A School History of the Great War | Page 9

German control all the districts that have been mentioned above,
together with the Balkan states and other lands.
GERMANY WANTED MORE COLONIES.--Germany's commercial
expansion came after most of the world had been divided among the
other nations. She thought she must have more colonies to provide her
with raw materials and to give her markets for some of her surplus
manufactures. Other reasons why Germany wanted colonies were that

she might obtain more food, and that she might establish coaling
stations for her navy, so that it could protect her commerce, especially
her food-carrying ships. As the war has shown, Germany can hardly
produce a full supply of food for her own people.
The easiest way to get colonies seemed to be by making war against
some nation that already possessed them, in the hope that a victorious
Germany could seize the colonies she desired. On the other hand,
without war, she had gained some large colonies and was assured of
others in Africa, and she had secured a prevailing influence over the
immense domains of Turkey in Asia. By 1914 the Germans had more
than half completed a railroad through Turkey to the Persian Gulf, and
expected soon to dominate the eastern trade by the Berlin-Bagdad
route.
[Illustration: THE BERLIN-BAGDAD RAILWAY]
GERMANY WANTED "A PLACE IN THE SUN."--Germany was
acknowledged to be the strongest nation in continental Europe. Her
position as a world power, however, was disputed by Great Britain,
both by reason of the latter's control of the sea through her enormous
fleet, and by reason of Great Britain's numerous colonies all over the
world. It was galling to German pride to have to coal her ships at
English coaling stations. She wanted stations of her own. By bringing
on a war that would humble France to the dust and make Belgium a
part of Germany, thus giving her a chance to seize the colonies of
France and Belgium, Germany would at once attain a position in the
world's affairs which would enable her to challenge the power of any
nation on earth.
THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST.--German thinkers carried to an
extreme the theory of the survival of the fittest. This doctrine teaches
that all living things have reached their present forms through a gradual
development of those qualities which best fit them to live in their
present surroundings. Those that are best adapted live on, and produce
a new generation that are also well fitted to survive. Those that are not
fitted to their surroundings soon give up the struggle and die. The
Germans applied this same belief to nations, and claimed that only

those nations survived that could successfully meet world conditions.
They believed that war was an inevitable world condition, and that that
nation would survive that was best able to fight. They believed in war,
because they believed that just as nature removes the weak animal or
plant by an early death, so the weak nation should pay the penalty of its
weakness by being defeated in war and absorbed by the stronger one.
War would prove which nation was the most nearly perfect. The
Germans had no doubt that this nation was Germany. Acceptance of
this belief by the German people had much to do with bringing on the
present war.
GERMANY WANTED TO GERMANIZE THE WORLD.--As a result
of the reasoning outlined in the last paragraph, German writers taught
that those things which were German--their speech, their literature,
their religion, their armies, in short the manners, customs, and thoughts
of the Germans--were the best possible manners, and customs, and
thoughts. These things all taken together are what is meant by Kultur
(kool-toor´),--not merely "culture" as the latter word is generally used.
Since the Germans believed that their Kultur was the highest stage of
human progress, the next step, according to the view of their leaders,
would be to Germanize all the rest of the nations of the earth by
imposing German Kultur upon them. If possible, this was to be brought
about with the consent of the other nations; if not, then it was to be
imposed by force.
SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY.--1. Locate Antwerp, Rotterdam,
Hamburg, Bremen, East Prussia, Alsace-Lorraine. 2. Show on an
outline map the regions which Germany desired to control. Who would
have suffered? 3. If all countries adopted the German idea of war what
would be the condition of the world? 4. Has any nation the right to
impose its rule upon another people because it believes its own ideals
are the only true ones?
REFERENCES.--See page 26; also Conquest and Kultur (C.P.I.); War
Cyclopedia (C.P.I.), under the headings "German Military Autocracy"
and "Pan-Germanism."

CHAPTER III
GERMAN MILITARISM
WHAT IS MILITARISM?--Militarism has been defined as "a policy
which maintains huge standing armies for purposes of aggression." It
should be noticed