"You English are mad, mad, mad as March hares. What has come over you that you are so completely given over to suspicions quite unworthy of a great nation? . . . I have said time and after time that I am a friend of England . . . but your press especially, and a large number of your people, interpret my actions as hostile. My task is not easy, for the prevailing sentiment among large sections of the middle and lower classes of my own country is not friendly to England. But I must protect Germany’s growing trade and worldwide commerce, and for that, we require a fleet. Only a large navy can secure our empire’s place across the seas."
—Kaiser Wilhelm II, German Emperor, interview published in the British newspaper *The Daily Telegraph*, 1908
Which of the following pre-1914 developments is best illustrated by the Kaiser's explanation of Germany's naval build-up in the passage?
- The ways in which imperialist competition and commercial expansion drove the growth of militarism.Cevap
- BThe collapse of diplomatic balance following the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne.
- CThe establishment of the mandate system to transition former German colonies to British control.
- DThe global adoption of mercantilist policies to replace industrial capitalist trading practices.