The poster to the left is likely British propaganda in origin as it is written in English and looks to be drawn in a western art style. It shows Kaiser Wilhelm in with the sun in the background with characters depicting the countries of the world bowing to him.
Kaiser Wilhelm had a feverish imperialist and expansionist policy which brought him into conflict with his chancellor, Otto von Bismarck who had once said when discussing Africa with a colleague, "Your map of Africa is really quite nice. But my map of Africa lies in Europe. Here is Russia, and here... is France, and we're in the middle — that's my map of Africa." Obviously Bismarck was not as concerned about imperialist ventures as about the security of the relatively new German Empire. Due to this difference in opinion, Wilhelm dismissed Bismarck (who had tried to maintain relative peace after unifying the German Empire in 1871) and pursued his imperialist ventures, plunging full steam ahead into World War One. (Back to lesson) |