German Colonial Empire

William II wanted Germany to have its "place in the sun" like the British Empire and set Germany to begin colonial efforts in Africa and the Pacific ("new imperialism"). With much territory in Africa already colonized, Germany took the remaining territories, which formed German Southwest Africa (Namibia), German Kamerun (Cameroon), Togoland, and German East Africa (Tanzania). Germany gained some islands in the Pacific and the Chinese port of Qingdao, to compete with the British holding of Hong Kong and Portuguese holding of Macau. The African colonies had some economic return, but the Pacific colonies had little to no economic use, and only served to spread Germany's official presence. Germany, with the finance of Deutsche Bank, worked to create the Baghdad Railway with the cooperation of the Ottoman Empire with the intention to create a German port in the Middle East.^[21]The creation of the Baghdad Railway from 1900–1911 was initially supported by the United Kingdom, which believed that this would increase trade between their country and Germany. However, as time passed, the British increasingly saw the efforts as Germany attempting to expand its influence in the Middle East and demanded a block to the expansion of the railway in 1911; this demand was accepted by Germany and the Ottoman Empire. The colonial efforts were opposed by Bismarck and his supporters, who favoured Germany gaining international power through dominating Europe and creating a German "Mitteleuropa" (Middle Europe) through taking land from the Russian Empire, which would provide Germany with sufficient economic resources and land to exploit at the cost of non-German population. William's efforts to colonize the few remaining territories in Africa and the Pacific would come under criticism by German nationalists and later future Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, for having missed the opportunity to create a fully European-based German empire.

German colonialism under William II put Germany in conflict and risk of conflict on a number of occasions, the first during the Boxer Rebellion in Qingdao, Chinese civilians protested against the German presence in which Wilhelm demanded a swift response saying that the Chinese must be forced to remember German brute power in the same way as others remembered the Huns, a statement which would later be used by war opponents to mock Germany during World War I and World War II. On two occasions, Germany nearly went to war with France over the fate of Morocco.

German colonialism also resulted in the Herero and Namaqua Genocide in German Southwest Africa. Upon taking Southwest Africa, German settlers were encouraged to settle on land held by Herero and Nama tribes, in order to displace them. The Herero and the Nama people were then being used as slave labour, while their land was pillaged for resources, particularly for diamonds, by the German colonists. In 1903 and 1904, the Herero and the Nama revolted against the colonists in Southwest Africa. In response to the attacks, General Lothar von Trotha was dispatched to quell the uprising. In total, some 65,000 Herero (80 percent of the total Herero population), and 10,000 Nama (50 percent of the total Nama population) perished. The genocide was directed specifically at eliminating Herero and Nama from German Southwest Africa out of fear of more revolts destabilizing Germany's East African colony and endangering its colonists. Imperial Germany's actions did not expand to all non-whites within its boundaries, for a number of native Africans had become German colonial soldiers, called Askaris. The United Nations officially condemned the genocide in 1985, followed in 2004 by the acceptance and condemnation by the German government of the actions of the German Empire which caused the genocide.

Germany's belligerence towards France, and Germany's support of its ally Austria-Hungary's occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908, caused Germany to lose previously good relations with Russia, and the potential for an alliance with Britain evaporated, as Britain followed the Russian monarchy's opposition to Germany's aggression and set aside differences with France. By 1914, Wilhelm's foreign policy left Germany isolated with one loyal ally, Austria-Hungary, largely dependent on German support to protect its declining power due to ethnic nationalism across its heterogeneous empire. Germany's other official ally, the Kingdom of Italy had grown increasingly lukewarm and indifferent to Germany, remained an ally only on paper, and saw more benefit in entering into an alliance which could take back Italian-populated territories from Austria-Hungary.