Wehler thought that the German government haf used social imperialism as a device to allow it to distract public attention from domestic problems to the benefit of preserving the existing social and political order. Wehler argued that the dominant elites used social imperialism as the glue to hold together a fractured society and to maintain popular support for the social "status quo". He further argued that German colonial policy in the 1880s provides the first example of social imperialism in action, followed by the "Tirpitz Plan" to expand the German Navy from 1897 onwards. That point of view sees groups such as the Colonial Society and the Navy League as government instruments to mobilise public support. Wehler saw the demands for annexing most of Europe and Africa in World War I as the pinnacle of social imperialism.