32 Facts About Imperial Germany

Imperial Germany became a great power, it built up the longest railway network of Europe, the world's strongest army, and a fast-growing industrial base.

However, Imperial Germany had success on the Eastern Front; it occupied a large amount of territory to its east following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

Imperial Germany alone appointed and dismissed the chancellor, was supreme commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and final arbiter of all foreign affairs, and could disband the Reichstag to call for new elections.

Imperial Germany became a great hero to German conservatives, who erected many monuments to his memory and tried to emulate his policies.

Imperial Germany once wrote that "the most brilliant victories would not avail against the Russian nation, because of its climate, its desert, and its frugality, and having but one frontier to defend", and because it would leave Germany with another bitter, resentful neighbor.

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Representative of Imperial Germany's industry was the steel giant Krupp, whose first factory was built in Essen.

Under Bismarck, Imperial Germany was a world innovator in building the welfare state.

Imperial Germany became the dominant economic power on the continent and was the second-largest exporting nation after Britain.

Imperial Germany invested more heavily than the British in research, especially in chemistry, motors and electricity.

Imperial Germany was not weighted down with an expensive worldwide empire that needed defense.

Imperial Germany overtook British steel production in 1893 and pig iron production in 1903.

In many cities, the new railway shops were the centers of technological awareness and training, so that by 1850, Imperial Germany was self-sufficient in meeting the demands of railroad construction, and the railways were a major impetus for the growth of the new steel industry.

Imperial Germany succeeded, and only after his departure from office in 1890 did the diplomatic tensions start rising again.

Imperial Germany opposed Catholic civil rights and emancipation, especially the influence of the Vatican under Pope Pius IX, and working-class radicalism, represented by the emerging Social Democratic Party.

Imperial Germany came to realize that this sort of policy was very appealing, since it bound workers to the state, and fit in very well with his authoritarian nature.

However nearly all the schools in Imperial Germany had a very high standard and kept abreast with modern developments in knowledge.

Wilhelm II wanted Imperial Germany to have her "place in the sun", like Britain, which he constantly wished to emulate or rival.

The Boxer Rising in China, which the Chinese government eventually sponsored, began in the Shandong province, in part because Imperial Germany, as colonizer at Kiautschou, was an untested power and had only been active there for two years.

Policymakers in Imperial Germany analysed the possibility of establishing bases in Margarita Island and showed interest in the Galapagos Islands but soon abandoned any such designs given that far-flung bases in northern South America would be very vulnerable.

Imperial Germany attempted to promote Chile, a country that was heavily influenced by Imperial Germany, into a regional counterweight to the United States.

Imperial Germany had created with Austria-Hungary a military bloc in the heart of Europe so powerful and yet so restless that her neighbors on each side had no choice but either to become her vassals or to stand together for protection.

Imperial Germany was left with no firm ally but Austria-Hungary, and her support for action in annexing Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908 further soured relations with Russia.

Imperial Germany did acquire a second ally in 1914 when the Ottoman Empire entered the war on its side, but in the long run, supporting the Ottoman war effort only drained away German resources from the main fronts.

Subsequent interpretation – for example at the Versailles Peace Conference – was that this "blank cheque" licensed Austro-Hungarian aggression regardless of the diplomatic consequences, and thus Imperial Germany bore responsibility for starting the war, or at least provoking a wider conflict.

Imperial Germany saw the French Republic as its principal danger on the European continent as it could mobilize much faster than Russia and bordered Imperial Germany's industrial core in the Rhineland.

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Imperial Germany did not want to risk lengthy battles along the Franco-German border and instead adopted the Schlieffen Plan, a military strategy designed to cripple France by invading Belgium and Luxembourg, sweeping down to encircle and crush both Paris and the French forces along the Franco-German border in a quick victory.

Imperial Germany expected that he could take strong defensive positions in the hills overlooking Verdun on the east bank of the River Meuse to threaten the city and the French would launch desperate attacks against these positions.

Imperial Germany believed that if Lenin could create further political unrest, Russia would no longer be able to continue its war with Imperial Germany, allowing the German Army to focus on the Western Front.

Imperial Germany invaded Portuguese Mozambique to gain his forces supplies and to pick up more Askari recruits.

In what was known as the "kaiserschlacht", Imperial Germany converged their troops and delivered multiple blows that pushed back the allies.

Population of Imperial Germany was already suffering from outbreaks of disease due to malnutrition due to Allied blockade preventing food imports.

The enormous growth of industrial production and industrial potential led to a rapid urbanisation of Imperial Germany, which turned the Germans into a nation of city dwellers.