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