عنوان

The rise of the German menace :

Number

TLets607238

Title Proper

The rise of the German menace :

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

Longson, Patrick Adam

Title Proper by Another Author

imperial anxiety and British popular culture, 1896-1903

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

University of Birmingham

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

2014

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

Ph.D.

Body granting the degree

University of Birmingham

Text preceding or following the note

2014

Text of Note

This dissertation argues that the idea of a German Menace was not simply a product of concerns about the defence of the British Isles, but rather it was born out of the mentality of British imperialism. Over the period 1896-1903, imperial antagonism between Germany and Britain, in various contexts around the globe, inspired the popular perception of the German Menace as a distinctly imperial threat. Where the established historiography locates the beginning of the Anglo-German rivalry within the development of the naval armaments race after 1904, this study traces the British fear of Germany much earlier and, crucially, much further away from the shores of the North Sea. The Dreadnought Race was a product of pre-existing anxieties; this thesis will explain the context of imperial anxiety out of which the coherent concept of the German Menace developed. It reveals how specific imperial crises informed British popular beliefs and how the stereotypes of German covetousness, autocracy and efficiency coalesced to form a powerful force in British society and politics that had reached its peak by 1903. By 1903 Germany was widely regarded as a menace to the British Empire.

D204 Modern History

DA Great Britain

DD Germany

Longson, Patrick Adam

University of Birmingham

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y