Theory,
alone is, however, powerless in questions of inter-
national law, if the actual power of the States
concerned does not in some measure correspond
with it.
alone is, however, powerless in questions of inter-
national law, if the actual power of the States
concerned does not in some measure correspond
with it.
Treitschke - 1914 - His Doctrine of German Destiny
The use
of the Turcos by the French put a curious com-
plexion on their claim to march at the head of
civilization. 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 expul-
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? International Law 183
sion 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 war-
fare is affected by the doctrine that a war can
only be waged between two States, and not be-
tween individual members of those States. This
doctrine regulates all warfare in theory, though in
practice only that on land. It should be possible
to recognize, by a distinguishing mark, all men
whom the State authorizes 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 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 com-
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? 184 Treitschke
plete uniform. It is a self-evident fact that bands
of unauthorized volunteers must expect to meet
with harsh and ruthless treatment. It is impera-
tive that we should come to some sort of inter-
national agreement as to the tokens whereby one
may know an armed man to be an actual member
of an authorized army. This point was discussed
at Brussels, in 1874, an d 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 proposes 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. Schill, a Prussian staff officer, him-
self deserted, and induced his men to desert, and
then began to wage war against France. He was
then, according to international 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 of his own? But, in
spite of these facts, Napoleon's resolve to adhere to
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? International Law 185
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 in-
ternational 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 prop-
erty 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 au-
thorities of the victorious army. Such an arrange-
ment would, 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
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? 186 Treitschke
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? Exces-
sive 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 philanthropy? 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 Prussians, burns a few more villages than
he at first purposed. This is a consideration of
far less importance than that a nation should keep
the shield of its honour bright. The moral posses-
sions 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 property, provided that the
members of the hostile army are easily recognizable.
Requisitions are allowed; it is a general practice
to give promissory notes in exchange. The task
of getting them all paid is, of course, left to the
conquered. War against private property as such,
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? International Law 187
of which the laying waste of the Palatinate at the
end of the seventeenth century, by Melac, fur-
nishes us with a dreadful example, the wanton
burning of villages, is regarded today by all
civilized 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 claptrap
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, today, could not be said to
proceed from humanity or a fine sense of justice,
but merely from scandalous weakness. I
And even where dealing with civilized nations,
it is right to legalize 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 humanitarianism. 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 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
England which is fundamentally averse to being
1 Lecture delivered during the winter of 1891-2.
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? 1 88 Treitschke
schooled by noble thoughts; we also failed to
realize that France would not pay us back in our
own coin. This one-sided German humanitarian-
ism 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 fight-
ing with these marines. It will thus be seen that
the undertaking entered upon by us merely re-
leased troops to be used against ourselves. Every
advance in humanitarianism, as expressed in inter-
national 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 primarily 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 be-
longing to these companies during the war; but
may he keep the carriages and trucks? Our de-
cision to do so during the last war was a perfectly
just one, in view of the nature of the French rail-
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? International Law 189
ways. 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 Ger-
many, 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 commercial 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 civilization, 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 authorized to take part in national
defence, have a right to demand honourable treat-
ment as prisoners of war, and all attempts to force
prisoners into the enemy's army are contrary to
international law. It is, however, doubtful
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? Treitschke
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 last
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, only to be lost by them at a later
date, when it went over to the Swedes. At Stral-
sund, it went over to the Prussians, with whom it
finally remained, under the name of "Jung An-
halt. " But when Frederick the Great forced the
captured Saxons into the Prussian army, at Piena,
it became evident that a practice which had once
been followed as a matter of course, had now be-
come 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. If a State is not in a condition
to maintain its neutrality, all talk about the same
is mere claptrap. Neutrality needs as much de-
fending as the partisanship of belligerent States.
It is the duty of a neutral State to disarm every
soldier who crosses its borders. If it is unable
to do so, the circumstances justify the belliger-
ent States in ceasing to observe its neutrality,
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? International Law 191
even if it has allowed an armed enemy to enter
but one village.
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 held upon the sea. "
Such a state of things is deeply humiliating to our
pride as a civilized 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, all who thirst to realize 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 constantly 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 ex-
ponents of international law, and England's
barbarous views regarding maritime law, are
perpetually admired. All the other Powers would
be prepared and allow free circulation, under
certain conditions, to merchant ships in time of
war; England, alone, maintains the principle that
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? 192 Treitschke
no distinction is to be made at sea between the
property of the State and that of private persons.
And as long as this one Power insists on carrying
out this principle, all other nations must travel on
the same barbarous road. It is true that the con-
ditions 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 indiscrimi-
nately 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, imi-
tate their conduct. As early as 1780 the navies
of the second rank united themselves in an alliance
for armed neutrality, 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 connection with war shall be
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? International Law 193
allowed free passage on a neutral ship ; and, second-
ly, 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 to
it are actually closed by the presence of hostile
men-of-war.
Attempts were subsequently made in innumer-
able 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 agreement on
the immunity of private property at sea.
Theory,
alone is, however, powerless in questions of inter-
national 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 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 in-
telligence has gradually revealed itself in the midst
13
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? 194 Treitschke
of all the conflicting 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 realize in some
measure how universal history may develop at a
given moment. Further, nothing becomes a poli-
tician 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
learned 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
COLONIZATION.
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 today
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 assumption that this natural law has
ceased to hold good nowadays. For though the
new generation may turn away with indifference
from the catch-words 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 spontane-
ous passion. They sing their " Germany, Germany
above all! " with a joyful confidence, such as only
195
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? 196 Treitschke
isolated strong characters of the older generation
could cherish. They regard the struggle for par-
liamentary 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 eye-
lids should now use his strong arms to advance the
civilization 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 colonization.
To the ancient political system of Europe, which
was a result of the weakness of its central States,
a new combination of States has succeeded,
founded on the strength of Central Europe. By
means of a pacific policy on a large scale, our Gov-
ernment has obliged the other continental 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 founda-
tions of all civilization. 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
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? German Colonization 197
great work of expansive civilization. Like so
many 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
democracies 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 civilization,
together with a strong blending of European cul-
ture ; 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 im-
probable the old bellicose Islam, when it has
been driven out of Europe, may form a new power-
ful 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 withstand
the immense superiority of European arms and
commerce. The barrier is broken, and the stream
of European colonization 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
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? 198 Treitschke
that, " trees are not allowed to grow into the sky. " x
Nowhere in nature is mere largeness a decisive
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 youthful vigour which results from
natural growth from a root. There is indeed a
wonderful growth of commercial prosperity when
the rich capital and skilled energy of a civilized
nation come in contact with the untouched re-
sources of a new country; but quiet mental com-
posure, 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.
1 German proverb.
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? German Colonization 199
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,
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 Al-
mighty Dollar.
How often have the newspapers of both hemi-
spheres 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
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? Treitschke
emigration of their superfluous populations, and
the fulfilment of their new tasks of civilization.
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 fulfilment, and the New World will prove a
" Fountain of Youth" for Europeans in a deeper
sense than they once thought. [^Through the
'colonization 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 transatlantic world; but she feels
also a kind of moral shamefacedness when obliged
to confess that we Germans have only contributed
a very little to the great cosmopolitan works of
jnodern 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 colo-
nial policy, or even with the works of the French-
man, Ferdinand 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
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? German Colonization 201
the countries on the right of the Elbe, our nation
once carried out the greatest and most fruitful
schemes of colonization 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 colonized 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 older stock. For
more than two hundred years, Germany, solely
by the power of its free citizens, held supremacy
over the northern seas. By means of her commer-
cial colonies, the slumbering capacities of Scan-
dinavia 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
Renaissance and the Reformation had opened up
the way for modern civilization, 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,
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? 202 Treitschke
dreary time of peace which followed the Schmal-
kaldic War. Then it was that the German Pro-
testants had a safe prospect of recovering the last
command of the sea, if they had united with their
kindred co-religionsists 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, doctrinaire
idealism and easy-going self-indulgence, were
strongly flourishing. The nation degenerated
through theological controversies and the coarse
sensuality of a 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 civilization. During the
two centuries of struggle which followed, when we
had painfully to recover the rule in our own
country, every attempt at German colonization
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 maintain 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, accord-
ing 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
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? German Colonization
to assert herself valiantly among foreign nations.
