GERMAN COLONIZATION IN SOUTHWEST AFRICA 179
gram of his Government. He was opposed to colonial expan-
sion of the usual type at that time. It would be foolhardy
for the Empire, without trained officials and a well-developed
colonial system, to attempt to acquire unexplored lands
of doubtful value and to develop them through colonization
schemes. He was not sure that the Empire would be able
to furnish either the necessary funds or the required pro-
tection for persons and property.
But the extension of German sovereignty and protection
“to free settlements of German subjects, which are, in a
certain sense, offshoots of the German nation, in districts
which are not under the recognized sovereignty of any other
state,” was quite another matter. In such cases it was the
duty of the home country to protect not only the persons
and properties of such subjects, but the “territories which
they may have acquired” as well. The Government did not
propose, however, to assume the financial burdens in any
large degree of such territorial expansion. The development
of the new lands would be left to the energy and ingenuity
of individual pioneers and corporations; and imperial char-
ters, similar to those granted by England to the East Indian
Company and the North Borneo Company, would be issued
to the leading trading companies. For his policy was “not
to found provinces, but mercantile settlements, which would
be placed under the protection of the Empire; if they did
not succeed, the Empire would not lose much and the cost
would not have been very great.” The establishment of
coaling-stations, the granting of ship subsidies to encourage
trade, and the extension of the consular service, would,
therefore, mark the limits of the Government’s activities in
>olonial affairs for some time to come.
Bismarck was not a colonial enthusiast. He entered the
field only because it was forced upon him as a duty; and
as late as 1889 he declared, “I am no colony man.” As