dominions,
and, possibly, the Scandinavian peoples. The resulting State or
Federation of States would thus extend from Ostend to Reval, from
Amsterdam (or Bergen) to Trieste.

Even those Germans who did not espouse these ambitious schemes became
deeply imbued with the expansively patriotic ideas championed by the
Kaiser. So far back as 1890 he ordered their enforcement in the
universities and schools[503]. Thenceforth professors and teachers vied
in their eagerness to extol the greatness of Germany and the civilising
mission of the Hohenzollerns, whose exploits in the future were to
eclipse all the achievements of Frederick the Great and William I.
Moreover, the new German Navy was acclaimed as a necessary means to the
triumph of German _Kultur_ throughout the world. Other nations were
depicted as slothful, selfish, decadent; and the decline in the prestige
of Great Britain, France, and Russia to some extent justified these
pretensions. The Tsar, by turning away from the Balkans towards Korea,
deadened Slav aspirations. For the time Pan-Slavism seemed moribund.
Pan-Germanism became a far more threatening force.

[Footnote 503: Latterly, the catchword, _England ist der Feind
_("England is the enemy"), has been taught in very many schools.]

Summing up, and including one topic that will soon be dealt with, we may
conclude as follows: Germany showed that she did not want England's
friendship, save in so far as it would help her to oppose the Monroe
Doctrine or supply her with money to finish the Bagdad Railway. For
reasons that have been explained, she and Austria were likely to
undermine British interests in the Near East; while, on the other hand,
the diversion of Russia's activities from Central Asia and the Balkans
to the Far East, lessened the Muscovite menace which had so long
determined the trend of British policy. Moreover, Russia's ally, France,
showed a conciliatory spirit. Forgetting the rebuff at Fashoda (see
_ante_, pp. 501-6), she aimed at expansion in Morocco. Now, Korea and
Morocco did not vitally concern us. The Bagdad Railway and the Kaiser's
court to Pan-Islamism were definite threats to our existence as an
Empire. Finally, the development of the German Navy and the growth of a
furiously anti-British propaganda threatened the long and vulnerable
East Coast of Great Britain.

A temporary understanding with Germany could have been attained if we
had acquiesced in her claim for maritime equality and in