30 
EUROPE AND AFRICA 
long as he remained in office, he advocated extreme caution 
and moderation in colonial expansion.! The Empire ought 
not to acquire more land in Africa than it could safely 
handle; and no general colonial policy should be entered 
upon without the support of a united people and Parlia- 
ment. The duty of the Federal Government, he declared 
in 1884, was “to carry forward our colonial policy so long 
as they have reason to hope that a majority of the German 
nation are behind them, but to drop it should this hope be 
unjustified.” And again in another speech, “To carry on 
a colonial policy successfully the Government must have 
behind it in Parliament a solid majority in sentiment, a 
majority which is superior to the momentary decline of in- 
dividual parties. Without such a reserve of force in the 
background we cannot carry on a colonial policy. The na- 
tional energy, when neutralized by party struggles, is not 
strong enough with us to encourage the Government to 
undertake the step which we first tried in the case of Samoa 
in 1880.” To his mind it was better to trust to the genius 
of the Hanseatic merchants than to the rigors of the Prus- 
sian bureaucratic system, for the rule of the colonies; and 
the study of colonial methods and training of colonial 
officials should precede any territorial expansion on a large 
scale. 
The advice of the old chancellor was excellent, and Ger- 
many would have been saved much in men and money if it 
had been followed. With the establishment of a protector- 
ate over Southwest Africa with a nominal area of 215,000 
square miles, her work had barely commenced. Through 
the efforts of Dr. Nachtigal and the signing of more treaties 
with native chiefs, Togoland and the Cameroons were taken 
under her protection in the same year (1884), the latter 
being acquired only after a lively competition with the 
1 Resigned, 1890.