Weltpolitik

Weltpolitik, literally world policy, was a German foreign policy approach promoted mainly under Kaiser Wilhelm II in the 1890s and early 1900s. It marked a shift from the previous Bismarckian strategy of managing Europe through balance of power toward an effort to make Germany a global power capable of projecting influence beyond Europe, including overseas colonies, a stronger navy, and active international diplomacy.

The policy aimed to secure Germany’s prestige and political equivalence with other great powers by expanding overseas holdings, developing economic ties, and pursuing strategic relationships. Key elements included a substantial naval buildup under Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, with successive naval laws that broadened ship construction, and efforts to extend German influence in Africa, the Pacific, and Asia. Diplomatic initiatives sought closer ties with non-European powers and continued engagement with the Ottoman Empire, alongside projects such as the Berlin-Baghdad railway to connect Germany with its southern and eastern ambitions.

Weltpolitik intensified tensions with Britain and unsettled the European balance of power in the years before World War I, contributing to the naval arms race and rivalries among the great powers. Within Germany, support for the policy varied, with some praising its potential to elevate national status and others criticizing its costs and risks. After 1914, the outbreak of war overshadowed Luftpolitik’s aims, and historians continue to debate its role as a cause or symptom of broader imperial competition and the slide toward global conflict.