396 HEREDITY AND SELECTION IN SOCIOLOGY 



in 1866 ; the crushing of the French Empire in 1871 ; the unity 

 of all the German States in a confederation of which Prussia 

 is the heart and soul ; and the whole policy which, during the last 

 thirty years, has aimed at securing for Germany the predominant 

 part in the counsels of the Sultan, which has aimed at the isolation 

 of France and England, which has aimed at developing, in a 

 word, the Wdtpolitik of Germany — all these are but so many 

 steps in a road, the end of which is intended by German states- 

 men to be the domination of Germany in Europe.^ 



But even this question of the hegemony of a single Power in 

 Europe is not the ultimate question confronting international 

 politics. There is the question, greater stiU, of the role of North 

 America in the world ; and those who foresee an economic 

 absorption of the international markets by the United States are 

 perhaps not altogether wrong. Certain it is that the economic 

 conflict between the New World and the Old is a problem of 

 ever-increasing importance. And behind even this question as 

 to the hegemony among the white races comes the still more 

 far-reaching question as to the relative positions of the white 

 and yellow races. Up till now it has been the white races which 



^ We do not mean to express any condemnation of German policy. 

 Nothing can be more extraordinary than the attitude of the anti-German 

 Press in England with regard to German Imperialism ; and those who bear 

 in mind the record of Great Britain will certainly attach very little impor- 

 tance to more or less sincere comments on " German perfidy " and " German 

 aggression." Prom a more scientific, and consequently a calmer, point of 

 view. Imperialism and militarism are in every country the results of that 

 fundamental need of expansion on which we have dwelt in the last chapter. 

 It is scarcely fitting that the most aggressive country in Europe, which is 

 periodically subject to war-fevers, should reproach Germany for wishing 

 to expand. During the last thirty years, besides the innumerable colonial 

 and frontier wars in Africa and India, England has twice menaced the 

 peace of Europe — ^in 1878, at the time of the Berlin Conference, and in 

 1898, at the time of the Fashoda incident ; she ' has conquered Egypt, 

 and placed it under her domination ; and she has destroyed the South 

 African Republics. With such a war-stained record, the English Press 

 would do well not to insist too much on the "Jingoism" of other 

 countries. 



