Nowadays an attempt of this kind would be not only a
palpable infringement of international law, but also an
unparalleled piece of stupidity.
palpable infringement of international law, but also an
unparalleled piece of stupidity.
Treitschke - 1914 - Life and Works
The doctrine that
you may always intervene in the affairs of another State
is as false as the doctrine that you may never do so. A
State may find itself driven to regard the party struggles
in a neighbouring country as harmful to its own peace.
Were a cosmopolitan party to seize the reins in a State
which bordered with Germany, the issue might look so
threatening to us that we should have no option but to
interfere. To interfere, however, involves considerable
risk. The modern world has come to believe firmly in
the doctrine of national independence, and intervention
will always arouse resentment, and that not only in the
country which suffers the intervention. Hard experience
has taught this generation to be shy of mixing in the
internal affairs of its neighbours. But when a State's
existence seems to itself to be in peril, it both may and
will intervene.
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? INTERNATIONAL LAW 179
In Time of War.
The acceptance by States of common rules for mutual
relations, even in an age when physical force tears up
treaties, shows that a law governs their conduct, but a
defective and immature law. A state of war is usually
preceded by a hostile peace. Vain efforts at mutual under-
standing lead, in the first instance, to one of the States
passing laws detrimental to the other. That is legal enough,
if it is not fair, and the other State will straightway re-
taliate by a similar lack of consideration for its neighbour.
If one of the States trespass on an actual treaty-right,
the sufferer replies by equally conscious illegalities. Pre-
ludes of this kind lead finally to real war. As soon as
hostilities have actually begun, all treaties between the
two States come, legally, to an end. A formal declaration
of war is no longer needful in these days of railways and
telegraphs. Mobilizations of troops and discussions in
Cabinets and Parliaments give clear warning that the
State intends to open hostilities; the declaration is an
empty form. In the war of 1870 France did not send us
any declaration of war till a week after diplomatic rela-
tions had been broken off.
After the outbreak of war the primary object seems to
be to bring about new international conditions which
shall correspond to the real strength of the warring States,
and which they must recognise. It is then legitimate
to carry on the war in the most drastic manner; the
ultimate aim--peace--will thus be attained as speedily
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? 180 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
as possible. First, therefore, pierce the enemy to the
heart. The very sharpest weapons may be used, provided
that they do not inflict on the wounded needless torments.
Philanthropists may declaim about burning shells which
fall into the powder magazines of wooden warships;
that is all beside the point. The States themselves must
settle what weapons shall not be used; at the request
of Russia it has been agreed not to use explosive bullets
for rifles. A warring nation is wholly justified in taking
every advantage of every weakness in its opponent. If
its enemy is disturbed by internal revolts and conspiracies,
it may make full use of them; in 1866 it was only the
swift march of events that prevented us Prussians from
entering into agreements with the Hungarians against
their Austrian masters.
A warring nation may call to its fighting line the whole of
its troops--whether barbarian or civilised. On this point
we must keep an open mind and avoid prejudice against
any particular nation. There were howls in Germany
during the Franco-Prussian war because the French set
the Turcos to fight a highly civilised European people.
The passions of war readily breed such protests, but
science must take a dispassionate view and declare that
action, such as that of the French, was not contrary to
international law. A belligerent State both may and
ought to bring into the field all its physical resources,
that is, all its troops of every kind. For where can a line
be drawn? Which of all its charming subject-races
should Russia, for example, rule out of court? The
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? INTERNATIONAL LAW 181
entire physical resources of the State can, and must, be
used in war. But they must only be used when they
have been embodied in those chivalrous forms of
organization which have been gradually established
during a long series of wars. The use of the Turcos
by the French put a curious complexion on their claim
to march at the head of civilisation. Indeed, many of
the complaints made in this respect arise from the fact
that people demand from a nation more than it is able to
fulfil. We all know that in modern national warfare
every gallant subject is a spy. The expulsion of the
80,000 Germans from France at the beginning of the
Franco-Prussian war in 1870 was, therefore, in accordance
with international law; the one point to which we can
object in the whole proceeding is, that the French
displayed a certain brutality in dealing with these
Germans.
The degree of humanity to be observed in warfare
is affected by the doctrine that a war can only be waged
between two States, and not between individual members
of those States. This doctrine regulates all warfare in
theory, though in practice only that on land. It should
be possible to recognise, by a distinguishing mark, all
men whom the State authorises to wage war for it, and
who must, therefore, be treated as soldiers. We are
not as yet all agreed on this point, and this failure to
agree constitutes a grievous gap in international law.
Humanity in war is entirely dependent on the question
as to whether the soldier feels that his only opponent
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? 182 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
is the enemy's soldier, and that he need not fear an
attack behind a bush from every peasant with whom
he has had peaceful dealings half an hour earlier. If
the soldier journeying through a hostile country does
not know whom to regard as soldier, and whom to look
upon as robber and highwayman, he is driven to show
himself cruel and heartless. No one can be regarded
as a soldier unless he has taken the military oath, unless
he is subject to military law, and unless he wears some
distinctive token, even if it be not (strictly speaking) a
complete uniform. It is a self-evident fact that bands
of unauthorised volunteers must expect to meet with
harsh and ruthless treatment. It is imperative that we
should come to some sort of international agreement as
to the tokens whereby one may know an armed man
to be an actual member of an authorised army. This
point was discussed at Brussels in 1874, and there the
conflicting interests of the different parties were thrown
into high relief. Little States like Switzerland were in
no way anxious to bind themselves on such a question.
Each State is, at present, its own judge in the matter,
and must itself determine which of its enemies it pro-
poses to treat as units of an army, and which as simple
robbers. Regarded from a moral point of view, a real
respect is due to the action of many " Franc-tireurs " in
1870 and 1871, whom despair drove to try to save their
country. But in the light of international law they
were mere highwaymen. In the same way, Napoleon was
right in 1809 to treat Schill and his associates as robbers.
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? INTERNATIONAL LAW 183
Schill, a Prussian staff officer, himself deserted, and
induced his men to desert, and then began to wage war
against France. He was then, according to interna-
tional law, nothing more than a robber chief. The
King's anger at this proceeding knew no bounds. What
was there left to hold the State together if every staff
officer chose to form a little army on his own? But, in
spite of these facts, Napoleon's resolve to adhere to the
letter of the law in this affair was an act of unparalleled
cruelty, and also an act of great imprudence. Everyone
with noble instincts will side with Schill. Schenkendorf
felt this when he represented Schill as saying:
"My King himself will say to me,
'Rest thou in peace, my faithful Schill. '"
It would, however, be impossible to maintain that the
enemy's action was any infringement of international
law.
