(5) German expansion might also have come in the new way which the League of Nations now fosters. She might have spread her in fluence through the peaceful channels of trade, education, science, and friendly intercourse, especially in eastern Europe and Turkey, just as Japan now has an opportunity to do in China, and the United States in Mexico and South America.
For this kind of expansion the German prospects were particu larly bright. She was well on the way to success, but the process was too slow. Ambitious Germany wanted to achieve world suprem acy at a single bound. Therefore she chose the fourth alternative, and began to seek to control Turkey. First she went to work to build the Bagdad Railway, from Constantinople across Asia Minor to Mesopotamia. The water route from Germany to Turkey is long and is at the mercy of England. There is a short and safe land route, however, through Austria and the Balkans. If Germany could control this route together with the Bagdad Railway she would have a direct land route through the heart of the prize that she coveted.
The easiest way to work for this was through the Germans of Austria, the strongest element in the old Austro-Hungarian Empire. Hence the Germans of Germany combined with those of Austria to gain control of Serbia, the nearest territory available for that purpose. That led to the Great War, during the first three years of which Germany became supreme not only in the non-German parts of Austria, but in Serbia, Bulgaria, Rumania, and the Turkish Empire.
Thus Germany in a sudden unrighteous outburst and with the infliction of frightful suffering, carried out in three years an expansion like that which Great Britain, Russia, and the United States had accomplished slowly and with far less suffering during many gener ations. If Germany had accomplished this result by means of peace ful commercial penetration the world would have raised no objections greater than those raised against the expansion of all strong countries. Because she disregarded treaties and did deeds which no civilized people can tolerate, the whole world was against her, and she lost not only her recent ill-gotten gains, but her earlier ones in Denmark and Alsace-Lorraine, and all her foreign colonies.
The final result of the war was closely in accord with geographical conditions. Germany was defeated by the western nations living in
the most bracing cyclonic areas. Wherever she was pitted against nations living in regions less invigorating than her own she was success ful. After her defeat on the west she could not remain dominant in the Balkans and Turkey because England, France, and Italy are all interested in those regions and can easily reach them by water. In central Europe, however, the war left a number of small new nations, including Austria, Poland, and Czecho-Slovakia. These three, to gether with a greatly weakened and chaotic Russia, adjoin Germany. The Austrians, being Germans in race and language, sympathize with their fellow Germans. The others dislike Germany, but she is the nearest great manufacturing nation, and the one to which they naturally turn for capital, for engineers, and for the many services which less-developed countries constantly seek from those that are most highly developed. The countries bordering Germany on the east stand just enough behind Germany to look up to her and to let her dominate their commerce and industry. Thus in a limited sphere Germany is now carrying out the commercial method of expansion which she might far more successfully have carried out on a much larger scale if she had not chosen war instead of peace. Like the other great cyclonic nations she is expanding, and her expansion is primarily into the somewhat weaker regions adjacent to her on the east.
Methods of Colonial Control.—(1) Exploitation.—In the inevitable expansion of the strong nations of the cyclonic regions into other cli matic areas four different methods have been pursued: (1) exploita tion, (2) absolute control, (3) self government under foreign con trol, and (4) benevolent regulation. Exploitation consists of taking possession of a country solely to squeeze from it as much wealth as possible. The early Spanish explorers and colonists in Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, and many other places adopted this method. They robbed, oppressed, and enslaved the natives without thought of what would happen in the future. Hence Spain's colo nies gave her great wealth for a time, but soon became poverty stricken and resentful. When she fell into trouble they were quick to throw off her heavy yoke, and Spain in the long run was the loser.