is
administration, the Naval Bill of 1900, passed in a heat of anglophobia
aroused by the Boer War, doubled the program of 1898, and contained
ingenious provisions by which the Reichstag was bound to steady
increases covering a long period of years, and by which the Navy
Department was empowered to replace worthless old craft, after 20
or 25 years' service, with new ships of the largest size. As the
armament race grew keener, this act was amended in the direction
of further increases, but its program was never cut down.

International crises and realignments marked the growing tension of
these years. In 1905 England extended for ten years her understanding
with Japan. By the _Entente Cordiale_ with France in 1904 and a
later settlement of outstanding difficulties with Russia, she also
practically changed the Dual Alliance into a Triple Entente, though
without positively binding herself to assistance in war. To the
agreement of 1904 by which England and France assured each other
a free hand in Egypt and Morocco, respectively, the Kaiser raised
strenuous objections, and forced the resignation of the anglophile
French Foreign Minister, Delcasse; but at the Algeciras Convention
of 1906, assembled to settle the Morocco question, Germany and
Austria stood virtually alone. Even the American delegates, sent
by President Roosevelt at the Kaiser's invitation, voted generally
with the Western Powers. When Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina
in 1909, the Kaiser shook the mailed fist to better effect than at
Algeciras, with the result that Russia had to accept this extension
of Austro-German influence in the Balkan sphere. Still again two years
later, when the German cruiser _Panther_ made moves to establish a
base at Agadir on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, Europe approached
the verge of war; but Germany found the financial situation against
her, backed down, and eventually took a strip of land on the Congo
in liquidation of her Morocco claims.

For all her resolute saber-rattling in these years, Germany found
herself checkmated in almost every move. The Monroe Doctrine, for
which the United States showed willingness to fight in the Venezuela
affair of 1902, balked her schemes in the New World. In the Far
East she faced Japan; in Africa, British sea power. A "_Drang nach
Osten_," through the Balkans and Turkey toward Asia Minor, offered
on the whole the best promise; and it was in this quarter that
Austria's violent demands u