When it has once been determined who belongs to the
army, and who is entitled to the chivalrous treatment
due to a prisoner of war, private property belonging to
an enemy may be very generally spared. But in this
matter also it must be clearly understood that we must
not, in the name of humanity, outrage the sense of
honour of a nation. At the congress held at Brussels
the Prussians proposed an international agreement that,
in a conquered province, the civil government should
pass ipso jure into the hands of the military authorities
of the victorious army. Such an arrangement would,
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? 184 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
in many ways, prove beneficial to material well-being.
A general who knows that he is entitled, by international
law, to demand obedience from foreign authorities will
be able to keep a more decided check on his troops, and
to behave generally in a more humane manner. But
there are possessions which stand on a higher level than
trade and traffic. This German demand expressed all
the confidence of a people accustomed to victory. But
could we seriously wish that Prussian State authorities
\ should, by law, be compelled to obey a Russian General?
I Excessive humanity can lead to dishonour, and thus
become inhuman. We expect our countrymen to use
all lawful means to defeat the enemy. Think for a
moment of our own past experiences. Every East-
Prussian knows about President Dohna, who, during the
Russian occupation, carried off the receipts and taxes to
the lawful King, and did his best to work against the
enemy. Shall that be forbidden in the name of philan-
thropy? Is not patriotism, in this case, a higher duty?
It matters little whether a Russian, embittered by this
kind of resistance on the part of good and honest Prus-
sians, burns a few more villages than he at first pur-
posed in his knoutish mind. This is a consideration of
far less importance than that a nation should keep the
shield of its honour bright. The moral possessions of
a nation ought not to be destroyed in the name of
humanity by international law.
Even when the power of an enemy is purely military
it is still possible to give the utmost protection to private
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? INTERNATIONAL LAW 185
property, provided that the members of the hostile
army are easily recognisable. Requisitions are allowed;
it is a general practice to give promissory notes in ex-
change. The task of getting them all paid is, of course,
left to the conquered. War against private property
as such, of which the laying waste of the Palatinate at
the end of the seventeenth century by Melac, furnishes
us with a dreadful example; the wanton burning of
villages is regarded to-day by all civilised States as an
infringement of the law of nations. Private property
may only be injured in so far as such injury is absolutely
essential to the success of the war.
But international law becomes mere clap-trap when
these principles are applied to barbarian nations. A
negro tribe must be punished by having its villages
burnt; nothing will be achieved without an example
of this kind. Any failure on the part of the German
Empire to base its conduct on these principles to-day
could not be said to proceed from humanity or a fine
sense of justice, but merely from scandalous weakness. *
And even where dealing with civilised nations, it is
right to legalise only those practices which are the real
outcome of the general sense of obligation common to
all the nations concerned. The State must not be used
as an instrument wherewith to try experiments in humani-
tarianism. How drastic an example of such an error
is furnished by the Franco-Prussian war! We declared,
in a burst of false humanity, that we would respect
* Lecture delivered during the winter of 1891-2.
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? 186 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
the private property of the French at sea. The idea was
both noble and humane. We failed, however, to observe
that among the other States there is one--I mean Eng-
land--which is fundamentally averse to being schooled
by noble thoughts; we also failed to realise that France
would not pay us back in our own coin. This one-
sided German humanitarianism simply released France
from the necessity of using her navy to protect her
merchant ships against German men-of-war. Her whole
fleet was thus set free for the immediate purposes of war.
The marine infantry and the really excellent marine
artillery were landed, and during the winter we very
frequently found ourselves fighting with these marines.
It will thus be seen that the undertaking entered upon
by us merely released troops to be used against our-
selves. Every advance in humanitarianism as ex-
pressed in international law should, therefore, be based
on the principle of reciprocity.
But there are many items about which we are in doubt,
whether they are the property of the State or of private
persons. The property of the State is, obviously and
naturally, the lawful booty of the victor. This is prim-
arily true of all kinds of military supplies in the widest
sense of the word, and of such things as State railways.
But to which class must we relegate the rolling stock
of the private railway companies, to which the State has
granted an actual monopoly? The enemy may, of
course, use the railway plant belonging to these companies
during the war; but may he keep the carriages and
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? INTERNATIONAL LAW 187
trucks? Our decision to do so during the last war
was a perfectly just one, in view of the nature of the
French railways. They were, in actual fact, the property
of the State, and we kept the carriages which we took,
and sold them back to France when terms of peace were
arranged. The question is an even more difficult one
when it relates to banks. There are certain banks, among
them the Bank of Germany, in which a body of bankers
outside the country have a material interest. Such a
practice is very useful from a commercial point of view;
the bank is thus kept in touch with the great business
houses, and in a position to take its part in the com-
mercial activities of the moment. It would be, however,
a pure illusion to suppose that the Bank of Germany
would thereby be saved from confiscation by a conqueror.
An enemy would certainly look upon it as a State bank,
and the fact that a few private persons had an interest
in it would in no way affect his decision.
It has also become a principle of international law
that the great treasures of civilisation, which serve the
purposes of Art and Science, and are looked upon as
the property of humanity as a whole, shall be secured
against theft and pillage. In earlier times this principle
was trampled under foot.
Individual members of the standing armies, and all
persons authorised to take part in national defence, have
a right to demand honourable treatment as prisoners of
war, and all attempts to force prisoners into the enemy's
army is contrary to international law. It is, however,
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? 188 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
doubtful whether this principle obtained during the last
century. In matters such as these everything depends
on the sense of right and wrong which animates the age.
At the beginning of the eighteenth century the mercenary
idea was still so grossly prevalent that a French regiment,
consisting of course of Germans, was taken over by the
Saxons at Hochstadt (1703), only to be lost by them at a
later date, when it went over to the Swedes. At Stralsund
it went over to the Prussians, with whom it finally
remained, under the name of "Jung Anhalt. " But
when Frederick the Great forced the captured Saxons
into the Prussian Army, at Pima, it became evident
that a practice which had once been followed as a matter
of course had now become impossible. On that occasion
the Saxons deserted from the Prussian Army in hordes.
Nowadays an attempt of this kind would be not only a
palpable infringement of international law, but also an
unparalleled piece of stupidity.
. It goes without saying that every State has not only
\ the right to wage war, but also to declare itself neutral
\ in the wars of others as far as material conditions permit.
J If a State is not in a condition to maintain its neutrality,
: all talk about the same is mere clap-trap. Neutrality
needs as much defending as the partisanship of belli-
gerent States. It is the duty of a neutral State to dis-
arm every soldier who crosses its borders. If it is
unable to do so the circumstances justify the belligerent
States in ceasing to observe its neutrality, even if it has
allowed an armed enemy to enter but one village.
