Wilhelm II Causes

Miller Leaders of countries are ultimately supposed to be mindful of their subjects and want to improve their empire, but unfortunately some just want to compete for their own self gain and a higher status in society, which can ultimately cause the worst of consequences. Once said, ?Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.?[footnoteRef:0] Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany was one of many leaders who was not mindful of his subjects or the well being of his empire, but was worried about how he looked compared to other empires around him. This desire eventually caused him to be one of the many reasons World War I began. World War I, or the First World War, began in 1914 when Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman
Wilhelm found much interest in the British, who was an enemy, and tried to expand his German Empire so that it would be far more elaborate than the British empire. His extreme desire to do so caused him to focus on nothing but creating more suitable naval and army forces and become less focused on his empire and subjects as a whole. Wilhelm?s tendency of eagerness and his attempts at trying to find ways in which he could improve his empire to make it superior to others caused him to have conflicts with others around him. He even instigated countries to attack others in order to gain power for himself. The initial cause of World War I ultimately stemmed from Wilhelm?s encouragement of countries to attack others for his own gain, the desire to create better naval forces than the British, and his lack of respect for other countries. [0: ?Leader quotes.? brainyquote.com, n.d.,
Although many might think that his disrespectfulness was just because he was always a mean person, he actually was born into a family where respect was never shown to him, ultimately causing him to reciprocate this attitude toward other countries. His early years were spent with a military tutor, who did not even congratulate him when he would succeed and did not show any type of affection towards Wilhelm, even though he spent all of his time with this military tutor.[footnoteRef:9] The attitudes that were shown to Wilhelm II were all reflected back onto Wilhelm?s enemies and to the people surrounding him. To some, he was extremely racist, and he was even racist towards people who he did not even associate with creating bad terms with these people. He once called the individuals involved in the Boxer Rebellion cross-eyed chinese, which resulted in many people around the world beginning to not like Wilhelm II.[footnoteRef:10] These tensions that arose between the people who were not fond of Wilhelm II and he himself began to cause conflict in countries. His rude remarks influenced the start of World War I by giving others a reason to want to defeat Germany and the Kaiser himself. [9: J. Llewellyn et al, ?Kaiser Wilhelm II,? AlphaHistory.com, 2014, 10 May 2018. ] [10: