Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China

by Hal Brands

World War I marked the calamitous coda to an era of remarkable German ascent. Between 1864 and 1871, Wilhelm I and his “iron chancellor,” Otto von Bismarck, forged the German Empire through short, brilliantly orchestrated wars against Denmark, Austria-Hungary, and France. The unified state soon became an industrial juggernaut. By 1910, Germany had Europe’s leading economy; by 1914, it produced twice as much steel as Britain and had twice as many miles of railroad track. Defense spending multiplied nearly fivefold between 1880 and 1914; Berlin soon commanded Europe’s most fearsome army, and its shipyards were building a navy that would nip at Britain’s heels. Looking back, historian Paul Kennedy doubted whether the relative power “of any two neighboring states” had ever changed as much “in the course of one man’s lifetime as occurred here between Britain and Germany.”31 Not since Napoleon had Europe seen a country with such potential to dominate on land while also vying for supremacy at sea.