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? INTERNATIONAL LAW 189
It is to be regretted that a sharp distinction is still
drawn in military law between its workings on land
and its workings at sea. All who have eyes to see must
here be struck by the disastrous influence of English
naval power on universal culture and justice. We have
not as yet obtained a "balance of power" at sea, and
Schiller's melancholy dictum, therefore, still holds good:
"Among the waves is chaos,
And nothing can be owned upon the sea. "
Such a state of things is deeply humiliating to our pride
as a civilised nation. England is alone to blame, for
England is so immensely pre-eminent at sea that she
can do whatever she likes. All who desire to be humane, j
all who thirst to realise in some degree the ideals of
international law on the high seas, must work for a
balance of power in this direction also. One is con-
stantly surprised by the infatuation of public opinion
at the present day. Countries marching on the wrong
road are always glorified, and the sentimentality of
Belgian exponents of international law, and England's
barbarous views regarding maritime law, are perpetually
admired. All the other Powers would be prepared to
allow free circulation, under certain conditions, to mer-
chant ships in time of war; England alone maintains
the principle that no distinction is to be made at sea
between the property of the State and that of pri-
vate persons. And as long as this one Power insists on
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? 1go TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
carrying out this principle all other nations must travel on
the same barbarous road. It is true that the conditions
prevalent on land can never prevail in quite the same
way at sea, because there are many articles of commerce
which are used in warfare. The immunity of private
property at sea in time of war can, therefore, never be
quite as great as that assured to private property on
land; but this is no reason why naval warfare should
for ever continue to be piracy, or why the belligerent
Powers should be entitled to snatch indiscriminately
the property of each other's merchants.
Maritime law has hitherto only progressed through
the efforts of the navies of second-class Powers. One is
confronted at every moment with the dictum that the
Powers are driven to adopt humaner methods by their
desire to serve their own purposes. Herein, also, lies
the explanation of the efforts made by the second-class
navies to obtain a humaner maritime law. It is not
that the English are worse people than we are, and if
we were in their position we might perhaps imitate their
conduct. As early as 1780 the navies of the second
rank united themselves in an alliance for armed neu-
trality, and laid down the principle, firstly, that the
flag must protect the merchandise over which it floats,
and that articles of commerce having no definite connec-
tion with war shall be allowed free passage on a neutral
ship; and, secondly, that every blockade must be an
actual one, and that no Power has the right to declare
an entire line of coast blockaded unless the approaches
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? INTERNATIONAL LAW 191
to it are actually closed by the presence of hostile
men-of-war.
Attempts were subsequently made in innumerable
treaties to express these principles in law. To-day
England has at last agreed to allow that the flag covers
the merchandise. This concession is the outcome of
the development of North American naval power. If
the question had been one for Germany to decide she
would long ago have procured some international agree-
ment on the immunity of private property at sea. Theory
alone is, however, powerless in questions of international
law, if the actual power of the States concerned does
not in some measure correspond with it.
To conclude then, the conviction grows upon us that
it can never be the task of political science to build up
for itself a phantastic structure in the air; for only that
is truly human which has its roots in the historical facts
of actual life. The destinies of nations are worked out
by means of a series of repulsions and attractions, and
they follow the law of a principle of development whose
ultimate end is veiled from mortal eyes. Its very trend
is hidden from us except at rare moments. We must
seek to understand the ways in which divine intelligence
has gradually revealed itself in the midst of all the con-
flicting movements of life; we must not seek to dominate
history. The noblest quality of the practical statesman
is his ability to point to the signs of the times, and to
realise in some measure how universal history may
develop at a given moment. Further, nothing becomes
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? 192 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
a politician better than modesty. The circumstances
with which he is called upon to deal are so various
and so complicated that he must guard against being
carried away on dark and uncertain ways. He must
resign himself to desiring only the really attainable, and
to keeping his aim perpetually and steadfastly in view.
I shall be content if you have learnt during the course
of these lectures how manifold are the component parts
which go to make up a historical fact, and how it becomes
us, therefore, to be most deliberate in giving a verdict
in political matters. I shall indeed be satisfied if
these lectures have taught you to cultivate that modesty
which is the essential outcome of true learning.
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? FIRST ATTEMPTS AT GERMAN
COLONISATION.
The strange confusion of ideas which we owe to our
fluctuating and antiquated party-doings is nowhere so
glaringly obvious as in the widely spread opinion that
the younger generation to-day is more conservatively
inclined than the older. Some are glad of this, while
others lament it and attribute it to the seductive arts of
reactionary teachers; but hardly anyone disputes it as
a fact. And yet it is absolutely absurd to think so, for
ever since the beginning of the world the young have
always been more free thinking than the old, because
they possess the happy privilege of living more in the
future than the present, and nothing justifies the assump-
tion that this natural law has ceased to hold good nowa-
days. For though the new generation may turn away
with indifference from the catchwords of the older
Liberalism, this only shows that a new age with new ideals
is dawning. In these young men, whose childhood was
illuminated by the sun of Sedan, national pride is not
a feeling attained to, as in their fathers' case, by hard
struggles, but it is a strong, spontaneous passion. They
sing their "Germany, Germany above all! " with a
193 N
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? i94 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
joyful confidence, such as only isolated strong characters
of the older generation could cherish. They regard the
struggle for parliamentary rights, which to their elders
was often an aim in itself, at most as a means to an end.
The object of their ambition is that the young giant who
has just shaken the sleep from his eyelids should now use
his strong arms to advance the civilisation of mankind and
to make the German name both formidable and precious
to the world. Therefore our German youth were thrilled
as by an electric shock when, in August, 1884, the news
came that our flag waved upon the coast of Angra Pequena
and the Cameroons, and that Germany had taken the
first modest but decided step in the path of independent
colonisation.
To the ancient political system of Europe, which was
a result of the weakness of its Central States, a new com-
bination of States has succeeded, founded on the strength
of Central Europe. By means of a pacific policy on a
large scale our Government has obliged the other con-
tinental Powers to adapt themselves to the new order
of things, while our legislation at the same time labours
to quell the social unrest which threatens the foundations
of all civilisation. Thus before our eyes is being fulfilled
the prophecy of the Crown Prince Frederick that his
country would be one day so strong as to guard peace by
righteous dealing, not by inspiring fear; and it is only
one more necessary step in the path of this pacific policy
if Germany at last sets herself to take her proper share
in the great work of expansive civilisation. Like so many
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? GERMAN COLONISATION 195
other happy forecasts of the sixteenth century which
have been first fulfilled in our days, the proud expression
"il mondo e poco," which in the days of Columbus
sounded like an empty boast, is now being verified.
Now that we can sail round the world in eleven weeks
it is really small, and its political future is discernible to
the foreseeing eye.
