must be carefully studied in order to grasp its real signifi-
cance. At first, the European states directed their efforts
towards the acquisition of territory and the founding of
colonial empires, in order to secure commercial power and
the control of trade centers. As time went on, however,
their point of view changed; and the movement, within the
last decade, has become economic and commercial, rather
than territorial. Narrow and selfish ideas of colonial poli-
tics and economics have given place to broader and saner
conceptions of the relations of the mother countries to their
offspring and to one another. The European powers have
realized that the acquisition of vast territories is not in
itself genuine national expansion, and that these great pos-
sessions cannot be maintained without a scientific study of
their peoples, customs, and institutions, and the proper de-
velopment of their governments and natural resources. This
places a great burden upon the home country, as it involves
the expenditure of immense sums of money and the employ-
ment of hundreds of its best citizens. And the nations have
learned that, after all, the world is a small place where the
interests of all constantly overlap, and where it is no longer
wise or possible to maintain exclusive trade monopolies.

Previous to 1880, the European governments were too
much occupied with local affairs, and too weak financially
and economically, to think seriously of colonial empires.
When the smoke of those vital conflicts of the nineteenth
century -- the Franco-Prussian War and the Russo-Turkish
struggle of 1877-78 -- had cleared away, and the map of
Europe had been adjusted for a time with a fair degree of
satisfaction, the statesmen were able to rise above the petty
strife for military glory and local territorial aggrandize-
ment, and to take a saner, broader view of a nation's des-
tiny. And a transformation was begun which was to lift
European diplomacy out of its Mediterranean leading-strings

-2-