ABSTRACT
The decade that saw Germany formally committed to a policy of Protection was notable for another political departure which modified her relations with the outside world even more profoundly. The adventurous spirit of the North Germans was similarly shown in the formation in the thirteenth century of the great trading and maritime corporation known as the Hanseatic League, with depots not only in a large number of German towns but in many foreign countries. The serious attempts to create the beginnings of a German colonial empire were made in the last quarter of the seventeenth century by the Great Elector of Brandenburg. The Brandenburg rulers have always been good men of business, and none had a clearer idea than the Great Elector of the value of trade for his country. The Wendish province of Brandenburg was so colonized and afterwards brought into the old German Empire as a part of what is now Prussia.