With full confidence we may say to-day that the democ-
racies of the European nations and their descendants
will one day govern the whole world. China and Japan
may possibly still for centuries preserve their old peculiar
forms of civilisation, together with a strong blending of
European culture; in India--though this is by no means
certain--an independent Indian nationality may be
evolved from the intermingling of countless races and
religions; finally--which is still more improbable--the old
bellicose Islam, when it has been driven out of Europe,
may form a new powerful State in Asia Minor; but with
the exception of these countries, in the whole world no
other nation is to be found that can in the long run with-
stand the immense superiority of European arms and
commerce. The barrier is broken, and the stream of
European colonisation must pour unceasingly over all the
world, far and near, and those who live in the twentieth
century will be able for the first time in all seriousness to
speak of a " world-history. " We must at the same time
remember that " trees are not allowed to grow into the
sky. "* Nowhere in nature is mere largeness a decisive
? German proverb.
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? 196 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
factor. Just as our little earth, so far as we can guess,
is the noblest body in the solar system, so this ancient
multiform Europe, on however great a scale international
intercourse may take place, and in any conceivable future,
will always remain the heart of the world, the home of all
creative culture, and therefore the place where all the
important questions of political power will be decided.
All colonies are like engrafted shoots: they lack the youth-
ful vigour which results from natural growth from a root.
There is indeed a wonderful growth of commercial pros-
perity when the rich capital and skilled energy of a civilised
nation come in contact with the untouched resources
of a new country; but quiet mental composure, the source
of all enduring works of art and science, does not find a
favourable atmosphere in the restless hurry of colonial
life. How much more richly furnished by nature were
the Greek colonies in South Italy and Sicily than their
little motherland. There lay luxurious Sybaris, there
Syracuse, the metropolis of the Hellenic world, there
Akragas, "fairest city of mortals," as Pindar calls it,
surpassing Athens herself in splendour and renown. And
yet how small appears the share of this richly favoured
land in everything which lends value and significance to
the history of Greece.
Similarly, the history of North America, the greatest
of all modern colonies, only confirms former experience.
The economic energy of this growing nation has already
performed miracles upon miracles; her giant railways,
which cast into the shade all similar works in the old world,
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? GERMAN COLONISATION 197
stretch from sea to sea. Still, in spite of all auguries, the
star of the world's history shows hitherto no tendency
to move westwards. That wealth of intellectual life
which Washington once hoped for his country has failed
to appear, and many who, weary of Europe, went to
America have come back, weary of America because
they could not breathe the exhausted air of the land
of the Almighty Dollar.
How often have the newspapers of both hemispheres
referred to the future New Zealander, who, according to
Macaulay's famous prophecy, is one day to look from
the broken pillars of London Bridge on the immeasurable
ruins of London! But anyone who soberly tests this
majestic vision will arrive at the comforting conclusion
that the said New Zealander is hardly likely ever to be
in the position to undertake his archaeological journey
to those ruins. Christian nations cannot perish, and
the earth no longer harbours such countless swarms of
youthful barbarians, such as once destroyed the Roman
Empire. There is a great probability that the nations
of Europe, when the habitable globe has been covered
with their colonies, will not sink from their height, but
attain new vigour by the emigration of their superfluous
populations and the fulfilment of their new tasks of
civilisation. When the first Spanish explorers landed
in America they bathed eagerly in every spring, because
they hoped there, in the West, to find the legendary
Fountain of Youth. The time seems approaching
when that longing of the early discoverers will find its
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? 198 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
fulfilment, and the New World will prove a "Fountain of
Youth " for Europeans in a deeper sense than they once
thought. Through the colonisation of the distant regions
of the earth the history of Europe also acquires a newer,
richer significance, and Germany, with full right, demands
that she should not be left behind in this great rivalry
of nations. She feels not only mortified in her political
ambition when she considers her position in the trans-
atlantic world, but she feels also a kind of moral shame-
facedness when obliged to confess that we Germans
have only contributed a very little to the great cosmo-
politan works of modern international intercourse. The
founding of the International Postal Union and the part
we took in the building of the St. Gothard Railway--
these are almost our only services in this sphere, and
how they shrink into insignificance when compared with
the achievements of English colonial policy, or even
with the works of the Frenchman, Ferdinand de Lesseps.
This feeling of shame is all the more oppressive because
we can assert that Germany yields to no nation in its
capacity for founding colonies. In the countries on the
right of the Elbe our nation once carried out the greatest
and most fruitful schemes of colonisation which Europe
has seen since the days of the Roman Empire; for here
it succeeded in obliterating the usual distinction between
colony and motherland so completely, that these colonised
lands formed the nucleus of our new system of States,
and since Luther's time were able to take part in the
intellectual progress of the nation, as equal allies of the
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? GERMAN COLONISATION 199
older stock. For more than two hundred years Ger-
many, solely by the power of its free citizens, held
supremacy over the northern seas. By means of her
commercial colonies the slumbering capacities of Scandi-
navia for intercourse with other nations were awakened,
and certainly it was not due to our fathers' fault, but
to an unavoidable tragic fate, that the glory of the
Hanseatic League perished. This was at the same time
that the Italians, our old companions in misfortune, lost
command of the sea in the South. For to every age and
every nation a limit of power is assigned. It was im-
possible that the two nations which through the Re-
naissance and the Reformation had opened up the way
for modern civilisation should, at the very time when
the discovery of the New World had ruined all the usual
routes of commerce, be able to rival the Spaniards and
Portuguese in their foreign conquests.
It was not till later that the Germans incurred the
guilt of a grievous sin of omission, in the long, dreary
time of peace which followed the Schmalkaldic War.
Then it was that the German Protestants had a safe
prospect of recovering the last command of the sea, if
they had united with their kindred co-religionists in
the Netherlands. But at this most discreditable period
of our modern history the two national faults, which
still now so often hamper our economic energy--doc-
trinaire idealism and easy-going self-indulgence--were
strongly flourishing. The nation degenerated through
theological controversies and the coarse sensuality of a
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? 200 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
sluggish peace. She left it to the Dutch to break the
naval power of the Spaniards, and afterwards to the
English to subdue the Dutch conquerors. Everyone
knows how terribly the sins of those years of peace were
punished by the dire ruin of our ancient civilisation.
During the two centuries of struggle which followed,
when we had painfully to recover the rule in our own
country, every attempt at German colonisation was
naturally impossible. The ingenious African schemes
of the Great Elector were far in advance of their time;
they were doomed to failure: a feudal agricultural
country, without a sea-board, could not possibly main-
tain control over a remote colonial possession for any
length of time.
But even during this long period of inland quietude
our nation has shown that she is, according to her capacity
and position in the world, the most cosmopolitan of all
peoples; she lost neither the old impulse to seek the
distant, nor the power to assert herself valiantly among
foreign nations. On all the battle-fields of the world
German blood flowed in streams; most of the crowns of
Europe fell into the hands of German royal houses;
and it was really through the power of Germany that
Russia was enrolled among the nations of Europe. It
is true that this vast expenditure of overflowing national
forces only ratified anew the lament of Goethe that the
Germans were respectable as individuals, but despicable
as a whole. Again and again the voice of Fate called
to us "sic vos non vobis. " And when in recent times
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you may always intervene in the affairs of another State
is as false as the doctrine that you may never do so. A
State may find itself driven to regard the party struggles
in a neighbouring country as harmful to its own peace.
