The Great Illusion: A Study of the Relation of Military Power to National AdvantageAngell, Norman
History
The Great Illusion: A Study of the Relation of Military Power to National Advantage
Angell, Norman
Commercial policy; Disarmament; Imperialism; War; War, Cost of
That is the story of the French and Dutch in India, and of the Spanish
in South America. But as soon as there grew up in those countries an
organized community living in the country itself, the whole problem
changed. The Colonies, in this later stage of development, have a value
to the Mother Country mainly as a market and a source of food and raw
material, and if their value in those respects is to be developed to the
full, they inevitably become self-governing communities in greater or
less degree, and the Mother Country exploits them exactly as she
exploits any other community with which she may be trading. Germany
might acquire Canada, but it could no longer be a question of her taking
Canada's wealth in precious metals, or in any other form, to the
exclusion of other nations. Could Germany "own" Canada, she would have
to "own" it in the same way that Britain does; the Germans would have to
pay for every sack of wheat and every pound of beef that they might buy,
just as though Canada "belonged" to England or to anybody else. Germany
could not have even the meagre satisfaction of Germanizing these great
communities, for one knows that they are far too firmly "set." Their
language, law, morals, would have to be, after German conquest, what
they are now. Germany would find that the German Canada was pretty much
the Canada that it is now--a country where Germans are free to go and
do go; a field for Germany's expanding population.
As a matter of fact, Germany feeds her expanding population from
territories like Canada and the United States and South America without
sending its citizens there. The era of emigration from Germany has
stopped, because the compound steam-engine has rendered emigration
largely unnecessary. And it is the developments which are the necessary
outcome of such forces, that have made the whole colonial problem of the
twentieth century radically different from that of the eighteenth or
seventeenth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account