EUROPEAN EXPANSION AND WORLD POLITICS 15 
by the trade of Europe. But by 1900, the sum of those 
affected had attained the enormous total of 1,579,825,000, or 
an increase of 1,220,000,000 in round numbers during the one 
hundred years. Of course, a goodly proportion of this in- 
crease is due to the remarkable growth of the population of 
all the European and American states; but the largest share 
must be attributed to the opening of vast regions in Asia and 
Africa. 
In this connection, it is to be noted that, after 1880, 
nearly all the European governments became alarmed at the 
conditions arising in their several states, due to this steady 
and astounding increase of population. In the ten years 
from 1885 to 1895 the population of Germany increased 
approximately 540,000 per year, Italy, 150,000, Austria- 
Hungary, 850,000, Great Britain, 280,000, and Russia 
(European), 450,000. And in 1895 the density of the 
population in Germany reached 250.5 per square mile, in 
Great Britain, 326, in Italy, 280, and in Austria, 214. At 
the same time, emigration from these countries was assum- 
ing equally alarming proportions. In the ten years from 
1878 to 1888 over 3,195,660 persons emigrated from Great 
Britain, 1,153,789 from Germany, and 1,496,151 from Italy; 
and the European governments became anxious to keep this 
moving population under their own flags and their own 
control. The only way this could be done was through pro- 
viding colonial centers to which they could direct their 
ambitious and increasing generations. No wonder that 
the Continental states looked with envy upon England 
with her extensive colonial empire, and were anxious to share 
in the creation of new fields of colonial activity and in the 
opening of great world markets. But they were slow in 
recognizing the real significance of the great transforma- 
tion that was in progress; and, fearing international com- 
plications and doubting their ability to meet successfully