Were a cosmopolitan party to seize the reins in a State
which bordered with Germany, the issue might look so
threatening to us that we should have no option but to
interfere. To interfere, however, involves considerable
risk. The modern world has come to believe firmly in
the doctrine of national independence, and intervention
will always arouse resentment, and that not only in the
country which suffers the intervention. Hard experience
has taught this generation to be shy of mixing in the
internal affairs of its neighbours. But when a State's
existence seems to itself to be in peril, it both may and
will intervene.
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? INTERNATIONAL LAW 179
In Time of War.
The acceptance by States of common rules for mutual
relations, even in an age when physical force tears up
treaties, shows that a law governs their conduct, but a
defective and immature law. A state of war is usually
preceded by a hostile peace. Vain efforts at mutual under-
standing lead, in the first instance, to one of the States
passing laws detrimental to the other. That is legal enough,
if it is not fair, and the other State will straightway re-
taliate by a similar lack of consideration for its neighbour.
If one of the States trespass on an actual treaty-right,
the sufferer replies by equally conscious illegalities. Pre-
ludes of this kind lead finally to real war. As soon as
hostilities have actually begun, all treaties between the
two States come, legally, to an end. A formal declaration
of war is no longer needful in these days of railways and
telegraphs. Mobilizations of troops and discussions in
Cabinets and Parliaments give clear warning that the
State intends to open hostilities; the declaration is an
empty form. In the war of 1870 France did not send us
any declaration of war till a week after diplomatic rela-
tions had been broken off.
After the outbreak of war the primary object seems to
be to bring about new international conditions which
shall correspond to the real strength of the warring States,
and which they must recognise. It is then legitimate
to carry on the war in the most drastic manner; the
ultimate aim--peace--will thus be attained as speedily
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? 180 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
as possible. First, therefore, pierce the enemy to the
heart. The very sharpest weapons may be used, provided
that they do not inflict on the wounded needless torments.
Philanthropists may declaim about burning shells which
fall into the powder magazines of wooden warships;
that is all beside the point. The States themselves must
settle what weapons shall not be used; at the request
of Russia it has been agreed not to use explosive bullets
for rifles. A warring nation is wholly justified in taking
every advantage of every weakness in its opponent. If
its enemy is disturbed by internal revolts and conspiracies,
it may make full use of them; in 1866 it was only the
swift march of events that prevented us Prussians from
entering into agreements with the Hungarians against
their Austrian masters.
A warring nation may call to its fighting line the whole of
its troops--whether barbarian or civilised. On this point
we must keep an open mind and avoid prejudice against
any particular nation. There were howls in Germany
during the Franco-Prussian war because the French set
the Turcos to fight a highly civilised European people.
The passions of war readily breed such protests, but
science must take a dispassionate view and declare that
action, such as that of the French, was not contrary to
international law. A belligerent State both may and
ought to bring into the field all its physical resources,
that is, all its troops of every kind. For where can a line
be drawn? Which of all its charming subject-races
should Russia, for example, rule out of court? The
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? INTERNATIONAL LAW 181
entire physical resources of the State can, and must, be
used in war. But they must only be used when they
have been embodied in those chivalrous forms of
organization which have been gradually established
during a long series of wars. The use of the Turcos
by the French put a curious complexion on their claim
to march at the head of civilisation. Indeed, many of
the complaints made in this respect arise from the fact
that people demand from a nation more than it is able to
fulfil. We all know that in modern national warfare
every gallant subject is a spy. The expulsion of the
80,000 Germans from France at the beginning of the
Franco-Prussian war in 1870 was, therefore, in accordance
with international law; the one point to which we can
object in the whole proceeding is, that the French
displayed a certain brutality in dealing with these
Germans.
The degree of humanity to be observed in warfare
is affected by the doctrine that a war can only be waged
between two States, and not between individual members
of those States. This doctrine regulates all warfare in
theory, though in practice only that on land. It should
be possible to recognise, by a distinguishing mark, all
men whom the State authorises to wage war for it, and
who must, therefore, be treated as soldiers. We are
not as yet all agreed on this point, and this failure to
agree constitutes a grievous gap in international law.
Humanity in war is entirely dependent on the question
as to whether the soldier feels that his only opponent
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? 182 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
is the enemy's soldier, and that he need not fear an
attack behind a bush from every peasant with whom
he has had peaceful dealings half an hour earlier. If
the soldier journeying through a hostile country does
not know whom to regard as soldier, and whom to look
upon as robber and highwayman, he is driven to show
himself cruel and heartless. No one can be regarded
as a soldier unless he has taken the military oath, unless
he is subject to military law, and unless he wears some
distinctive token, even if it be not (strictly speaking) a
complete uniform. It is a self-evident fact that bands
of unauthorised volunteers must expect to meet with
harsh and ruthless treatment. It is imperative that we
should come to some sort of international agreement as
to the tokens whereby one may know an armed man
to be an actual member of an authorised army. This
point was discussed at Brussels in 1874, and there the
conflicting interests of the different parties were thrown
into high relief. Little States like Switzerland were in
no way anxious to bind themselves on such a question.
Each State is, at present, its own judge in the matter,
and must itself determine which of its enemies it pro-
poses to treat as units of an army, and which as simple
robbers. Regarded from a moral point of view, a real
respect is due to the action of many " Franc-tireurs " in
1870 and 1871, whom despair drove to try to save their
country. But in the light of international law they
were mere highwaymen. In the same way, Napoleon was
right in 1809 to treat Schill and his associates as robbers.
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? INTERNATIONAL LAW 183
Schill, a Prussian staff officer, himself deserted, and
induced his men to desert, and then began to wage war
against France. He was then, according to interna-
tional law, nothing more than a robber chief. The
King's anger at this proceeding knew no bounds. What
was there left to hold the State together if every staff
officer chose to form a little army on his own? But, in
spite of these facts, Napoleon's resolve to adhere to the
letter of the law in this affair was an act of unparalleled
cruelty, and also an act of great imprudence. Everyone
with noble instincts will side with Schill. Schenkendorf
felt this when he represented Schill as saying:
"My King himself will say to me,
'Rest thou in peace, my faithful Schill. '"
It would, however, be impossible to maintain that the
enemy's action was any infringement of international
law.
When it has once been determined who belongs to the
army, and who is entitled to the chivalrous treatment
due to a prisoner of war, private property belonging to
an enemy may be very generally spared. But in this
matter also it must be clearly understood that we must
not, in the name of humanity, outrage the sense of
honour of a nation. At the congress held at Brussels
the Prussians proposed an international agreement that,
in a conquered province, the civil government should
pass ipso jure into the hands of the military authorities
of the victorious army. Such an arrangement would,
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? 184 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
in many ways, prove beneficial to material well-being.
