The German Imperial Navy was the German navy created after the formation of the German Empire in 1871. It existed between 1871 and 1919. The Imperial Navy arose by uniting the already existing Navy of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Norddeutsche Bundesmarine, the Navy of the German Confederation of the North. Kaiser Wilhelm I maintained the Imperial Navy as a separate entity from the land army, but in practice army officers were employed to hold command positions in the navy until 1888, when such positions were exclusively in the hands of naval officers. Germany had the pretense of being an overseas colony power, and to achieve that goal it had to compete with very powerful navies, such as those of Great Britain and France.
C.) Germany built up there navy to compete with Britain with the introduction with the U-Boats which led to the sinking of the Lusitania then leading to WW1
