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.