A general who knows that he is entitled, by international
law, to demand obedience from foreign authorities will
be able to keep a more decided check on his troops, and
to behave generally in a more humane manner. But
there are possessions which stand on a higher level than
trade and traffic. This German demand expressed all
the confidence of a people accustomed to victory. But
could we seriously wish that Prussian State authorities
\ should, by law, be compelled to obey a Russian General?
I Excessive humanity can lead to dishonour, and thus
become inhuman. We expect our countrymen to use
all lawful means to defeat the enemy. Think for a
moment of our own past experiences. Every East-
Prussian knows about President Dohna, who, during the
Russian occupation, carried off the receipts and taxes to
the lawful King, and did his best to work against the
enemy. Shall that be forbidden in the name of philan-
thropy? Is not patriotism, in this case, a higher duty?
It matters little whether a Russian, embittered by this
kind of resistance on the part of good and honest Prus-
sians, burns a few more villages than he at first pur-
posed in his knoutish mind. This is a consideration of
far less importance than that a nation should keep the
shield of its honour bright. The moral possessions of
a nation ought not to be destroyed in the name of
humanity by international law.
Even when the power of an enemy is purely military
it is still possible to give the utmost protection to private
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? INTERNATIONAL LAW 185
property, provided that the members of the hostile
army are easily recognisable. Requisitions are allowed;
it is a general practice to give promissory notes in ex-
change. The task of getting them all paid is, of course,
left to the conquered. War against private property
as such, of which the laying waste of the Palatinate at
the end of the seventeenth century by Melac, furnishes
us with a dreadful example; the wanton burning of
villages is regarded to-day by all civilised States as an
infringement of the law of nations. Private property
may only be injured in so far as such injury is absolutely
essential to the success of the war.
But international law becomes mere clap-trap when
these principles are applied to barbarian nations. A
negro tribe must be punished by having its villages
burnt; nothing will be achieved without an example
of this kind. Any failure on the part of the German
Empire to base its conduct on these principles to-day
could not be said to proceed from humanity or a fine
sense of justice, but merely from scandalous weakness. *
And even where dealing with civilised nations, it is
right to legalise only those practices which are the real
outcome of the general sense of obligation common to
all the nations concerned. The State must not be used
as an instrument wherewith to try experiments in humani-
tarianism. How drastic an example of such an error
is furnished by the Franco-Prussian war! We declared,
in a burst of false humanity, that we would respect
* Lecture delivered during the winter of 1891-2.
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? 186 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
the private property of the French at sea. The idea was
both noble and humane. We failed, however, to observe
that among the other States there is one--I mean Eng-
land--which is fundamentally averse to being schooled
by noble thoughts; we also failed to realise that France
would not pay us back in our own coin. This one-
sided German humanitarianism simply released France
from the necessity of using her navy to protect her
merchant ships against German men-of-war. Her whole
fleet was thus set free for the immediate purposes of war.
The marine infantry and the really excellent marine
artillery were landed, and during the winter we very
frequently found ourselves fighting with these marines.
It will thus be seen that the undertaking entered upon
by us merely released troops to be used against our-
selves. Every advance in humanitarianism as ex-
pressed in international law should, therefore, be based
on the principle of reciprocity.
But there are many items about which we are in doubt,
whether they are the property of the State or of private
persons. The property of the State is, obviously and
naturally, the lawful booty of the victor. This is prim-
arily true of all kinds of military supplies in the widest
sense of the word, and of such things as State railways.
But to which class must we relegate the rolling stock
of the private railway companies, to which the State has
granted an actual monopoly? The enemy may, of
course, use the railway plant belonging to these companies
during the war; but may he keep the carriages and
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? INTERNATIONAL LAW 187
trucks? Our decision to do so during the last war
was a perfectly just one, in view of the nature of the
French railways. They were, in actual fact, the property
of the State, and we kept the carriages which we took,
and sold them back to France when terms of peace were
arranged. The question is an even more difficult one
when it relates to banks. There are certain banks, among
them the Bank of Germany, in which a body of bankers
outside the country have a material interest. Such a
practice is very useful from a commercial point of view;
the bank is thus kept in touch with the great business
houses, and in a position to take its part in the com-
mercial activities of the moment. It would be, however,
a pure illusion to suppose that the Bank of Germany
would thereby be saved from confiscation by a conqueror.
An enemy would certainly look upon it as a State bank,
and the fact that a few private persons had an interest
in it would in no way affect his decision.
It has also become a principle of international law
that the great treasures of civilisation, which serve the
purposes of Art and Science, and are looked upon as
the property of humanity as a whole, shall be secured
against theft and pillage. In earlier times this principle
was trampled under foot.
Individual members of the standing armies, and all
persons authorised to take part in national defence, have
a right to demand honourable treatment as prisoners of
war, and all attempts to force prisoners into the enemy's
army is contrary to international law. It is, however,
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? 188 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
doubtful whether this principle obtained during the last
century. In matters such as these everything depends
on the sense of right and wrong which animates the age.
At the beginning of the eighteenth century the mercenary
idea was still so grossly prevalent that a French regiment,
consisting of course of Germans, was taken over by the
Saxons at Hochstadt (1703), only to be lost by them at a
later date, when it went over to the Swedes. At Stralsund
it went over to the Prussians, with whom it finally
remained, under the name of "Jung Anhalt. " But
when Frederick the Great forced the captured Saxons
into the Prussian Army, at Pima, it became evident
that a practice which had once been followed as a matter
of course had now become impossible. On that occasion
the Saxons deserted from the Prussian Army in hordes.
Nowadays an attempt of this kind would be not only a
palpable infringement of international law, but also an
unparalleled piece of stupidity.
. It goes without saying that every State has not only
\ the right to wage war, but also to declare itself neutral
\ in the wars of others as far as material conditions permit.
J If a State is not in a condition to maintain its neutrality,
: all talk about the same is mere clap-trap. Neutrality
needs as much defending as the partisanship of belli-
gerent States. It is the duty of a neutral State to dis-
arm every soldier who crosses its borders. If it is
unable to do so the circumstances justify the belligerent
States in ceasing to observe its neutrality, even if it has
allowed an armed enemy to enter but one village.
