Germany's Vanishing Colonies

ed and aggrandised Prussia; its people imbued with Prussian id

ynasty, was always the turbulent and disturbing element, by methods peculiarly Prussian, working to

t attitude created a war with Denmark in 1864 and with Austria in 1866-the latter, a strug

illion inhabitants of Schleswig-Holstein, and Prussia emerged from the str

into the fertile German fields which produced some of the mas

1870, with the result that the German octopus settled its tentacles upon the provinc

as practically a new nation under the rule of William of Hohenzollern, who was ele

the fortunes of the House of Hohenzollern prospered, as he set himself to his fixed and single-m

declared "Germany does not want Colonies." He refused to embark upon dazzling adventures in which the risk stirred the imagination, and when an agitation arose in favour of making Ge

Low Countries, the absorption of which Cecil Rhodes declared t

ed into Austria, and Prussian example

in Schleswig-Holstein and of French in Alsace-Lorraine, so Aust

inued to thrive and grow during the peaceful years following 1871; and the de

greater Germany of to-day, history is a tal

normous rate, growing from 35,500,000 in 1850 to 66,000,000 in 1912-an average o

000 annually; but it was only 18,500 in 1913, and this was more th

d the obvious remedy was expansion of frontiers or

sion of territories, for it was apparent that emigration to for

had founded the German Empire and upon which its strength depended, it was clear that emigration to foreign countrie

t of acquiring Colonies oversea and the establishment of a navy and mercanti

; but to the militarist section the idea of Imperial expansion presented itself, and to

German; and with this enlarged horizon, policy settled down to the acquisition of oversea territory, the ambition be

sion, but the Chancellor, Bismarck, altered his views only so far as

was not, therefore, a policy of settlement but one of commercial exploitation; inasmuch as Germany's aim was t

n by settlements in German Colonies, where compact centres of German kultur co

and fomenting strife," one cannot imagine, especially with her Prussian traditions, a viole

ed by a roll of drums," and, in sneering at the ballot as "a mere dice-box," he declared: "It is not by spee

ed in that no other means of expansion and nationalisation than by conquest presents itself to the German mind. All negotia

rately planned wars"; and in justifying the right to make war he says: "It may be that a growing people cannot win Colonies from uncivilised races, and yet the S

ived late in the day and the methods whereby she purposed making up for

history conjures up no pageant of romantic emprise nor vista of perilous undertakings in unexplored parts of the globe by the spirits of daring and adventure; it holds no pulse-stirring s

was their country's honour, but whose guerdon was in many a case a lonely grave or a more imposing monument in the "sun-washed spaces"-the ambassadors of German kultur followed upon a beaten track to seize

he world was occupied; and direct action of conquest not being expedient, Germans were busy seeking to accomplish their

uisition of territory be

herself in the affairs of Zanzibar, long subject to the influence of the Portuguese and Bri

een partitioned, and Germany's quest of terr

policy of the British Government during 1882-1883 enabled the Germans to annex an enormous

n Africa acquired in 1884 amount

July, 1890, Great Britain and Germany agreed as to

e Island of Zanzibar, and ceded to Germa

goland as a fortress was of inestimable value to Germany-making possible the Borkum-Wilhelmshaven-Heligol

am; and the boundaries were so delimited as to include in German East Africa the mountain of Kilima 'Njaro, the German

o defined the boundari

n several islands as well as in North New Guinea, where the Australasian Colonies

voted by the Reichstag "for the pro

mmodate surplus population; while we, secure in our own strength, wi

nies as dumping grounds, nor to encourage a policy of emigrat

erial which cannot be produced in Germany; while part of their necessaries are even obtained from ab

ries provide work for masses of the population, all the products cannot be consu

ncourage the establishment of industries in Colonies

ew of countries like Germany, whose existence depends on keeping their men at home, it is far preferable to d

ial trade rose from scarcely ￡5,000,000 to ￡12,000,000, and the effect of the acquisition of Colonies upon her home ind

ture against the competition of her own Colo

posed of daughter states, which would remain essentially German and be the means of keeping her men

pulation abroad; and therefore she exploited her Colonies in such a way as to help her to concentrate her people a

e and death to keep open the oversea commerce protected by a powerful navy; and this point was

vy, a new and splendid vista unfolded itself-no less than

tion, is fully entitled not only to demand a place in the sun, but to aspire to an adequate s

tion towards the war with England, to the destruction of England's supremacy at sea as t

rmany to come into being after Engl

r means presented itself than

d to have been attained by the machine of militarism, the huge army created and kept in being by national self-sacrifice. So to obtai

lebration in that year of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the foun

or he announced to the German Socialists: "We Hohenzollerns take our crown from God alone

ld was a very real ambition and quite in

rted that Germany was anxious to preserve the independence and integrity of Morocco because of her important interests in the country. As a matter of fact, German

t it was "only the fear of the intervention of England that deter

ntic coast of Morocco, which would have been of enormous importance to Germany and her Colonies

in the same way Baron Marshall von Bieberstein declared officially that

ight simply be remarked, was that Germany had in contemplation the construction of a railway line fr

being either of German interest or concern, and her attitude is in accord with h

ry, 1908, stigmatising as "nonsensical and untrue" the idea that the German fleet was bein

ought and energy was devoted to the construction of a navy strong enough to challenge that supremacy. Whe

many, with a population of about 14,000,000 natives; and the qu

us as possible, for it is their labour, intelligence, and indust

Germany drew her supplies of raw material such as cotton, rubber, wool, etc., are developed b

en, and the settlements which were to be centres of German kultu

m, which has proved such a strength to England but was suppressed in Germa

class of men she required for her scheme of Colonia

by native labour, and markets from which she could not be e

nterprise and European capital, but t

most desirable Colonist, but he has never t

th but outstripping the British trader owing to the employment of undercutting methods which d

the German Legion who settled after disbandment about King William's Town, Ha

s, was subdivided and taken up almost entirely by Germans, and they have tur

e readily assimilated, though in Bra

r realised the importance of respecting local manners and customs, but the home machin

B?nn of Munich says they "solved the

the German cannot act without orders, and lacks

man Colonial administration is cordially detested except whe

narchy, and hold their dependencies by the sense of honour and appreciation, to which the attitude o

ng off the British yoke"; and the assumed disloyalty of British Colonies, with the further assumption, widely distributed, that various peoples under the British flag

ns for intrigue, perhaps the war Lords were

s a very small chance, and, like many another well-laid scheme, this one failed be

n Colonists schooled and deluded themselves into thinking. They did not understand

more than the exploitation of a subject race and the passive holding of its territory, they must be written down a failure, for the

of national life whose highest expression is the atmosphere o