GERMANTOWN 



2467 



GERMANY 



History. Germany began to take possession 

 of this region in 1884. The boundaries of the 

 colony were fixed by treaty with England and 

 Portugal in 1890. In 1903 a Hottentot tribe 

 revolted, and in the following year the power- 

 ful Herero nation rose in rebellion. This revolt 

 was only subdued after three years of very 

 stubborn fighting. 



Shortly after the outbreak of the War of the 

 Nations in 1914 British troops under General 

 Louis Botha invaded this German possession. 

 After a campaign characterized alike by bold- 

 ness of conception and rapidity of execution, 

 Botha conquered one after another the chief 

 points of the colony, t On May 12, 1915, he 

 hoisted the British flag over Windhoek, the 

 capital, and on July 9, 1915, the German 

 authorities were finally compelled to surrender 

 the colony to the British. O.B. 



GERMANTOWN, BATTLE OF, an important 

 engagement of the Revolutionary War in 

 America, on October 4, 1777, between the 



Americans under Washington and the British 

 under Howe. Washington opened hostilities 

 at daybreak and was at first successful, but 

 in a dense fog one American column mistook 

 another for the enensy and opened fire upon it. 

 The American troops were thrown into con- 

 fusion, and a general retreat followed. Wash- 

 ington's courage in attacking the British so 

 soon after the defeat at Brandywine led the 

 hitherto undecided French court to form an 

 alliance with the United States, and this fact 

 gives to Germantown its historic importance. 



Germantown, the village where the battle 

 was fought, was a former suburb of Phila- 

 delphia, but since 1845 has been included 

 within the city limits. It was settled in 1683 

 by a party of Germans. The first paper mill 

 in America was erected there in 1690, and in 

 the little town in 1743, the first American 

 edition of the Bible was printed. Its pic- 

 turesque location, fine architecture, and beauti- 

 ful parks make it a desirable residence place. 



THE STORY OF GERMANY 



lERMANY, known until November, 

 1918, as the GERMAN EMPIRE, is a state of Cen- 

 tral Europe, and was one of the important coun- 

 tries of the world. As a state it was, in its late 

 form, very young younger even than the 

 United States; but the beginnings of its history 

 go far, far back, and no phase in the life of 

 Europe is more interesting than the tracing 

 of Germany's growth in size, in power and in 

 national consciousness. The name to-day is 

 likely to recall thoughts of the War of the 

 Nations, in which Germany ranged itself, in 

 1914, with comparatively weak Austria, against 

 a dozen powers, and interest in Germany and 

 its affairs was thereafter keener than ever be- 

 fore. The facts which are related in this article 

 must refer in large measure to Germany as 

 it was just before the War of the Nations. 

 From the outbreak of that struggle there was 

 about the country such a wall of steel that little 

 information as to internal conditions reached 

 other peoples. 



What Germany Comprises. The German 

 Empire was not, like Russia, a unit, with divi- 

 sions merely for purposes of local government; 

 nor was it, like the United States, a union of 

 commonwealths of equal rank and with equal 

 powers and privileges. It was made up of king- 

 doms, grand duchies, duchies, principalities and 

 free cities twenty-six states in all; the dis- 

 tribution of rights and privileges was a rather 

 complicated matter and can be understood only 

 in connection with the history of the country. 

 For every complexity, no matter how strange 

 it may seem at first sight, has its explanation 

 in some crisis in the growth of the state. 



The empire had in some ways a peculiarly 

 favorable location, for it was in close connection 

 with most of the great states of Europe. On 

 the east were Russia and Austria-Hungary; on 

 the south Austria-Hungary and Switzerland; 

 on the west, France, Belgium and Holland; 

 and on the north the North Sea, Denmark and 

 the Baltic Sea. Germany was between latitudes 