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? INTERNATIONAL LAW 189
It is to be regretted that a sharp distinction is still
drawn in military law between its workings on land
and its workings at sea. All who have eyes to see must
here be struck by the disastrous influence of English
naval power on universal culture and justice. We have
not as yet obtained a "balance of power" at sea, and
Schiller's melancholy dictum, therefore, still holds good:
"Among the waves is chaos,
And nothing can be owned upon the sea. "
Such a state of things is deeply humiliating to our pride
as a civilised nation. England is alone to blame, for
England is so immensely pre-eminent at sea that she
can do whatever she likes. All who desire to be humane, j
all who thirst to realise in some degree the ideals of
international law on the high seas, must work for a
balance of power in this direction also. One is con-
stantly surprised by the infatuation of public opinion
at the present day. Countries marching on the wrong
road are always glorified, and the sentimentality of
Belgian exponents of international law, and England's
barbarous views regarding maritime law, are perpetually
admired. All the other Powers would be prepared to
allow free circulation, under certain conditions, to mer-
chant ships in time of war; England alone maintains
the principle that no distinction is to be made at sea
between the property of the State and that of pri-
vate persons. And as long as this one Power insists on
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? 1go TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
carrying out this principle all other nations must travel on
the same barbarous road. It is true that the conditions
prevalent on land can never prevail in quite the same
way at sea, because there are many articles of commerce
which are used in warfare. The immunity of private
property at sea in time of war can, therefore, never be
quite as great as that assured to private property on
land; but this is no reason why naval warfare should
for ever continue to be piracy, or why the belligerent
Powers should be entitled to snatch indiscriminately
the property of each other's merchants.
Maritime law has hitherto only progressed through
the efforts of the navies of second-class Powers. One is
confronted at every moment with the dictum that the
Powers are driven to adopt humaner methods by their
desire to serve their own purposes. Herein, also, lies
the explanation of the efforts made by the second-class
navies to obtain a humaner maritime law. It is not
that the English are worse people than we are, and if
we were in their position we might perhaps imitate their
conduct. As early as 1780 the navies of the second
rank united themselves in an alliance for armed neu-
trality, and laid down the principle, firstly, that the
flag must protect the merchandise over which it floats,
and that articles of commerce having no definite connec-
tion with war shall be allowed free passage on a neutral
ship; and, secondly, that every blockade must be an
actual one, and that no Power has the right to declare
an entire line of coast blockaded unless the approaches
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? INTERNATIONAL LAW 191
to it are actually closed by the presence of hostile
men-of-war.
Attempts were subsequently made in innumerable
treaties to express these principles in law. To-day
England has at last agreed to allow that the flag covers
the merchandise. This concession is the outcome of
the development of North American naval power. If
the question had been one for Germany to decide she
would long ago have procured some international agree-
ment on the immunity of private property at sea. Theory
alone is, however, powerless in questions of international
law, if the actual power of the States concerned does
not in some measure correspond with it.
To conclude then, the conviction grows upon us that
it can never be the task of political science to build up
for itself a phantastic structure in the air; for only that
is truly human which has its roots in the historical facts
of actual life. The destinies of nations are worked out
by means of a series of repulsions and attractions, and
they follow the law of a principle of development whose
ultimate end is veiled from mortal eyes. Its very trend
is hidden from us except at rare moments. We must
seek to understand the ways in which divine intelligence
has gradually revealed itself in the midst of all the con-
flicting movements of life; we must not seek to dominate
history. The noblest quality of the practical statesman
is his ability to point to the signs of the times, and to
realise in some measure how universal history may
develop at a given moment. Further, nothing becomes
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? 192 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
a politician better than modesty. The circumstances
with which he is called upon to deal are so various
and so complicated that he must guard against being
carried away on dark and uncertain ways. He must
resign himself to desiring only the really attainable, and
to keeping his aim perpetually and steadfastly in view.
I shall be content if you have learnt during the course
of these lectures how manifold are the component parts
which go to make up a historical fact, and how it becomes
us, therefore, to be most deliberate in giving a verdict
in political matters. I shall indeed be satisfied if
these lectures have taught you to cultivate that modesty
which is the essential outcome of true learning.
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? FIRST ATTEMPTS AT GERMAN
COLONISATION.
The strange confusion of ideas which we owe to our
fluctuating and antiquated party-doings is nowhere so
glaringly obvious as in the widely spread opinion that
the younger generation to-day is more conservatively
inclined than the older. Some are glad of this, while
others lament it and attribute it to the seductive arts of
reactionary teachers; but hardly anyone disputes it as
a fact. And yet it is absolutely absurd to think so, for
ever since the beginning of the world the young have
always been more free thinking than the old, because
they possess the happy privilege of living more in the
future than the present, and nothing justifies the assump-
tion that this natural law has ceased to hold good nowa-
days. For though the new generation may turn away
with indifference from the catchwords of the older
Liberalism, this only shows that a new age with new ideals
is dawning. In these young men, whose childhood was
illuminated by the sun of Sedan, national pride is not
a feeling attained to, as in their fathers' case, by hard
struggles, but it is a strong, spontaneous passion. They
sing their "Germany, Germany above all! " with a
193 N
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? i94 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
joyful confidence, such as only isolated strong characters
of the older generation could cherish. They regard the
struggle for parliamentary rights, which to their elders
was often an aim in itself, at most as a means to an end.
The object of their ambition is that the young giant who
has just shaken the sleep from his eyelids should now use
his strong arms to advance the civilisation of mankind and
to make the German name both formidable and precious
to the world. Therefore our German youth were thrilled
as by an electric shock when, in August, 1884, the news
came that our flag waved upon the coast of Angra Pequena
and the Cameroons, and that Germany had taken the
first modest but decided step in the path of independent
colonisation.
To the ancient political system of Europe, which was
a result of the weakness of its Central States, a new com-
bination of States has succeeded, founded on the strength
of Central Europe. By means of a pacific policy on a
large scale our Government has obliged the other con-
tinental Powers to adapt themselves to the new order
of things, while our legislation at the same time labours
to quell the social unrest which threatens the foundations
of all civilisation. Thus before our eyes is being fulfilled
the prophecy of the Crown Prince Frederick that his
country would be one day so strong as to guard peace by
righteous dealing, not by inspiring fear; and it is only
one more necessary step in the path of this pacific policy
if Germany at last sets herself to take her proper share
in the great work of expansive civilisation. Like so many
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? GERMAN COLONISATION 195
other happy forecasts of the sixteenth century which
have been first fulfilled in our days, the proud expression
"il mondo e poco," which in the days of Columbus
sounded like an empty boast, is now being verified.
Now that we can sail round the world in eleven weeks
it is really small, and its political future is discernible to
the foreseeing eye.
