ABSTRACT
Imperialism, in its early stages, is a natural force rather than a sentiment. It arises when a poor country with military strength comes in contact with a rich country with military weakness, as happened with the Spaniards in Mexico and Peru; or when a country possessed of industrial arts comes across one with natural resources but undeveloped technique; or when a country with a low rate of interest comes across a country with a high rate. War expenditure has sent up the rate of interest throughout the Old World, and has therefore stimulated foreign investment on the part of Americans. It has also left the Americans immensely stronger than any other Power as regards capacity for waging war. The inevitable consequence is the rapid growth of American imperialism, not by design, but merely from force of circumstances. Americans themselves are, for the most part, unaware of what is happening; they know that America is more concerned than formerly with what goes on in various parts of the world, but they imagine the motives of this concern to be purely benevolent. So, to a great extent, they are; but it is that kind of benevolence which thinks it a kindness to make other countries as like America as possible. This is the same kind that is practised by the Bolsheviks, and in both cases it lapses by easy gradations into imperialism.
