Arms Race/militarism

• As Britain was building up ots Navy other Great Powers started to compete for the most powerful army.
• The idea was to have a more poweful army than any potential enemy so they would be less likely to attack.
• This meant all Great Powers except Britain by 1914 had introduced conscription.
• By 1914 armies of the Great Powers numbered more than 4 million with 2 million reservists waiting to be called up.
• Large armies in rival alliances committed to defend each other was a dangerous development.

• As Britain was building up ots Navy other Great Powers started to compete for the most powerful army.
• The idea was to have a more poweful army than any potential enemy so they would be less likely to attack.
• This meant all Great Powers except Britain by 1914 had introduced conscription.
• By 1914 armies of the Great Powers numbered more than 4 million with 2 million reservists waiting to be called up.
• Large armies in rival alliances committed to defend each other was a dangerous development.

1. One feature of the arms race was the competiton for the most powerful Navy between Britain and Germany, since the Kaiser announced he would builf 41 battleships in 1898 Britain saw this as a threat so responded with the powerful dreadnought in 1906, and from then on both countries competed for the most dreadnoughts.

2. Another feature is that the other Great Powers competed for the morst powerful army. This meant that all Great Powers except Britain had introduced conscription by 1914, and by 1914 the armies of all the great powers totalled to over 4 million.

3. The idea which caused the Arms Race was to have a more powerful military than any potential enemy so that they would not attack, so in a way it prevented war. However, large militaries in rival alliances committed to defend each other were a dangerous development.

Britain and Germany competed for naval supremacy. So one aspect of the arms race was from 1906 when Britain introduced the Dreadnought both ountries competed for the most Dreadnoughts.

Britain felt challenged so reacted by launching the Dreadnought. This was a more powerful ship than the battleships the Kaiser had introduced and Britain introduced it in 1906.