“The poor French…They have not read their Mahan!”

— Wilhelm II, German Emperor

On France's diplomatic retreat from war with Britain during the Fashoda Incident (1898), quoted in Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery (London: Penguin, 2004), p. 206
1890s

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Wilhelm II, German Emperor64

German Emperor and King of Prussia 1859–1941

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“The poor French…They have not read their Mahan!”

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