Kelly Millers History of the World War for Human Rights | Page 6

military machine the world had ever seen; she was building a navy that threatened the supremacy of England on the sea.
BUILT ON A FOUNDATION OF SAND.
In spite of this brilliant development, the empire rested on a foundation of sand. You will never understand the World War unless you grasp this thought and its justification. The government was autocratic, though under the form of a constitutional government. The entire military class in Germany held to theories of government, of national rights and wrongs that belonged to the middle ages. Theories of state-craft which the world long since outgrew were proclaimed and taught, and enforced by every means at command of the government, the military class, the professors, scientists and theologians of Germany. Education and religion were state controlled. As a consequence, every German child from his cradle to his grave was under the influence of state officials and never allowed to forget reverence for the kaiser, the glorious military record of Germany, German supremacy in every department of culture. Such a government was hopelessly behind modern ideas.
WILLIAM II.
William II was the third emperor of Germany,--also the last. His reign began, in pomp and ceremony, June 15, 1888, it ended in the darkness and gloom of night, shortly before the signing of the armistice, November 11, 1918. Other reigns have been longer in duration; none surpassed his in deeds. When his reign began he said he would lead his people to "shining days." He did so; but "shining days" ended in despairing night.
Personally, William II was an able man, but he was not well balanced. In the early days of his reign, Bismarck confided to a friend that it would some day be necessary for Germany to confine William II in an insane asylum. We must remember his lineage, his long line of ancestors dating back to the Robber Knights of the Middle Ages, all used to the exercise of autocratic power. Medieval conceptions were his by inheritance. He believed he was divinely commissioned to rule Germany; he said so in his speeches. He believed he was a man of destiny who was to advance Germany to the zenith of earthly greatness; he himself, not someone else, asserted this. He asserted that while Napoleon failed in his great scheme of conquest, he, by God's help, would succeed. Every prominent military leader in Germany applauded such beliefs. He said that when he contemplated the paintings of his ancestors, and the military chiefs of Germany, who advanced the insignificant Mark of Brandenburg to the rank of the most powerful state in Europe, they seemed to reproach him for not being active in similar work. But we now know that he was not idle.
ACTIVITIES IN WHICH HE WAS INTERESTED.
One year after the accession of William II he paid a spectacular visit to "his friend" (as he called him) Abdul Hamid, Sultan of Turkey, the head of one of the most cruel, licentious, incompetent, blood-thirsty governments that ever cursed the world; greeted him with a kiss, put on a Turkish uniform (fez and all), and assured the Mohammedan world that he was henceforth their friend. The ignorant Turks actually supposed he had become a Mohammedan and native papers spoke of him as "His Islamic Holiness." In the light of history, the meaning of all this is so clear that he who runs may read, and the wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein. This visit was repeated in 1898. For more than twenty years every effort was made to extend German influence in Turkey, because that country with its minerals, its oils, its wonderfully strong strategical location was vital to the success of a vast scheme of conquest official Germany with William II as leader was contemplating.
PAN-GERMANISM.
Two years after his accession, there was organized the Pan-Germanic League. This League soon attracted to its ranks the entire class of Prussian Junkers, virtually all the military class, and a galaxy of writers and speakers. The purpose of the league was to foster in the minds of German people the idea that it was their privilege, right and duty to extend the power, influence and political dominance of Germany to all parts of the world, peacefully if possible, otherwise by the sword. This doctrine was taught openly and boldly in Germany in books and pamphlets and by means of lectures with such frankness and fullness of details that the world at large laughed at it as an exuberant dream of fanatics. Intellectual, military, and official Germany was in earnest. Her generals wrote books illustrated with maps showing the stages of world conquest; her professors patiently explained how necessary all this was to Germany's future; while her theologians pointed out it was God's will. But the world at large, except uneasy France, slept on.
OUTWORKINGS OF THE PLOT.
It was