ABSTRACT
History is full of examples of organized States attempting, for economic ends, to conquer or to control politically the peoples of less highly organized States. In 1850 the forces which produced the imperialism of our own time were already in motion, but they were not yet in undisputed control of policy. In 1880 Bismarck was the German equivalent of a Little Englander. In 1880 a conscious policy of economic imperialism hardly existed. By 1885 the imperialists, explorers, and traders had forced his hand and converted him ostensibly to a policy of imperialism. His policy and his imperialism were purely economic. The European traders and financiers competed on the coasts of Africa, and up and down the length of Asia, with little or no help and interference from their own Governments. The European State has gone to Nigeria, the Cameroons, and the French Congo, to Tonkin, the Yangtse Valley, and Kiao-Chau, impelled by certain economic beliefs and desires.
