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The term German Empire (1871 - 1918) commonly refers to Germany in the period from the attainment of full national unity on 18 January 1871 to the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II on 9 November 1918. The official name of the state was Deutsches Reich , and remained so until the end of the Second World War even if, after the Nazi Germany incorporated Austria, the State took the name of Großdeutsches Reich.Sometimes the term Second Reich is also used, counting the Holy Roman Empire as the First Reich and Nazi Germany as the Third Reich.

After the unification of the country and the formation of the Empire in 1871, Germany began its attempts to create a colonial empire with a certain hesitation: Chancellor Bismarck, in fact, did not want to enter into competition with the British Empire and France , the two main colonial powers of the time.

The cautious attitude towards a colonial policy by Germany changed with the coming to power of the new emperor William II. So a real colonial empire was created in thirty years, especially with the so-called "Corsa all'Africa", during which Germany entered into competition with other European states for the conquest of unexplored territories.

The German colonial empire (Deutsche Kolonien und Schutzgebiete in German) was officially established in 1884.

Germany, however, had arrived late for the colonial race and had to settle for sparse colonies. The German policy in Africa, aimed at uniting in a single colonial construction the possessions of Cameroon, of South-West German Africa (now Namibia) and Tanganyika, was frustrated by the opposing policies of France and Great Britain.

The German defeat in the First World War, however, marked the end of Germany's colonial policy. In fact one of the most incisive consequences of the Treaty of Versailles was precisely the dissolution of the German colonial empire, which was redistributed as a mandate of the League of Nations among the winners of the war.

In 1938 with the annexation of Austria, Germany of the Third Reich began an expansionist policy that led to the Second World War.