Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Hui, Alexandra E.

Committee Member

Marcus, Alan I.

Committee Member

Uzoigwe, Godfrey N.

Committee Member

Damms, Richard V.

Date of Degree

5-11-2013

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

Major

History

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of History

Abstract

This is an exploration of the effects of the press on British and German foreign policy between 1876 and 1906. The dissertation considers the growing influence of the press on Anglo-German relations. Historians have provided discussions of how domestic presses can affect their home governments. This dissertation adds to that by analyzing the consequences of the debates between the British and German presses on their governments’ foreign policy. The possibility for Anglo-German cooperation during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries receives significant interest due to debates regarding the origins of World War I. The reasons put forth by historians for the inability to conclude an Anglo-German agreement despite similar interests during this period include the volatility of Wilhelm II’s personality, the growth of the German navy, and the expansion of the German empire. I add to this discussion by analyzing how the British and German presses’ opinions increasingly inhibited Anglo-German diplomacy. In this analysis, I use six journals, representing the ‘official’ (London Times, Kölnische Zeitung), ‘semi-official’ (Pall Mall Gazette, Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung), and satirical (Punch, Kladderadatsch) segments of the British and German presses. I begin with a discussion of the two presses during the Near East Crisis (1876- 1878). During this period, the presses expressed growing interest in international affairs, prompting more concerns with how their governments dealt with other Great Powers. Following this discussion, I consider the effects of colonial competition in Africa between 1878 and 1896 on the diplomatic relations of Great Britain, France, and Germany. This is necessary to establish the background for the final section of the dissertation. The last part of the dissertation explores the British and German presses’ responses to each other between the Jameson Raid and the Algeciras Conference. It is during this later period, when British and German imperial interests conflicted, and when the Russian threat dissolved for Great Britain, that the final efforts for rapprochement between the two governments failed, leading to permanent estrangement. The British and German presses had a significant role in causing this separation, by using their articles to expand the distrust already existent between their governments.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/20532

Comments

diplomacy||Great Britain||Germany||press

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