Why a naval arms race had started with Germany in World War 1?

Answer 1

The arms race began because of the increasing aspirations of The German King, Kaiser Wilhelm II. he realized that England's colonial monopolies prevented Germany from expanding it's economic reach around the world and determined late in the 19th century to become a Colonial Empire of its own. Therefore they needed to build a Navy that could stand up to The British Royal Navy. when the British Built the Dreadnought in 1907 every other "battleship" immediately became obsolete, so all of the world's powers commenced to building All Big Gun Battleships so that their Navies would not become ineffective. England was forced to build as many "dreadnoughts" as she could to comply with her strategic imperative to have a navy capable of dealing with any two other of the world's most powerful navies, therefore the Building Race prior to 1914. France, Germany, Italy, Austria-Hungary, the U.S.A., Japan, and even the Ottoman Empire took to building them. Heck even countries like Brazil, Argentina, and Chile got in on the act. At the Start of WWI Germany had the world's second largest fleet of Dreadnoughts and was a significant threat to Britain's global Naval Superiority, however due to Germany not having direct access to the Atlantic Ocean, but only through the North Sea, put a huge restriction upon Germany's ability to effectively use their Navy to Challenge the British Fleet. Hence the British strategy of Blockading Germany's access to world markets and supplies, and Germany's subsequent loss of the war. The British blockade was only seriously challenged one time during the war , resulting in the Battle of Jutland in May of 1916, (which is technically a draw, but because of the British blockade not being broken was a strategic British victory). Therefore Germany had no other recourse but attempt to use other means to break the British blockade, i.e. U-boats. Unfortunately those tactics eventually lead to the U.S. entering the War on the allies side and dooming Germany to failure.