Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.Naval warfare in World War I was mainly characterized by the efforts of the Allied Powers, with their larger fleets and surrounding position, to blockade the Central Powers by sea, and the efforts of the Central Powers to break that blockade or to establish an effective blockade of the United Kingdom and France with submarines and raiders.The naval arms race between Britain and Germany to build dreadnought battleships in the early twentieth century is the subject of a number of books. Germany''s attempt to build a battleship fleet to match that of the United Kingdom, the dominant naval power on the nineteenth century and an island country that depended on seaborne trade for survival, is often listed as a major reason for the enmity between those two countries that led the UK to enter World War I. German leaders desired a navy in proportion to their military and economic strength that could free their overseas trade and colonial empire from dependence on Britain''s good will, but such a fleet would inevitably threaten Britain''s own trade and empire.