With full confidence we may say to-day that the democ-
racies of the European nations and their descendants
will one day govern the whole world. China and Japan
may possibly still for centuries preserve their old peculiar
forms of civilisation, together with a strong blending of
European culture; in India--though this is by no means
certain--an independent Indian nationality may be
evolved from the intermingling of countless races and
religions; finally--which is still more improbable--the old
bellicose Islam, when it has been driven out of Europe,
may form a new powerful State in Asia Minor; but with
the exception of these countries, in the whole world no
other nation is to be found that can in the long run with-
stand the immense superiority of European arms and
commerce. The barrier is broken, and the stream of
European colonisation must pour unceasingly over all the
world, far and near, and those who live in the twentieth
century will be able for the first time in all seriousness to
speak of a " world-history. " We must at the same time
remember that " trees are not allowed to grow into the
sky. "* Nowhere in nature is mere largeness a decisive
? German proverb.
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? 196 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
factor. Just as our little earth, so far as we can guess,
is the noblest body in the solar system, so this ancient
multiform Europe, on however great a scale international
intercourse may take place, and in any conceivable future,
will always remain the heart of the world, the home of all
creative culture, and therefore the place where all the
important questions of political power will be decided.
All colonies are like engrafted shoots: they lack the youth-
ful vigour which results from natural growth from a root.
There is indeed a wonderful growth of commercial pros-
perity when the rich capital and skilled energy of a civilised
nation come in contact with the untouched resources
of a new country; but quiet mental composure, the source
of all enduring works of art and science, does not find a
favourable atmosphere in the restless hurry of colonial
life. How much more richly furnished by nature were
the Greek colonies in South Italy and Sicily than their
little motherland. There lay luxurious Sybaris, there
Syracuse, the metropolis of the Hellenic world, there
Akragas, "fairest city of mortals," as Pindar calls it,
surpassing Athens herself in splendour and renown. And
yet how small appears the share of this richly favoured
land in everything which lends value and significance to
the history of Greece.
Similarly, the history of North America, the greatest
of all modern colonies, only confirms former experience.
The economic energy of this growing nation has already
performed miracles upon miracles; her giant railways,
which cast into the shade all similar works in the old world,
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? GERMAN COLONISATION 197
stretch from sea to sea. Still, in spite of all auguries, the
star of the world's history shows hitherto no tendency
to move westwards. That wealth of intellectual life
which Washington once hoped for his country has failed
to appear, and many who, weary of Europe, went to
America have come back, weary of America because
they could not breathe the exhausted air of the land
of the Almighty Dollar.
How often have the newspapers of both hemispheres
referred to the future New Zealander, who, according to
Macaulay's famous prophecy, is one day to look from
the broken pillars of London Bridge on the immeasurable
ruins of London! But anyone who soberly tests this
majestic vision will arrive at the comforting conclusion
that the said New Zealander is hardly likely ever to be
in the position to undertake his archaeological journey
to those ruins. Christian nations cannot perish, and
the earth no longer harbours such countless swarms of
youthful barbarians, such as once destroyed the Roman
Empire. There is a great probability that the nations
of Europe, when the habitable globe has been covered
with their colonies, will not sink from their height, but
attain new vigour by the emigration of their superfluous
populations and the fulfilment of their new tasks of
civilisation. When the first Spanish explorers landed
in America they bathed eagerly in every spring, because
they hoped there, in the West, to find the legendary
Fountain of Youth. The time seems approaching
when that longing of the early discoverers will find its
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? 198 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
fulfilment, and the New World will prove a "Fountain of
Youth " for Europeans in a deeper sense than they once
thought. Through the colonisation of the distant regions
of the earth the history of Europe also acquires a newer,
richer significance, and Germany, with full right, demands
that she should not be left behind in this great rivalry
of nations. She feels not only mortified in her political
ambition when she considers her position in the trans-
atlantic world, but she feels also a kind of moral shame-
facedness when obliged to confess that we Germans
have only contributed a very little to the great cosmo-
politan works of modern international intercourse. The
founding of the International Postal Union and the part
we took in the building of the St. Gothard Railway--
these are almost our only services in this sphere, and
how they shrink into insignificance when compared with
the achievements of English colonial policy, or even
with the works of the Frenchman, Ferdinand de Lesseps.
This feeling of shame is all the more oppressive because
we can assert that Germany yields to no nation in its
capacity for founding colonies. In the countries on the
right of the Elbe our nation once carried out the greatest
and most fruitful schemes of colonisation which Europe
has seen since the days of the Roman Empire; for here
it succeeded in obliterating the usual distinction between
colony and motherland so completely, that these colonised
lands formed the nucleus of our new system of States,
and since Luther's time were able to take part in the
intellectual progress of the nation, as equal allies of the
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? GERMAN COLONISATION 199
older stock. For more than two hundred years Ger-
many, solely by the power of its free citizens, held
supremacy over the northern seas. By means of her
commercial colonies the slumbering capacities of Scandi-
navia for intercourse with other nations were awakened,
and certainly it was not due to our fathers' fault, but
to an unavoidable tragic fate, that the glory of the
Hanseatic League perished. This was at the same time
that the Italians, our old companions in misfortune, lost
command of the sea in the South. For to every age and
every nation a limit of power is assigned. It was im-
possible that the two nations which through the Re-
naissance and the Reformation had opened up the way
for modern civilisation should, at the very time when
the discovery of the New World had ruined all the usual
routes of commerce, be able to rival the Spaniards and
Portuguese in their foreign conquests.
It was not till later that the Germans incurred the
guilt of a grievous sin of omission, in the long, dreary
time of peace which followed the Schmalkaldic War.
Then it was that the German Protestants had a safe
prospect of recovering the last command of the sea, if
they had united with their kindred co-religionists in
the Netherlands. But at this most discreditable period
of our modern history the two national faults, which
still now so often hamper our economic energy--doc-
trinaire idealism and easy-going self-indulgence--were
strongly flourishing. The nation degenerated through
theological controversies and the coarse sensuality of a
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? 200 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
sluggish peace. She left it to the Dutch to break the
naval power of the Spaniards, and afterwards to the
English to subdue the Dutch conquerors. Everyone
knows how terribly the sins of those years of peace were
punished by the dire ruin of our ancient civilisation.
During the two centuries of struggle which followed,
when we had painfully to recover the rule in our own
country, every attempt at German colonisation was
naturally impossible. The ingenious African schemes
of the Great Elector were far in advance of their time;
they were doomed to failure: a feudal agricultural
country, without a sea-board, could not possibly main-
tain control over a remote colonial possession for any
length of time.
But even during this long period of inland quietude
our nation has shown that she is, according to her capacity
and position in the world, the most cosmopolitan of all
peoples; she lost neither the old impulse to seek the
distant, nor the power to assert herself valiantly among
foreign nations. On all the battle-fields of the world
German blood flowed in streams; most of the crowns of
Europe fell into the hands of German royal houses;
and it was really through the power of Germany that
Russia was enrolled among the nations of Europe. It
is true that this vast expenditure of overflowing national
forces only ratified anew the lament of Goethe that the
Germans were respectable as individuals, but despicable
as a whole. Again and again the voice of Fate called
to us "sic vos non vobis. " And when in recent times
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