Imperial Germany

From the turn of the 20th century, Imperial Germany was the most formidable empire in Europe. Her army was the greatest in number, strength, and discipline. As a result, it was no surprise that the Germans called it the Great War, with the confidence that they would conquer and defeat the whole of Europe quickly. Just as the Central Powers’ success depended on the strength of Germany, the Allies depended on Britain, the nation that served as the armourer and financier, driven by her sea control over commerce and trade. Immediately after the war began, it became clear that for an Axis victory to take place, Germany had to defeat Britain. As an alternative, a blockade was imposed on Germany and her allies, leading to several outcomes, many of

In reality, the proposed solutions actually hurt the people more than it helped them. The people who were hit hardest with the shortage of real food and abundance of substitutes were the city people. Farmers and other country folk were able to provide for themselves with their large plots of land. With supply low and demand high, prices skyrocketed almost immediately. To prevent profiteering, the government attempted to control the market by fixing prices at the point of production. This drove all producers out of the market, worsening the problem as there were even fewer sources of crops and livestock. Food that wasn’t regulated, like butter and cheese, were produced rapidly and excessively as this was the only way for farmers to actually profit from selling their produce. In early 1915, potato shortages were believed to be caused by the costliness of owning pigs (which consumed potatoes), an initially abundant livestock. The attempted solution was the pig massacre, which quickly decreased prices in the massive amount of supply, just to have prices skyrocket once again from a shortage of pork. The cost of other livestock also increased, as people turned to other animals for meat consumption. Right after the massacre, the Imperial Potato Office announced that

However, the British fleet, far outnumbering the German one, had far more superior guns and better radio intelligence. Thus, the German fleet avoided direct naval confrontations with the British, but attempted to slowly sink ships with mines, and torpedoes. The increasingly daring German naval officers sent a battlecruiser squadron to lure out the ships of Vice-Admiral David Beatty in 1916, but resulted in a massive sea battle involving the entire fleets of the two nations, known as the Battle of Jutland. After over 24 hours of fighting in day and night, the Germans retreated back to Horns Reef, protected from the British Royal Navy. The result of the battle was inconclusive, but the massive scale and the thousands of casualties convinced the Germans that reducing the British Navy’s numerical advantage this way could not work. While the Germans destroyed more British ships and escaped with half as many casualties, if the intelligence and communications office successfully relayed the information to the British, the quantitative advantage of firepower would have overwhelmed the