On all the battle-fields of the world German blood I
flowed in streams; most of the crowns of Europe 1
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 in-
dividuals, but despicable as a wholeT) Again am
again the voice of Fate called to u^'sic vos non
vobis. " And when in recent times the peoples of
the Anglo-Saxon stock began to divide the trans-
atlantic world between them, the Germans were
again their unwearied associates. German traders
rivalled the leading firms of the world from Singa-
pore to Philadelphia. Millions of Germans helped
the North Americans to conquer their part of the
world for civilization.
But the Germans at home, had, so long as the
Federal Diet ruled over them, too heavy domestic
cares to think seriously about the lot of their
emigrants. They made a virtue of necessity, and
injheir philosophic way evolvedthe doctrine that
it was the historic destiny of
fe! errd~~fiar oUt there in the West with the genius of
It is true tnat tne Americans found
a less obscure description for this mysterious
"blending," though they now vainly seek to dis-
avow it; they said, "The Germans form an ex-
cellent fertilizer for our people! " When, just
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? 204 Treitschke
twenty years ago though I had then no anticipa-
tion of the near fulfilment of German destinies, I
ventured, in my treatise, Federal State and Uni-
fied State, to make the heretical remark that
only those States which possessed naval power
and ruled territories across the sea could rank in
future as great Powers, I was severely taken to
task by various critics. With the immeasurable
superiority, which, as is well-known, the judge
possesses over the culprit, they told me that these
were old-fashioned ideas, and that since the times
of the American War of Independence and the
founding of the Spanish colonies, the period of
colonization has come to an end. Such was the
general opinion in Germany in the days of the
Federal Diet. Meanwhile, England, not troubling
herself about the wisdom of our philosophical
historians, continued to extend her colonial empire
over half the world.
Since then, how strangely public sentiment has
changed! We now look out into the world with
other claims than formerly. Especially is this the
case with those Germans who live abroad, who
have a far livelier appreciation of the blessings of
the new empire than we at home. The uneasy
ferment of the last five years, although accom-
panied by the disintegration of ancient parties and
an abundance of wild animosity and ungrateful
fault-finding, has also given rise to some wholesome
self-criticism ; we have had our attention drawn to
our weaknesses, and begin to perceive in how many
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? German Colonization 205
respects we come short of worthily occupying the
position of a great nation. During these last
years, without any pressure from authority, there
has risen from the people themselves a spontaneous
demand for German colonies with as much em-
phasis and confidence in the future as formerly
accompanied the demand for a German fleet.
Since F. Fabri first discussed the subject, a whole
literature on the colonial question has come into
existence. In the course of these discussions, the
Germans discovered, with joyful surprise, that,
outside official circles, we possessed a considerable
number of practical political writers, which can
console us for the increasing dreariness and im-
poverishment of our parliamentary life. By the
persistent endeavours of our brave travellers,
missionaries, and merchants, the first attempt at
German colonization has had the way prepared for
it, and been rendered possible. Germany's modest
gains on the African coast only aroused attention
in the world at large, because everyone knew that
they were not due, as in the case of the colonizing
experiments of the Electorate of Brandenburg, to
the bold idea of a great mind, but because a whole
nation greeted them with a joyful cry, "At last!
At last! "
For a nation that suffers from continual over-
production, and sends yearly 200,000 of her chil-
dren abroad, the question of colonization is vital.
During the first years which followed the restora-
tion of the German Empire, well-meaning people
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? 206 Treitschke
began to hope that the constant draining away
of German forces into foreign countries would
gradually cease, together with the political persecu-
tions, the discontent, and the petty domestic
coercive laws of the good old times. This hope
was disappointed, and was doomed to be so, for
those political grievances were not the only, nor
even the most important causes of German emigra-
tion. In the short time since the establishment of
the empire, the population has increased by a full
eighth, and this rapid growth, in spite of all the
misery which it involves, is nevertheless the
characteristic of a healthy national life, which, in
its careless consciousness of power, does not trouble
itself with the warnings of the "two-child system. "
It is true that Germany is as yet by no means
over-populated, least of all in those north-eastern
districts from which the stream of emigration
flows most strongly. Many of our emigrants, if
they exercised here the same untiring diligence
which inexorable necessity enforces on them in
America, could also prosper in their old fatherland.
