In order to conquer far-away places on different continents, imperial powers built large armies and navies and the cultures valued fighting. This is called "militarism". Countries spent large amounts of money in a short amount of time to build these armies. In the early 1900s, Britain's navy was the biggest. This made their traditional rival, Germany want to make a big navy too. When Britain launched a new kind of ship called the Dreadnought, Germany launched their own version of the Dreadnought to compete with Britain.