CHAPTER V
GERMANY ACROSS THE OCEAN
Trying to grasp the meaning of the phrase “the German idea in the world” from its material side, and realizing the strength which foreign nations draw from their colonies, we naturally regret that Germany has entered so late on her policy of colonization. The English have founded powerful daughter-nations across the ocean, the Russians have, for centuries, extended their nation over vast territories which were inhabited by inferior races or not inhabited at all, and also the Spaniards, the Portuguese, and the Dutch have colonized important countries in foreign lands with their men, their ideas, and their tongues.
We cannot, therefore, fail to be astonished if many of us ask, “Are the German colonies of sufficient importance to deserve serious consideration in connection with our national idea?” The proper answer is, “Yes, they are and they will be so to a much larger degree soon, for the chapter of German colonization is by no means closed.” It is nonsense, to be sure, for the English to suspect that we wish to conquer either South Africa or Australia or to colonize Mesopotamia and raise our
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