The Anglo German Naval Arms Race (Short Animated Documentary) 

When someone makes ships Uk: *A T H R E A T T O W O R L D P E A C E*

Me: makes a boat in Minecraft British Government: *T H E B A L A N C E O F P O W E R H A S B E E N B R O K E N*

You know the British are threatened when they ally with France

The UK plan of "Oh dear god, ally with the French"

Germany: *creates some boats* UK: now this is an avengers level threat

"Do something that no British Government wanted to do" "Ally France" Never change

''I prefer the real arms race.'' *US and USSR arms race.* ''I said the real arms race.'' *Britain and Germany arms race.* ''Perfection.''

Churchill: for every german ship, we build two more British government: outstanding move!

“I have narrowed them down to three unthinkable options, each one carrying-“ “I pick all three.” “You don’t even want to read them first?” “I was elected to lead, not to read. ALL THREE.”

Germany: *builds a ship* Britain: *builds two ships in retaliation * Britain: "perfectly balanced as all things should be"

Any other European nation: *has navy* Britain: This is greatly upsetting to us

In the end, the Germans slowed down their naval program and.. just kidding, they started building dreadnoughts 😂😂

🇩🇪: I am gonna build a navy 🇬🇧: *looks at 🇫🇷 🇬🇧: *oh man oh god oh man oh god oh man oh god oh man oh god*

For those who don't know, the Dreadnaught meant that building new pre-dreadnaughts was pointless, but it didn't actually make the previous ships worthless. In fact, there were dozens of pre-dreadnaughts in WWI. There was a risk in creating the Dreadnaught, since it meant all nations were on equal footing again, shipwise. The UK had 1, everyone else had 0. So if Germany could keep up in building, they would stay roughly equal, barring what small lead Britain could gain before the Germans released a first one. The reason they took the risk was because it was better to gain that small lead than to let someone else get it first.

You get 9000 geek points for giving Admiral Jackie A "More dakka" sign.

Germany: builds some boats UK: "Oh it's like that is it?" *narrows eyes*

"More Dakka" THE EMPEROR PROTECTS

Kaiser Wilhem II: "How do you like me now Uncle Bertie and Cousin George!" King Edward VII: "We don't. In fact, that's why we're going to go hang out with France."

Fun fact: the Anglo-German Naval Buildup was the first time the term “Cold War” was used. It described the competitive spirit of The United Kingdom and The German Empire in an article in 1914 and speculated on the outcome. I bet we all know how well that went.

Surprised to see Tirpitz not holding a sign saying name a ship after me

Germany should’ve spammed Submarine 4s and put homing torpedoes on them

Churchill: for every german ship, we build two more shipbuilders: STONKS

Fun Fact: In Germany Today there is still a 'champagne tax', if you buy champagne or sparkling vines your money flows to the Kaisers fleet

Someone: builds a boat Great Britain: I sense a disturbance in the force.

3:06 "I blame you" The Treaty of Versailles in a nutshell

« Bonjour rosbifs » Ah, I see you’re a man of culture.

There's a great book called "Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War (1991)" by Robert K. Massie that details the build up to war between Germany and the UK. Tirpitz's goal was simply to "restore German honour" by ensuring that German merchant ships were protected by German warships, naturally this meant that they would have to build more warships than England. Tirpitz's second innovation (or insult if you were British) was to introduce the first multi-year spending programs by any government ever. This means that not only were new warships going to be built, they were GUARANTEED top be built as the funding was already agreed 4-5 years in advance. Again, this led to a not very happy UK. A truly great book, my favourite bit is right at the end with all the details about the July Crisis and the lead up to the opening of hostilities, even at the last second the UK could have gone either way (jump in or stay out). A true tragedy all round.

Germany: We deserve a place in the sun! Britain: Unfortunately for you history will not see that way!

"More Dakka" Oi You Git, Wat you doing makin sissy holovids when yous should be FIGHTIN! WWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

“This strategy in known as the fleet in being doctrine” Hoi4 players: H E A V Y B R E A T H I N G

I think it's worth mentioning that the construction of the Dreadnought caused a major problem for Britain. True it was a revolutionary design that rendered every other capital ship in the world obsolete, but that also meant every other British capital ship was now obsolete too. It effectively reset all the world's navies. Thus the size advantage that the Royal Navy had built up over the years was severely stunted since rival nations now only had to build a similar number of dreadnoughts in order to achieve capital ship parity with the Royal Navy.

What makes this even more ridiculous is that much of this naval power was barely used in WW1

“More boom ships!” Hahaha i love you guys!

