Wilhelm, Ii

Kaiser Wilhelm II, a chief architect and player of the game that was World War I, will always receive some blame for The Great War. Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert was born in 1859 and was the product of two of the most recognizable families in Europe. Through his mother, Victoria, he was the grandson of Queen Victoria, who ruled Great Britain and its Empire from 1837 until her death in 1901. On his father's side, King Frederick III, he could trace his descent through the great Hohenzollern dynasty. Wilhelm's mother, the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria, was a strong-willed, ambitious woman who controlled her husband, Friedrich Wilhelm, the crown prince of Prussia. She never liked Prussia because of its political system . Prussia was an absolute monarchy rather than a constitutional monarchy as her homeland's England was. She never was cautious to criticize Berlin. Wilhelm was her first child, and she was deeply dissatisfied that he was born with an imperfect left arm. The baby's helpless condition led his parents to peruse many medical options, to no benefit. Wilhelm's arm proved to be permanently paralyzed, and when matured, Wilhelm's arm was withered and about four inches shorter than his powerful right arm.

Wilhelm was a military man from his first days. He was educated by a tutor and began military training as a young child. When Wilhelm was ten, he was made a second lieutenant in the army. In 1877, at the age of eighteen, he entered active duty in the army, but served for only a year. Later in the year he entered the University of Bonn and was promoted to first lieutenant. In early 1888, upon the death of Wilhelm I, Crown Prince Friedrich became King of Prussia and Kaiser of the German state. He reigned only a few months before dying of throat cancer. On June 15, Wilhelm succeeded his father as Kaiser Wilhelm II. The new emperor seemed determined to take full control of the German Empire. He was supported by his admiring subjects, who were captivated by his powerful speeches about finding Germany's "place in the sun." He was, nevertheless, a hesitant and uncertain ruler, occasionally given to unreasonable behavior aimed more at satisfying his ambitions than aiding his country.

Otto Von Bismarck was a diplomatic genius who had engineered the wars that had resulted in 1871 in the creation of the German Empire under the King of Prussia, and it was he who had written the constitution that gave to the emperor his vast powers. Bismarck was also person of great egotism and willpower, and he had intimidated the two previous emperors so much that they had effectively let him govern the German Empire . Wilhelm II, who was over 40 years younger than Bismarck, had too much pride and vanity to allow him to be ordered about. Although Bismarck realized how arrogant Wilhelm was, he believed that he could also intimidate the young emperor by threatening to resign if he could not have his way, the same way he bossed around the previous Kaisers. Wilhelm accredited Bismarck's role in the creation of the German Empire, but he was firm to rule himself. In March 1890, to Bismarck's great surprise, Wilhelm accepted the resignation the chancellor submitted during one of their fights over policy, declaring that he would now rule Germany himself. "Full steam ahead," Wilhelm arrogantly declared .

Unfortunately Wilhelm was intellectually unsuited to his high office. He had little interest in hard work, greatly preferring military parades, hunts, and trips to visit his contemporaries, as he called his fellow sovereigns. Wilhelm liked or disliked people according to their willingness to fulfill his wishes, and his entourage therefore was composed largely of mediocre men who toadied to him. Bismarck's successors as prime minister only as long as they were prepared to do the Kaiser's bidding, and when they became too opinionated, they were dismissed in favor of more pliable men. Wilhelm's interests lay mainly in political and military affairs; the rest he left to his underlings. It was thus that the Kaiser's input to the development of Germany was for the most part in relations with other powers and in building up the homeland's armed forces. In both areas, Wilhelm's influence was unsuccessful.

As a diplomat, Wilhelm, anxious to win favor with the British and the Russians, but neither in London nor in St. Petersburg did he have any success. The British royal family thoroughly disapproved of their German kinsman because they resented Wilhelm's dislike of his English mother, to whom Queen Victoria and the future king Edward VII were closely related and much attached . On visits to England, Wilhelm was often ill behaved, claiming that neither his relatives nor statesmen in London appreciated his talents or his desire to improve Anglo-German relations. As the Kaiser often admitted, he could not bear to be taken lightly or to be treated mockingly, and what he saw as England's unappreciative behavior greatly annoyed him . In Russia, the same unfortunate situation occurred. Tsar Alexander III, who ruled from 1881 to 1894, thought that Wilhelm was mentally deranged, an opinion shared by the tsar's son Nicholas II, the last Russian monarch, who was murdered in 1918 . The effect of Wilhelm II's awkward diplomacy was not only to estrange both of these powers from Germany but to lead them to overcome their many differences.

. In Wilhelm II's opinion, Germany, as the wealthiest nation on the European continent, had a right to play an important part in world affairs. He was convinced that Great Britain resented this ambition and for that reason had rejected his overtures of friendship. His bitterness was grand; although it never occurred to him that his own personality was largely responsible for British suspicion of Germany. Great Britain therefore had to be forced to pay attention to Wilhelm II and to Germany, and the only means through which this could be accomplished was military power. Germany had the most powerful proficient army in all Europe, but that alone could not challenge Britain, whose power was built upon a worldwide empire . What the Fatherland lacked was a navy fleet, and the Kaiser was certain that with a great German navy the British would be forced to pay him, and his country, the respect that was their due .

It was from this a personal motive evolved in Wilhelm II. He began the construction of a powerful German navy. This he started in 1898, and by 1914 Germany's naval power had become second only to that of Great Britain. From the British perspective, the construction of a Germany navy was one composed of heavy battleships which had a main purpose to fight and defeat Britain's navy. The response in London was to build more warships, after the turn of the century Germany and Great Britain became locked