Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/806

 602 General History oj Europe 1093. The Naval Ambition of Germany. Germany was jealous of England's numerous colonies and extensive trade. She was eager to capture much of this commerce for herself and to protect it by a powerful fleet. Kaiser William II repeatedly de- clared that Germany's future lay upon the ocean. After 1897 the German navy was built up so rapidly that it became a menace to the peace and security of other nations, and they, for protection, had to increase their navies. So to the crushing cost of armies European nations added the cost of navies, in which the rapid progress of invention made battleships almost worthless if they were but a few years old. II. MOVEMENTS FOR PEACE: THE HAGUE CONFERENCES 1094. The Hague Conferences (1399, 1907). The enormous cost of armaments and the increasing horror of war led many earnest people to try to prevent war altogether. The first notable movement toward arranging for a lessening of armaments origi- nated with the Tsar, Nicholas II. In 1898 he proposed a great conference of the powers at The Hague to consider how the exist- ing peace might be maintained and military expenditures reduced. The Hague Conference did nothing to limit armaments. It is significant in view of later events that Germany strongly and successfully opposed any such action. The Conference did, how- ever, in spite of German opposition, establish a* permanent Court of Arbitration to which difficulties arising between nations "in- volving neither honor nor vital interests" might be submitted. But there was no way of compelling a nation to submit its griev- ances, and just those very sources of war that make most trouble were excluded from consideration. At the second conference, held in 1907, the limitation of armaments was again advocated by England, but again Germany and Austria caused a postponement of any action on the question. However, certain rules were estab- lished in regard to laying mines, the bombardment of unfortified towns, and the rights of neutrals in war, to which little or no at- tention was paid by Germany after the war began.