World War I/Imperialism

Imperialism

The natural corollary of economic nationalism was imperialism. The exploration of the nineteenth century had exhausted the unknown regions and now nations turned on each other. Germany aspired to win back the colonies lost in World War 1. Italy cast her eyes on Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) and Japan on China. The imperialism of the nineteenth century was a product of the Industrial Revolution. Increased production created the need for raw materials and increased markets, which led to the Scramble for Africa and colonial rivalries in Asia. These in turn, gave rise to a series of international crises. France and Germany. Kaiser William 2 raised imperial slogans like Berlin to Bagdad and the Germans claimed a "place in the sun". The Kaiser's project of the Berlin Baghdad Railway threatened Russian interests in the East. The Kiel Canal and German's efforts to rival England in naval power, the attened the latter's supremacy on the seas government as the murderer was a Slav. She sent an Ultimatum to Serbia did not agree to two points. Austria treated this as a refusal of the ultimatum and attacked Belgrade.