Why did the Great Powers get involved in an

arms race?
Instructions:
1. Take down the above title on a new page in your book.

2. Read Brooman p. 16 & 17. Use it to match up these key terms to their definitions. Once
you have found the correct match, write the word and definition into your book.
 Naval race  The German belief that Britain would be too
afraid of losing its navy to risk losing it in a war.
 Dreadnought  The attempt between 1906 and 1914 by Britain
and Germany to increase the size of their navies.
 The German Navy  An organisation that tried to encourage the
Law German people to take a more active interest in
the navy.
 Naval League  Britain’s fastest and most heavily armed new
warship.
 Risk Theory  The British plan to make the Royal Navy the size
of the next two strongest navies in Europe
 Two-Power Standard combined.
 This was a German law to build 41 new battleships
and 60 smaller cruisers.

3. Why was Germany so keen to build up its navy after the building of the British
Dreadnought?

4. Which of Germany’s key objectives would a larger navy help them to achieve? Why would
Britain be especially annoyed about this?

5. Choose which of the following words you think can be best applied to the arms and naval
races and justify your choice:

Reasonable, Desperate, Greed, Suspicion, Sensible, Fear, Stupidity, Provocative

Now choose a word of your own which you think could apply to the arms and naval race
and explain to someone else why you have chosen it.