Alliance System

I think that the alliance system made war more likely. I think this because if you have buddy countries, the more you have the more and more less likely it would be for somebody to start a war on you because they wouldnt just be declaring war on you but your buddy countries too. Also, your buddy countries would only help you if you had war declared on you, they wouldnt come and help fight with you if your declared war on another country and then needed help because you were the one who started it. So if you did have lots of strong buddys it still wouldnt make you any more likely to start a war.

Tirpitz Plan
The Tirpitz Plan, formulated by Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, was Germany's pre-World War I strategic aim to build the second largest navy in the world after the United Kingdom, thereby advancing itself as a world power. The British saw it not only as a challenge to its naval supremacy, but as a threat to its national survival (since the island of Britain was far from selfsufficient in food, and dependent on colonial resources); they responded in kind, sparking off an arms race. Germany responded to the plan with the Fleet Acts, which led to greater naval development.