SMS Kaiser Barbarossa with of armor plating, and the secondary casemates received of armor protection. Kaiser Wilhelm II, the Emperor of Germany, believed that a strong navy was necessary for the country to expand its influence outside continental Europe. As a result, he initiated a program of naval expansion in the late 1880s; the first battleships built under this program were the four "Brandenburg"-class ships. These were immediately followed by the five "Kaiser Friedrich III"-class battleships, of which "Kaiser Barbarossa" was a member. "Kaiser Barbarossa"s keel was laid down on 3 August 1898, at the Schichau-Werke in Danzig, under construction number 640. She
Kaiser-Wilhelmsland Kaiser-Wilhelmsland Kaiser-Wilhelmsland formed part of German New Guinea (German: "Deutsch-Neuguinea"), the South Pacific protectorate of the German Empire. Named in honour of Wilhelm I, who reigned as German Emperor ("Kaiser") from 1871 to 1888, it included the northern part of present-day Papua New Guinea. From 1884 until 1920 the territory was a protectorate () of the German Empire. Kaiser-Wilhelmsland, the Bismarck Archipelago (including New Mecklenburg and New Pomerania), the northern Solomon Islands, the Caroline Islands, Palau, Nauru, the Mariana Islands, and the Marshall Islands comprised German New Guinea. Most of the German settlers in Kaiser-Wilhelmsland worked as plantation owners, miners,