 In his second visit, Wilhelm secured a promise for German companies to construct the Berlin-Baghdad railway, and had the German Fountain constructed in Istanbul to commemorate his journey.His third visit was on 15 October 1917, as the guest of Sultan Mehmed V.

The Boxer rebellion, an anti-western uprising in China, was put down in 1900 by an international force of British, French, Russian, Austrian, Italian, American, Japanese, and German troops.The Germans, however, forfeited any prestige that they might have gained for their participation by arriving only after the British and Japanese forces had taken Peking, the site of the fiercest fighting.