Then German ambitions were fixed on the Balkans, the Mediterranean, and Turkey, in accordance with the ancient conceptions of Paul de Lagarde and Liszt. The realisation of this plan, abandoned for a certain time, has become during the last ten years the essential aim of the Pan-German policy. It was completed by the German designs on the colonial empire of England. The Berlin-Baghdad railway menaced on one side India, on the other side Cairo and Egypt; it had its branches to Aden through Arabia, and to Cairo to reach Egypt.
In fact, the German imperialists based their action on three maxims:—
- Germany must be assured of abundant commercial outlets for her products.
- She must possess territories rich enough to provide her with all the raw materials indispensable to her industries, since her geographical position makes it unwise for her to be dependent on other States for these necessities.
- She must have at her disposal territories large enough to absorb her surplus population, so that Germans obliged to emigrate from their country may thus avoid denationalisation in alien countries.
A State which aspires to become a world power must fulfil these three essential conditions. The attempt to realise these thee conditions brought Germany to throw in her lot with Turkey.