of the Turcos by the French put a curious com-
plexion on their claim to march at the head of
civilization. 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 expul-
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? International Law 183
sion 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 war-
fare is affected by the doctrine that a war can
only be waged between two States, and not be-
tween individual members of those States. This
doctrine regulates all warfare in theory, though in
practice only that on land. It should be possible
to recognize, by a distinguishing mark, all men
whom the State authorizes 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 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 com-
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? 184 Treitschke
plete uniform. It is a self-evident fact that bands
of unauthorized volunteers must expect to meet
with harsh and ruthless treatment. It is impera-
tive that we should come to some sort of inter-
national agreement as to the tokens whereby one
may know an armed man to be an actual member
of an authorized army. This point was discussed
at Brussels, in 1874, an d 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 proposes 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. Schill, a Prussian staff officer, him-
self deserted, and induced his men to desert, and
then began to wage war against France. He was
then, according to international 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 of his own? But, in
spite of these facts, Napoleon's resolve to adhere to
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? International Law 185
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 in-
ternational 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 prop-
erty 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 au-
thorities of the victorious army. Such an arrange-
ment would, 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
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? 186 Treitschke
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? Exces-
sive 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 philanthropy? 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 Prussians, burns a few more villages than
he at first purposed. This is a consideration of
far less importance than that a nation should keep
the shield of its honour bright. The moral posses-
sions 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 property, provided that the
members of the hostile army are easily recognizable.
Requisitions are allowed; it is a general practice
to give promissory notes in exchange. The task
of getting them all paid is, of course, left to the
conquered. War against private property as such,
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? International Law 187
of which the laying waste of the Palatinate at the
end of the seventeenth century, by Melac, fur-
nishes us with a dreadful example, the wanton
burning of villages, is regarded today by all
civilized 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 claptrap
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, today, could not be said to
proceed from humanity or a fine sense of justice,
but merely from scandalous weakness. I
And even where dealing with civilized nations,
it is right to legalize 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 humanitarianism. 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 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
England which is fundamentally averse to being
1 Lecture delivered during the winter of 1891-2.
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? 1 88 Treitschke
schooled by noble thoughts; we also failed to
realize that France would not pay us back in our
own coin. This one-sided German humanitarian-
ism 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 fight-
ing with these marines. It will thus be seen that
the undertaking entered upon by us merely re-
leased troops to be used against ourselves. Every
advance in humanitarianism, as expressed in inter-
national 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 primarily 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 be-
longing to these companies during the war; but
may he keep the carriages and trucks? Our de-
cision to do so during the last war was a perfectly
just one, in view of the nature of the French rail-
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? International Law 189
ways. 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 Ger-
many, 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 commercial 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 civilization, 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 authorized to take part in national
defence, have a right to demand honourable treat-
ment as prisoners of war, and all attempts to force
prisoners into the enemy's army are contrary to
international law. It is, however, doubtful
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? Treitschke
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 last
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, only to be lost by them at a later
date, when it went over to the Swedes. At Stral-
sund, it went over to the Prussians, with whom it
finally remained, under the name of "Jung An-
halt. " But when Frederick the Great forced the
captured Saxons into the Prussian army, at Piena,
it became evident that a practice which had once
been followed as a matter of course, had now be-
come 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. If a State is not in a condition
to maintain its neutrality, all talk about the same
is mere claptrap. Neutrality needs as much de-
fending as the partisanship of belligerent States.
It is the duty of a neutral State to disarm every
soldier who crosses its borders. If it is unable
to do so, the circumstances justify the belliger-
ent States in ceasing to observe its neutrality,
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? International Law 191
even if it has allowed an armed enemy to enter
but one village.
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 held upon the sea. "
Such a state of things is deeply humiliating to our
pride as a civilized 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, all who thirst to realize 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 constantly 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 ex-
ponents of international law, and England's
barbarous views regarding maritime law, are
perpetually admired. All the other Powers would
be prepared and allow free circulation, under
certain conditions, to merchant ships in time of
war; England, alone, maintains the principle that
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? 192 Treitschke
no distinction is to be made at sea between the
property of the State and that of private persons.
