Wilhelm II wanted Germany to have her "
place in the sun", not unlike the British with whom he constantly wished to compete and often emulate. With German traders and merchants already engaged world-wide, he encouraged colonial efforts in Africa and the Pacific ("
new imperialism"), in essence for the German Empire to stand up to other European powers for the remaining “unclaimed” territories. Germany acquired
German Southwest Africa (todays
Namibia),
German Kamerun (
Cameroon),
Togoland, and
German East Africa (the mainland part of current
Tanzania). Islands were gained in the Pacific through purchase and treaties, as well as a 99-year lease for the territory of
Kiautschou in north east China. Only Togoland and
German Samoa (after 1908) became self-sufficient and profitable, all other territories required subsidies from the Berlin treasury for building infrastructure, school systems, hospitals and other institutions. With the financial backing of
Deutsche Bank, the
Baghdad Railway was constructed with the cooperation of the
Ottoman Empire with the intention of gaining a foothold in the Middle East.
[19] In an interview with Wilhelm II in 1899,
Cecil Rhodes had tried “to convince the Kaiser that the future of the German empire abroad lay in the Middle East” and not in Africa; with a grand Middle-Eastern empire Germany could grant Britain the unhindered completion of her Cape to Cairo pursuits.
[20] Building the Baghdad Railway from 1900–1911 was initially supported by the United Kingdom. However, as time passed, the British increasingly saw Germany as a vigorous competitor in the region where it believed it alone should dominate and demanded retrenchment, a block to the expansion of the railway in 1911; this demand was acquiesced to by Germany and the Ottoman Empire.