Other European nation: builds ships Britain: *ARE YOU CHALLENGING ME*

I still see Wilhelm using both arms perfectly, your videos are getting less and less realistic.

Looking at the map one can understand why Germany thought it needed to compete with the British Navy and force the UK into an allience. Germany could easily be blocked from accessing its new colonies and from oversea trade at all.

HMS Dreadnought was a bit of a double edged sword. Yes it gave the Royal Navy the most advanced and powerful ship in the world when completed but it also made the two power standard redundant

Did you genuinely put in a placard reading ''MORE DAKKA''? XD

(Sees more Dakka sign.) I see you are a man of culture as well.

Germany should have said: "for every british dreadnought we build 2 more". Endless build-up of dreadnoughts and neither side having the money to actually go to war :p

It's worth noting that building the HMS Dreadnought was probably a massive mistake by the UK because it made their entire navy obsolete and leveled the worldwide playing field. In fact, the Royal Navy had previously had a reputation of intentionally not laying down innovative designs unless another navy forced them to do so.

UK: has equal ships to the rest of Europe UK: *perfectly balanced as all things should be*

The problem the navy had was there was “NOT ENUF DAKKA!!!!!!!!!”

Germany: *builds a ship UK: "GREAT! Now, I have to be nice to France. *LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO!"*

UK and Germany: Attempt to create the world's most powerful navy by building more dreadnoughts/battleships. USA: Accidentally becomes the world's most powerful navy by losing several battleships.

Let's be honest, who wouldn't want more Boom Boats with "more dakka"?

will we get a ten minute history ever again?, love your videos anyway though!

You know its serious when the British ally with the French

Interesting thing to think about: Dreadnoughts, and later Super Dreadnoughts where so bizarly powerful compared to older ships that Britain actually "helped" Germany: The UK had the biggest navy in the world, and Germany could never ever catch up to that without devine intervention or something. And then the UK was that "devine intervention"... By building this new class of ships that could take on everything there was without being touched itself, the Royal Navy actually nullified it's own numerical superiority. Because it didn't matter how many ships you had, it mattered how many dreadnoughts u had... And thus the Royal Navy gave the Imperial Navy the level playingground the UK so desperatly tried to avoid...

there's never enough dakka

A++ video. That arm race had lots and lots of secondary consequence, like my own country, Canada, being tired of another taxes to pay for another country's Dreadnought. That specific reason lead to events and eventually lead to Canada being independant from Britain.

Then in the 1920's the UK, USA and Japan signed a naval arms treaty that pretty much worked till the mid 1930's when Japan broke it by laying down the Yamato class the problem Japan built 2 ships in the same amount of time the UK built 5 (while fighting Germany and Italy) and the US built 10.

You forgot the most important anecdote: To finance the naval race the German government introduced a tax on sparkly wine (Schaumweinsteuer) in 1902 which still is in vigor today!

Last time I was this early, the Royal Navy was still the pride and joy of the United Kingdom.

Fun fact: battleships built before hms dreadnought are called pre dreadnought battleships and they typically had 4 big guns in two twin turrets plus loads of different smaller guns. This was because fire control tech at the time limited engagement distance to where those smaller guns were still useful

Britain and France missed the opportunity to design and build a ship larger and more powerful than a Dreadnought: The Bisonette.

I just wanted to say I like your videos very much. They are interesting, funny and accurate. I enjoy every one of your videos. Please continue. Greetings from Germany Gute Arbeit! :)

1:20 A Warhammer 40K reference within a history video. Life is now complete.

More dakka? *Happy green skin noises

Everytime I open the YT app and see a new History Matters video my heart smiles

History Matters doing its best to answer questions that I never asked but am eager to get the answer of yet again

I love your channel keep up the great stuff

As much as I love your videos, glad to see another history video like this. I liked you question and rhetrosoective videos, but I prefer these videos more. Great work.

I just wanted to say that I like these new shorter videos. From being a channel I clicked on only occasionally, you are now one of the few channels where I watch every video as soon as it comes out

Super bonus points for including the Dodecanese when you showed the silhouette of Italy

The Ork reference in "more dakka" at 1:17 made me smile. Thank you for your humor!

Great video as always 👍🏼

Any single nation: *builds 1 ship* Britain: you're getting too daring, we must build 7 more ships!!

Dakka... So ironic... This WARHAMMER!

I love your videos and your sense of humor.

Very good content keep up the good work!