And as long as this one Power insists on carrying
out this principle, all other nations must travel on
the same barbarous road. It is true that the con-
ditions 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 indiscrimi-
nately 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, imi-
tate their conduct. As early as 1780 the navies
of the second rank united themselves in an alliance
for armed neutrality, 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 connection with war shall be
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? International Law 193
allowed free passage on a neutral ship ; and, second-
ly, 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 to
it are actually closed by the presence of hostile
men-of-war.
Attempts were subsequently made in innumer-
able 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 agreement on
the immunity of private property at sea.
Theory,
alone is, however, powerless in questions of inter-
national 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 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 in-
telligence has gradually revealed itself in the midst
13
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? 194 Treitschke
of all the conflicting 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 realize in some
measure how universal history may develop at a
given moment. Further, nothing becomes a poli-
tician 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
learned 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
COLONIZATION.
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 today
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 assumption that this natural law has
ceased to hold good nowadays. For though the
new generation may turn away with indifference
from the catch-words 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 spontane-
ous passion. They sing their " Germany, Germany
above all! " with a joyful confidence, such as only
195
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? 196 Treitschke
isolated strong characters of the older generation
could cherish. They regard the struggle for par-
liamentary 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 eye-
lids should now use his strong arms to advance the
civilization 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 colonization.
To the ancient political system of Europe, which
was a result of the weakness of its central States,
a new combination of States has succeeded,
founded on the strength of Central Europe. By
means of a pacific policy on a large scale, our Gov-
ernment has obliged the other continental 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 founda-
tions of all civilization. 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
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? German Colonization 197
great work of expansive civilization. Like so
many 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
democracies 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 civilization,
together with a strong blending of European cul-
ture ; 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 im-
probable the old bellicose Islam, when it has
been driven out of Europe, may form a new power-
ful 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 withstand
the immense superiority of European arms and
commerce. The barrier is broken, and the stream
of European colonization 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
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? 198 Treitschke
that, " trees are not allowed to grow into the sky. " x
Nowhere in nature is mere largeness a decisive
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 youthful vigour which results from
natural growth from a root. There is indeed a
wonderful growth of commercial prosperity when
the rich capital and skilled energy of a civilized
nation come in contact with the untouched re-
sources of a new country; but quiet mental com-
posure, 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.
1 German proverb.
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? German Colonization 199
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,
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 Al-
mighty Dollar.
How often have the newspapers of both hemi-
spheres 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
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? Treitschke
emigration of their superfluous populations, and
the fulfilment of their new tasks of civilization.
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 fulfilment, and the New World will prove a
" Fountain of Youth" for Europeans in a deeper
sense than they once thought. [^Through the
'colonization 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 transatlantic world; but she feels
also a kind of moral shamefacedness when obliged
to confess that we Germans have only contributed
a very little to the great cosmopolitan works of
jnodern 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 colo-
nial policy, or even with the works of the French-
man, Ferdinand 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
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? German Colonization 201
the countries on the right of the Elbe, our nation
once carried out the greatest and most fruitful
schemes of colonization 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 colonized 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 older stock. For
more than two hundred years, Germany, solely
by the power of its free citizens, held supremacy
over the northern seas. By means of her commer-
cial colonies, the slumbering capacities of Scan-
dinavia 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
Renaissance and the Reformation had opened up
the way for modern civilization, 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,
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? 202 Treitschke
dreary time of peace which followed the Schmal-
kaldic War. Then it was that the German Pro-
testants had a safe prospect of recovering the last
command of the sea, if they had united with their
kindred co-religionsists 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, doctrinaire
idealism and easy-going self-indulgence, were
strongly flourishing. The nation degenerated
through theological controversies and the coarse
sensuality of a 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 civilization. During the
two centuries of struggle which followed, when we
had painfully to recover the rule in our own
country, every attempt at German colonization
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 maintain 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, accord-
ing 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
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? German Colonization
to assert herself valiantly among foreign nations.
