The Anglo-German Commercial and Colonial Rivalry as a Cause of the Great War: A Thesis Presented to the Department of History, University of Southern California, Los AngelesStratford Company, 1917 - 83 pages |
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Agadir aggression agreement alliance army Asia Minor Asiatic Turkey attempt Austria Baghdad Railway Belgium Bernhardi Bosporus Britain British Empire brought cause Central Europe CHAPTER colonial ascendency colonial empire colonial field Colonial Rivalry commercial Deutsche Bank Dutch East economic Emperor England England and Germany English English Channel European expansion fleet France French German Emperor German Empire Germany and England Germany's Holland Ibid imperial independent industrial interests International Conciliation Kaiser Koweit land many's maritime markets menace ment mercial Modern Germany Morocco nations of Europe navy nineteenth century North Sea ocean Pan-Germanism pansion peace Persian Gulf political possession powers of Europe premacy present protection racial realized regard Review Robinson and Beard route to India Russia sion South Spain strategic struggle Suez Sultan supremacy tain territories threatened tion trade treaty Treitschke Triple Entente Turco-Italian war Turkey wars Weltpolitik West Indies wholly world empire
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Page xiii - A million petty disputes build up the greatest cause of war the world has ever seen. If Germany were extinguished tomorrow, the day after tomorrow there is not an Englishman in the world who would not be the richer. Nations have fought for years over a city or a right of succession; must they not fight for two hundred and fifty million pounds of yearly commerce...
Page ix - Commercialism.' As alluring and bewitching as she seems, much destruction and agony follow in her wake. Her breath reeking of sordid transactions, her voice of metallic character, like gold, and her look of greed, are so much poison to the nations who fall victims to her charms. And behold, she has three gigantic arms with three torches of universal corruption in her hands. "The first torch represents the flame of war, that the beautiful courtesan carries from city to city and country to country....
Page xiii - Germany, bone of the same bone, blood of the same blood, with a lesser will-force, but perhaps with a keener intelligence, compete in every corner of the globe. In the Transvaal, at the Cape, in Central Africa, in India and the East, in the islands of the Southern Sea, and in the far Northwest, wherever — and where has it not ? — the flag has followed the Bible, and trade has followed the flag, there the German bagman is struggling with the English pedlar. Is there a mine to exploit, a railway...
Page ix - This is a revelation of events of a universal character which must shortly come to pass. Their spiritual outlines are now before my eyes. I see floating upon the surface of the sea of human fate the huge silhouette of a nude woman. She is — with her beauty, poise, her smile, her jewels — a super-Venus.
Page 14 - For Treitschke it is not genius, it is not valour, it is not even great policy, as in the case of Venice, which has built up the British Empire ; but the hazard of her geographical situation, the supineness of other nations, the measureless duplicity of her ministers, and the natural and innate hypocrisy of the nation as a whole. These have let this monstrous empire grow — a colossus with feet of clay. Along with this he has the conviction that such a power can be overthrown.
Page 28 - Both France and America have completely forsaken free trade ; Austria, instead of reducing her protective duties, has increased them; Russia has done the same. . . . Therefore no one can expect Germany to remain permanently the victim of its sincere belief in the theory of free trade. Hitherto we have thrown our doors wide open to foreign goods and so have made our country the dumping ground for all the overproduction of other countries. . . . Let us close the door and erect the somewhat higher barriers...
Page xiii - Is there a mine to exploit, a railway to build, a native to convert from breadfruit to tinned meat, from temperance to trade gin, the German and the Englishman are struggling to be first. A million petty disputes build up the greatest cause of war the world has ever seen. If Germany were extinguished tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, there is not an Englishman in the world who would not be richer.
Page 6 - The Seven Years' war, known in America as the French and Indian war, began two years before the declaration of war by England against France formally opened hostilities in Europe.
Page 73 - Turkey is the only power which can threaten England's position in Egypt and thus menace the short sea route and the land communications to India.
Page 16 - ... the globe ? Ought a patriotic German to submit to seeing his nation depleted year by year ? Can he, on those conditions, retain his manhood or be true to the religion of valour, the birthright of the Teutonic kindred ? It is very well for England to protest that she has no aggressive designs against Germany ; England's mere existence as an empire is a continuous aggression. So long as England, the great robber- State, retains her booty, the spoils of a world, what right has she to expect peace...