Between 1884 and 1899, the German empire acquired colonies in Africa, in north-eastern China and in the Pacific. By the end of the process it was the fourth-largest European empire. For a long time such a development had seemed very unlikely. Chancellor Bismarck, in particular, had declared his opposition to the acquisition of colonies on many occasions, because he felt they involved immeasurable risks for both Germany’s foreign policy and its finances. ‘For as long as I remain Chancellor’, he declared as late as 1881, ‘we will not become involved in colonialism’. (see Illustration 3.) Given this background, the question of most interest to historians was for many years: why did Bismarck change his mind in 1884? Explanations offered include psychological interpretations of the desire of the ‘Iron Chancellor’ for expansion, responses to the power of public pressure, and a desire to create a conflict with England with the intention of frustrating the policies that Friedrich III, next in line to the imperial throne, and believed to be a liberal Anglophile, was expected to pursue. The most prevalent view taken, however, was that Bismarck was attempting to bring his country closer to France; he hoped that shared colonial interests in expanding and preventing English supremacy would prevent France from plotting revenge against Germany. By contrast, the theory of ‘social imperialism’ proposed by historians like Hans-Ulrich Wehler denied the primacy of foreign policy and focused on economic policy and, most importantly, on the goal of redirecting domestic social tensions to the colonies.