Anglo - German naval arms race The Anglo – German naval arms race of the early 20th century preceded and was one of the several intertwined causes for the First World War . There were also other naval buildups in several other countries which were emerging as great power s , such as the United States and Japan , and in South America . The United Kingdom had the biggest navy in the world and so in accord with Wilhelm II ’ s enthusiasm for an expanded German navy , and his own strong desires , Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz , Secretary of State of the German Imperial Naval Office , championed four Fleet Acts between 1898 and 1912 to greatly expand the German High Seas Fleet . The German aim was to build a fleet that would be 2 / 3 the size of the British navy . This plan was sparked by the threat of the British Foreign Office in March 1897 , after the British invasion of Transvaal that started the Boer War , to blockade the German coast and thereby cripple the German economy , if Germany would intervene in the conflict in Transvaal . From 1905 on the British navy developed plans for such a blockade that was a central part of British strategy . In reaction to this challenge to their naval supremacy , from 1902 to 1910 , the British Royal Navy embarked on its own massive expansion to keep ahead of the Germans . This competition came to focus on the revolutionary new ships based on , which was launched in 1906 . By 1913 , there was intense internal debate about new ships due to the growing influence of John Fisher ' s ideas and increasing financial constraints . It is now generally accepted by historians that in early - mid 1914 the Germans adopted a policy of building submarines instead of new dreadnoughts and destroyers , effectively abandoning the two power standard , but kept this new policy secret so that other powers would be delayed in following suit . The naval race between Britain and Germany generated huge public support on each side . In the midst of the race , the British public coined the slogan ' We want eight and we won ' t wait ! ' , referring to the number of dreadnoughts they wanted the government to build . With the surge of public support , the government did commission more shipbuilding . British defence policy was to ensure that the British navy was at least the size of the next two largest navies as outlined in the Two Power Standard . This was not the case as the war approached , thanks to financial and logistical constraints , and due to the speed of expansion of the German navy and the US Navy . Britain did , however , boast the largest and mightiest navy when war broke out in 1914 . Britain managed to build Dreadnought in just 14 months and by the start of the First World War Britain had 49 battleships , compared with Germany ' s 29 . Although the naval race as such was abandoned by the Germans before the war broke out , it had been one of the chief factors in the United Kingdom joining the Triple Entente , and therefore important in the formation of the alliance system as a whole . In 1912 the German chancellor Bethmann Hollweg ended the naval arms race . His aim was to secure an understanding with the British to end the more and more isolated position of Germany . Besides , the increasing size of the Russian army compelled the Germans to spend more money on their army and - therefore - less on the navy . This initiative led to the Haldane mission . Germany proposed a treaty in which Germany would accept British naval superiority in exchange of a British neutrality in a war in which Germany could not be said to be the aggressor . This proposal was rejected by Britain . For Britain there was nothing to gain by such a treaty , since their naval superiority was already secure . Besides , the British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey favoured a more assertive policy toward Germany