that year raised the pace to four big ships a year. Germany also widened the Kiel Canal so that dreadnoughts could pass quickly between the Baltic and the North Sea.
The scare of 1909. Rumours spread in Britain that Germany was secretly building faster than it admitted. The Liberal government planned four new dreadnoughts that year. Newspapers and the Conservative opposition demanded more, with the slogan 'We want eight and we won't wait'. In the end all eight were built.
Talks fail. In February 1912 the British minister Lord Haldane went to Berlin to try to slow the race. Germany would only build more slowly if Britain promised to stay neutral in a European war. Britain refused, because that would have meant abandoning France.
By 1914 Britain had 29 dreadnoughts and Germany had 17. Britain had won the race, and from 1912 Germany put most of its new spending into its army instead.
The First Moroccan Crisis, 1905-06
Morocco, in North Africa, was one of the few parts of Africa not yet under European rule. In the Entente Cordiale of 1904, Britain had agreed to let France take the lead there. Germany had not been asked. It saw a chance to test the new friendship and, it hoped, break it. The timing looked good, because France's ally Russia was busy losing a war against Japan.
On 31 March 1905 the Kaiser landed at the Moroccan port of Tangier. He rode through the streets on horseback and declared that the Sultan was an independent ruler and that Germany would protect its trade in Morocco. Germany then demanded an international conference. There was talk of war, and the French foreign minister, Delcassé, who had made the Entente, was forced to resign in June 1905.
The conference met at Algeciras in Spain from January to April 1906. It went badly for Germany.
- Only Austria-Hungary supported Germany. Britain, Russia and even Italy backed France.
- Morocco stayed independent in name, but France and Spain were given control of its police, and France the largest share in its state bank.
Germany had meant to split Britain and France. It had pushed them together, and their armies now began the secret talks you met in the lesson The Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente.
The Second Moroccan Crisis, 1911
In 1911 there was a rebellion against the Sultan. In May France sent troops to the city of Fez to put it down. It looked as if France was about to take over Morocco completely.
On 1 July 1911 the German gunboat Panther arrived at the port of Agadir, on Morocco's Atlantic coast. Germany said it was there to protect German businesses. Its real aim was to make France pay for a free hand in Morocco, and it asked for the whole of the French Congo in central Africa.
Britain was alarmed. It feared that Germany wanted Agadir as a naval base on the Atlantic, close to Britain's trade routes. On 21 July the Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George, gave a speech at the Mansion House in London. He warned that Britain would not accept peace at any price, and would not be treated as if it did not count. The Royal Navy was put on alert.
Germany backed down. In November 1911 it accepted French control of Morocco, which became a French protectorate in 1912. In return Germany was given two strips of the French Congo, far less than it had asked for.
Why Anglo-German rivalry mattered
🤝 Britain chose a side
Britain's ententes were not military alliances. The naval race and Morocco turned them into something close to one. In 1912 Britain and France agreed that the French fleet would guard the Mediterranean while the British guarded the North Sea and the Channel. Britain now had a duty of honour to protect France's northern coast.
🔥 Bitterness in Germany
Germany had been beaten in the naval race and made to back down twice over Morocco. Many Germans felt humiliated and surrounded. Their leaders were determined not to give way in the next crisis.
📰 Hostile public opinion
Newspapers in both countries stirred up fear. Many British people now saw Germany, not France or Russia, as the main enemy, and expected a war.
Keep this in proportion. Neither the naval race nor Morocco started the war. The race was over by 1912, and both Moroccan crises were settled by talking. Their importance is that they decided which side Britain was likely to be on.
Common mistakes
Don't mix up the two crises. In 1905 the Kaiser himself visited Tangier, and the crisis ended at the Algeciras Conference. In 1911 a gunboat was sent to Agadir, and the crisis ended with Germany taking land in the Congo. Don't say Germany won the naval race either. Britain stayed well ahead.
Exam-style question
Describe TWO features of EITHER the naval race between Britain and Germany OR the Second Moroccan Crisis (1911). [6 marks]
Model answer
(Answering on the naval race.) One feature of the naval race was the building of dreadnoughts. In 1906 Britain launched HMS Dreadnought, which had ten 12-inch guns and was faster than any other battleship. It made all older battleships out of date, so Germany launched its first dreadnought in 1908 and the two countries raced to build the most.
A second feature was the fear it caused among the British public. In 1909 there were rumours that Germany was secretly building faster than it admitted. Newspapers and the Conservatives used the slogan 'We want eight and we won't wait', and the government, which had planned four new dreadnoughts, ended up building eight. By 1914 Britain had 29 dreadnoughts to Germany's 17.
What lifts this to the top level: it gives two separate features of one of the topics, and each is backed by precise facts such as dates, numbers and names.
Exam tip
Pick one of the two topics and stick to it. Writing about both the naval race and Morocco wastes time, because only one can be marked. Make sure your two features are clearly different, for example the ships and the public reaction, and start a new paragraph for the second. For more help, see the Exam Skills lesson Paper 2 Section A Question (a): Describe Two Features.