<P> Germany was hardly a colonial power before the New Imperialism period, but would eagerly participate in this race . Fragmented in various states, Germany was only unified under Prussia's rule after the 1866 Battle of Königgrätz and the 1870 Franco - Prussian War . A rising industrial power close on the heels of Britain, Germany began its world expansion in the 1880s . After isolating France by the Dual Alliance with Austria - Hungary and then the 1882 Triple Alliance with Italy, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck proposed the 1884--85 Berlin Conference, which set the rules of effective control of a foreign territory . Weltpolitik (world policy) was the foreign policy adopted by Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1890, with the aim of transforming Germany into a global power through aggressive diplomacy, the acquisition of overseas colonies, and the development of a large navy . </P> <P> Some Germans, claiming themselves of Friedrich List's thought, advocated expansion in the Philippines and Timor; others proposed to set themselves up in Formosa (modern Taiwan), etc . At the end of the 1870s, these isolated voices began to be relayed by a real imperialist policy, backed by mercantilist thesis . In 1881, Hübbe - Schleiden, a lawyer, published Deutsche Kolonisation, according to which the "development of national consciousness demanded an independent overseas policy". Pan-Germanism was thus linked to the young nation's imperialist drives . In the beginning of the 1880s, the Deutscher Kolonialverein was created, and got its own magazine in 1884, the Kolonialzeitung . This colonial lobby was also relayed by the nationalist Alldeutscher Verband . Generally, Bismarck was opposed to widespread German colonialism, but he had to resign at the insistence of the new German Emperor Wilhelm II on 18 March 1890 . Wilhelm II instead adopted a very aggressive policy of colonisation and colonial expansion . </P> <P> Germany's expansionism would lead to the Tirpitz Plan, implemented by Admiral von Tirpitz, who would also champion the various Fleet Acts starting in 1898, thus engaging in an arms race with Britain . By 1914, they had given Germany the second - largest naval force in the world (roughly three - fifths the size of the Royal Navy). According to von Tirpitz, this aggressive naval policy was supported by the National Liberal Party rather than by the conservatives, implying that imperialism was supported by the rising middle classes . </P> <P> Germany became the third - largest colonial power in Africa . Nearly all of its overall empire of 2.6 million square kilometres and 14 million colonial subjects in 1914 was found in its African possessions of Southwest Africa, Togoland, the Cameroons, and Tanganyika . Following the 1904 Entente cordiale between France and the British Empire, Germany tried to isolate France in 1905 with the First Moroccan Crisis . This led to the 1905 Algeciras Conference, in which France's influence on Morocco was compensated by the exchange of other territories, and then to the Agadir Crisis in 1911 . Along with the 1898 Fashoda Incident between France and Britain, this succession of international crises reveals the bitterness of the struggle between the various imperialist nations, which ultimately led to World War I . </P>

African states of independence - the scramble for africa summary