William I (a.k.a. Wilhelm I), Emperor of Germany, died in 1888. (He was the guy crowned in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles after the Franco-Prussian War). William I's son, Frederick III, died a few months after succeeding to title of emperor. William I's grandson/Frederick III's son, William II (a.k.a. Wilhelm II), succeeded to the throne in 1888. He is called Kaiser (German-ization of Caesar) Wilhelm II. He wanted to run the country himself. He fires Bismarck (master strategist) cuz Wilhelm II wanted to run things himself. Bismarck dies in 1898. Germany was becoming industrialized. By 1914, 60% of Germany's people lived in the cities. They were especially big in arms manufacturing. Kaiser was a "manly man." He is bright and boastful. He had a middle school sense of humor, liked soldiers, and admired England. He gave a lot of speeches. He began building a big new navy, which made England rather nervous. The German Dreadnought ("Fear Not") was a new class of battleship which made the ships in the English navy obsolete. There has been a naval revolution which make the old ships look like nothing. The new ships had revolving gun turrets on deck.
Imperialism (desire to capture colonies, thereby making a country an "empire"–this is the political system in which a mother country has colonies) is the system at this time period. The old way was when a country would go out and catch some colonies. They picked up fast profits but looked bad in the long run. North and South America broke away from their "mother countries." France never made money on their colonies (Canada, etc.). Around the 1870's, there was a great colonial fervor to colonize the rest of the world for new markets for the mother country's goods and to acquire much-needed raw materials from captured nations. Loser nations want a nice images and having colonies brings a bit of prestige. So, colonial fever is on. Everyone is trying to snatch up and colonize "lesser" (Read: non-European) countries. The idealists were in favor of new colonies, too. Dr. David Livingstone (1813-1873) was a Scottish physician/missionary/explorer who wanted to preach the gospel to try to uplift the African peoples and stop the slave trade. Henry Stanley was the journalist/explorer made famous for finding Dr. Livingstone in 1871 (who was presumed lost) in East Africa and greeting him with, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" Livingstone and Stanley's activities lead to what comes to be called the "Scramble for Africa." Loser nations were trying to get colonies to make themselves look better. Private citizens were claiming territories for their mother countries (Cecil Rhodes claimed Rhodesia, which was named for him in 1894–he is the guy who brought about the Rhodes Scholarship, by the way). Countries were looking at maps, trying to decide where they could conquer to get manpower and natural resources. People were tired of peace, so they went off and conquered land. In the long run, imperialism wasn't so neat. Africa was totally explored and cut up into pieces in 20 years (approximately 1880-1900). The Europeans really messed up the tribes. They split tribes and kept warring tribes in the same colonies, which is just asking for trouble. European nations don't know much about Africa. New diseases kill Europeans.
There was lots of island-collecting in the Pacific, too. Islands are neat to keep people away from your country. Navies want islands for coaling stations for wartime (the hold of warship is all coal to boil water for power–takes a lot of coal to boil water, so they need stations to keep coal so they won't have to turn around). Islands are also neat because of coconuts. Russia and the United States are the two superpowers by the 1950's because both nations are so large and rich in resources.
"The Flag Follows the Cross" is what happens when missionaries go into an area to try to convert the vulnerable native peoples (native children, vulnerable natives, etc.). Parents get upset and the government throw the missionaries in jail. The missionary's mother country gets mad and declares war on the nation, wins the war (inevitably the mother country has more sophisticated weaponry, etc.), and has a new colony!! For some reason, Christians kept feeling the need to go out and convert others. They'd send out missionaries to some poor unfortunates (The Cross going out). A missionary would take his whole lifestyle with him. He would mess up the culture of the "heathens." Pretty soon the pagan governments would grow tired of the missionary making trouble and would jail or kill the missionary. The home government would find out and send in a few Marines who would just happen to conquer the entire country (oops!). That's how France came to own all of Southeast Asia with the French Catholic missionaries leading the Cross in. Newspapers like getting colonies through this wars–it makes exciting news stories. It is also good for business at home–need to build weaponry, make uniforms, etc. In the end, imperialism in this time period is pretty much a bust. By about 1900, Imperialism was over.
Japan was a very isolationist country. They had been closed to foreigners since the 17th Century. They were not receptive to Christianity or Western ways and eventually kicked out all foreigners. Commodore Matthew Perry of the United States "opened up" Japan in 1853-1854 by threatening to blow Japan away if they refused to trade with us. Japan decides to catch up. Japan started copying Western ideas and start collecting colonies like mad. They went out and captured Manchuria and Korea. This starts to make the U.S. nervous. Essentially, we made a monster of Japan by forcing our ideas on them. The Japanese bought into Western imperialism.
Trouble is brewing. Germany has a definite treaty with Austria and Russia. Austria hates Russia and vice versa because of the Balkans (then in the Ottoman Empire). The Ottoman Turks owned the Balkans (modern-day Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Yugoslavia which includes Serbia and Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, and European Turkey). But they couldn't control them. The Ottomans eventually get out of the Balkans, but then there are a lot of little independent nations to be influenced. The Balkan peoples were the same ethnic types (mostly) as Russians (Slavic). Russia wanted to control the Dardanelles (straits in Northwestern Turkey which connects the Aegean Sea and the Sea of Marmara) so they could get out to the Black Sea. Russians want to help Balkans because the Balkans are physically close to Russia and contain a majority of similar (Slavic) people. Plus, Russia really wants the Dardanelles. Austrians are worried about the Serbs. Serbs hate Austrians cause the Austrians won't let the Serbs have a seaport. Russia and Austria keep butting heads over the Balkans. The Germans, though they have a treaty with both Austria and Russia, take Austria's side. Russia feels isolated and paranoid about the Western powers picking on it. France hates Germany because of the Franco-Prussian War and Wilhelm I going into the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles and so on. Russia makes a treaty with France, making the possibility of a two-front war for Germany (which worries Germany, of course). England is worried about the German navy, so England joins France and Italy hooks up with Austria. The Triple Alliance is made up of Germany, Austria, and Italy, which makes up the strip in the middle of Europe. The Triple Entente is made up of England, France, and Russia. "Entente" means "agreement" in French.