During the time before the Great War, Europe was a continent broken up with many nations each holding a fierce sense of national pride. Tensions between the nations meant that alliances were formed to strengthen their power and to find a friend with a common purpose. Colonisation of other areas led to more tension as the fight for the bigger empire was on. As all this was taking place on a large scale, each of the nations was full of people wanting to go to war to prove their manhood and feel as though they were achieving the will of God. Self-determination also played a large part in the break down of the alliances between the great powers of Europe. .
The way the empires of Old Europe were structured was one of the beginning forces behind the Great War and one of the many reasons why the alliances failed to preserve the peace in the area. Each of the nations had their own agenda to look after and had to create firm friends with the other nations to avoid weakness. Germany had always been worried about the threat of war on two fronts from France and Russia, and so created a series of alliances with all the mainland nations to feel safe from the threat of war. These alliances made Germany overconfident and they believed the war could be won. At the same time, Britain was a large empire, stretching far over the entire world, her colonies making her rich. Britain's hesitant nature towards forming alliances and revealing their intentions if a war was to break out led to them being distrusted by the other nations as they felt threatened by this large empire. However, Wilhelm soon realized that the French and the British would not fight but would still support each other. The situation in Tangier allowed Wilhelm to test the power of the alliances between Britain and France when he sent in his troops to break up what he saw as a French invasion of Morocco. Britain and France decided against war with Germany and the French were given special rights to Morocco but not allowed to take over.