On all the battle-fields of the world German blood I
flowed in streams; most of the crowns of Europe 1
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 in-
dividuals, but despicable as a wholeT) Again am
again the voice of Fate called to u^'sic vos non
vobis. " And when in recent times the peoples of
the Anglo-Saxon stock began to divide the trans-
atlantic world between them, the Germans were
again their unwearied associates. German traders
rivalled the leading firms of the world from Singa-
pore to Philadelphia. Millions of Germans helped
the North Americans to conquer their part of the
world for civilization.
But the Germans at home, had, so long as the
Federal Diet ruled over them, too heavy domestic
cares to think seriously about the lot of their
emigrants. They made a virtue of necessity, and
injheir philosophic way evolvedthe doctrine that
it was the historic destiny of
fe! errd~~fiar oUt there in the West with the genius of
It is true tnat tne Americans found
a less obscure description for this mysterious
"blending," though they now vainly seek to dis-
avow it; they said, "The Germans form an ex-
cellent fertilizer for our people! " When, just
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? 204 Treitschke
twenty years ago though I had then no anticipa-
tion of the near fulfilment of German destinies, I
ventured, in my treatise, Federal State and Uni-
fied State, to make the heretical remark that
only those States which possessed naval power
and ruled territories across the sea could rank in
future as great Powers, I was severely taken to
task by various critics. With the immeasurable
superiority, which, as is well-known, the judge
possesses over the culprit, they told me that these
were old-fashioned ideas, and that since the times
of the American War of Independence and the
founding of the Spanish colonies, the period of
colonization has come to an end. Such was the
general opinion in Germany in the days of the
Federal Diet. Meanwhile, England, not troubling
herself about the wisdom of our philosophical
historians, continued to extend her colonial empire
over half the world.
Since then, how strangely public sentiment has
changed! We now look out into the world with
other claims than formerly. Especially is this the
case with those Germans who live abroad, who
have a far livelier appreciation of the blessings of
the new empire than we at home. The uneasy
ferment of the last five years, although accom-
panied by the disintegration of ancient parties and
an abundance of wild animosity and ungrateful
fault-finding, has also given rise to some wholesome
self-criticism ; we have had our attention drawn to
our weaknesses, and begin to perceive in how many
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? German Colonization 205
respects we come short of worthily occupying the
position of a great nation. During these last
years, without any pressure from authority, there
has risen from the people themselves a spontaneous
demand for German colonies with as much em-
phasis and confidence in the future as formerly
accompanied the demand for a German fleet.
Since F. Fabri first discussed the subject, a whole
literature on the colonial question has come into
existence. In the course of these discussions, the
Germans discovered, with joyful surprise, that,
outside official circles, we possessed a considerable
number of practical political writers, which can
console us for the increasing dreariness and im-
poverishment of our parliamentary life. By the
persistent endeavours of our brave travellers,
missionaries, and merchants, the first attempt at
German colonization has had the way prepared for
it, and been rendered possible. Germany's modest
gains on the African coast only aroused attention
in the world at large, because everyone knew that
they were not due, as in the case of the colonizing
experiments of the Electorate of Brandenburg, to
the bold idea of a great mind, but because a whole
nation greeted them with a joyful cry, "At last!
At last! "
For a nation that suffers from continual over-
production, and sends yearly 200,000 of her chil-
dren abroad, the question of colonization is vital.
During the first years which followed the restora-
tion of the German Empire, well-meaning people
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? 206 Treitschke
began to hope that the constant draining away
of German forces into foreign countries would
gradually cease, together with the political persecu-
tions, the discontent, and the petty domestic
coercive laws of the good old times. This hope
was disappointed, and was doomed to be so, for
those political grievances were not the only, nor
even the most important causes of German emigra-
tion. In the short time since the establishment of
the empire, the population has increased by a full
eighth, and this rapid growth, in spite of all the
misery which it involves, is nevertheless the
characteristic of a healthy national life, which, in
its careless consciousness of power, does not trouble
itself with the warnings of the "two-child system. "
It is true that Germany is as yet by no means
over-populated, least of all in those north-eastern
districts from which the stream of emigration
flows most strongly. Many of our emigrants, if
they exercised here the same untiring diligence
which inexorable necessity enforces on them in
America, could also prosper in their old fatherland.