"Something no British government ever wanted to do, ally with France." That's one way to end a thousand year rivalry.. 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Too bad it still exists in Canada... PS. I'm an American... 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

Some things never change...Between the British and the French such as their rivalry.

This video helped me lot with an essay. Nice one

I don't know why but you always come up with the best video ideas...

Good video as always, though i wanna point out that i think it was underemphasized how much the dreadnaught outdated every german ship. Because the HMS didnt only outdate every german ship, it outdated EVERY ship. one of the deciding factors of Tirpiz to even start the arms race was that, with dreadnaughs now being a thing, all other royal navy steamers would no longer be able to keep up with DN's and Cruisers, which was true. The Dreadnaughts ,and the steam turbine ships in general were not only massively outranging other Steamer ships at the time, they were also much much faster. The problem wasnt so m uch that it outdated germany, as that it outdated brittain. Why is that the problem? because if you have the combined navy of russia and France, thats hard to beat and a natural deterrent from people building against you. however if your size is suddenly shrunk to a single ship, it only takes a single ship to get even with you, and germany was a iron powerhouse when it came to constructing just about everything, so thye took the chance.

East Germany had a great navy, that’s why they still own Ernst Thälmann Island

More Dakka! Damn, I love this channel!

I've been trying to remember the 'Fleet in Being' phrase for years. Thank you!

*comes from watching wh40k lore vids (oculus this time)* History matters: "more dakka" *Laughter and waghhh increases*

"More Dakka" I love you (no homo)

Absolutely entertaining. Ty.

Britain: Bo one can challenge my navy! Germany: *Challenges Britain's navy* Britain: You weren't supposed to do that

The Dreadnaught is actually what allowed the naval arm's race to become so heated because it also rendered most of the RN capital ships obsolete, artificially creating parity between the various naval powers.

WE NEED MORE DAKKA BOIZ ERE'WE GO WID THE BATTLESHIPS

Awesome video!

so cool vid man

Legend said, Germany wanted to take more of EVERYONE'S stuff, and they're building a big sexy navy that was making the British uncomfortable.

The only Anglo-German conflict I’ve heard of is the one over which is better, beer or tea.

I like the length of these videos

Ey waddup, came running when I got the notification

The often stated "naval arms race" being a cause for WW1 is a misconception. Historians pin their flag on the date "1906", saying that here is where that "history" started. Actually, the naval arms race started in 1871, with an unsuccessful attempted blockade of northern German ports during the Franco-Prussian War by the French navy. The "cause" was therefore the intention of German leaders to protect German citizens from the threat of blockade. Blockading an enemy, was one of the favorite means of economic warfare at the time. It therefore "started" with a German-French naval arms race, and expanded to a German - French/Russian arms race after France and Russia formed an alliance (Entente Cordial). It was the British policy for the continent called "Balance of Power" which escalated tensions. By default, the policy practically dictated that the continent's most powerful state/alliance would be "the enemy in war". This was determined by British politicians, in London, and nobody else can be blamed for this attitude, but British policy makers. German leaders therefore countered that, on the foundation of facts, which meant that "by default" (until the policy of Balance of Power changed) they were "the enemy" in the minds of British leaders When GB joined Russia and France, creating the Tripple Entente, this "naval arms race" was already in full swing. Obviously, German leaders then had to protect German ports from a potential blockade of THREE navies. British, Russian, and French. In other words, the German naval re-armament was an "effect" of previous actions (causality). Not a "cause" but an "effect" of previous events. The German leaders reacted to a potential threat (blockade). A confusion of "cause and effect", by simply pinning a "starting date" randomly on a timeline. "History" is being "sold" to us the wrong way, and it is easy to confuse people. Also, study the design parameters of the German ships built up to WW1. Note that they were close range, coast defence vessels without any *global reach.* (Google the difference between a "Blue Water Navy" and "Coast Defence i.e. "Brown--" or "Green Water Navies") The threat to the RN and the British Empire was the typical fear mongering by arms manufacturers, vying for funds for their particular industry.

Yo History Matters will you ever cover ancient history again, I absolutely loved your history of England series will you do others like it in the future? Like Greece, Persia, Egypt etc.

Yay! New video!

Germany: makes some boats Britain: wait that's illegal.

How awesome is the name "Dreadnought".

The little signs make these videos brilliant

Super video :).

1:36 " In the end, the Germans decided to slow down their naval program...just kidding, they started building dreadnoughts" 😂

Fun fact: de dreadnought was projected for the italian navy but the government refused so the guy who projected the ship presented the project in a british newspaper