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Imperialism - how far a cause of world war one

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by kennyr (U2647470) on Sunday, 4th December 2005

  have this as an essay question and wondered is the definition of imperialism purely overseas acquisitions or is it expanding borders as well?
  
  aside from that, is the morocco crisis(es) of 1905-6 and 1911, and france and italy arguing over Tunisia the main imperalistic disputes or the pre 1914 era?

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  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by Mani (U1821129) on Sunday, 4th December 2005

  Mark, there are many aspects of the great war that can be put down to Imperialism. Here's a quick summary;
  
  Alfred Mahan suggested (in the late 19th Century) basically that in order for a country to become an Imperial power a large Navy was necessary.
  
  Italy, France, The US, Germany, Austro-Hungary developed large powerful navies in order (amongst other things) to develop and maintain their Empires.
  
  With the development of HMS Dreadnaught (An All-Big gun battleship) all capital ships of every navy became obsolete overnight....
  
  A German, Alfred von Tirpitz, wrote in a memo to Kaiser Wilhelm what went on to become 'the Risk Theory Memo' suggesting that the Imperial German Navy didn't need to match the Royal Navy in numbers (Which at that time held a doctrine where it had twice the number of ships of the next two biggest navies put together) but merely had to offer a significant enough risk to the RN that any victory would at best be a pyrrhic victory. And the β€˜Dreadnaught race’ begins, which puts tremendous strains on Anglo-German relations.
  
  So it could be argued that the Dreadnaught race was part of ongoing imperialistic desires – and a cause of the Great War.
  

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  Posted by KCLUndergrad (U2561619) on Sunday, 4th December 2005

  Mark
  
  The great thing about History is that in essays you are the one who defines the terms in the question. So, work out what you want to argue - yes or no - find evidence to support it and then decide which of your definitions of imperialism is more fitting for your argument. Just whatever you do, don't write a dictionary definition in your introduction, it just looks awful! Explain your definition and why you defined it like that.
  
  Personally, i would say that it wasn't so much exisiting imperialist disputes as ambitions which caused the war. Germany's leaders wanted to have a empire as large as their Britsh relatives, and it is very possible to argue that the main cause of the war was the ambitions of Germany's leaders.
  
  Would a guess that you are GCSE or early A/S level be correct or wildely wrong?! You don't have to answer that but i'd be interested thats all - good luck with the essay.

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