That was the accident of her bad diplomacy.
The audaciousness of Prussian war conceptions began in the latter part of the last century.

They did not grow out of the war with the French in 1870, for Bismarck's legacy to the German nation was a warning against any war with Russia.

The German scheme was concocted by the successor of Bismarck himself, none other than Kaiser William II.

He planned a steady growth of German power that would first vanquish the Slav of southeastern Europe and give Germany control through Constantinople and Asia Minor to the Persian gulf; then, as opportunity arose, a crushing of France and repression of Russia; and the overthrow of the British empire; and then the end of the Monroe Doctrine, to be followed by American tariffs dictated from Germany.
This seems so audacious a program as to be almost beyond comprehension in America.

Yet it will be made clear in the next chapter..