ABSTRACT
The social Darwinist and racist doctrines of imperialism were also expressions of the profound malaise caused by the structural changes within German society during the course of the Great Depression. Attracted by the possibilities of higher wages and of greater opportunities, and no longer bound by feudal obligations, the eastern land labourers moved west to the industrial centres. The immediate problem was not so much the United States as Russia, for here economic and political considerations conflicted. After the wars of unification Bismarck had based his foreign policy on an understanding between the three great conservative powers, Russia, Austria-Hungary and Germany. With the dismissal of Bismarck and the appointment of Caprivi, the ‘Chancellor without a perch or a blade of grass’, the alliance between industry and agriculture, between rye and iron, threatened to collapse. In spite of the fierce criticisms of the agrarians, the majority of Germans welcomed the trade treaties.
