AMERI CA AND THE RACE FO R WO R L D D O M I N I O N A M ERICA AN D THE RA CE FO R WO R L D D O M IN IO N Form erly P ublished in France under the “ ’ title Le DéeIin De L Euro e , p J BY D M N N l! A . E A G EO PRO 38803 GEOGRAPHY AT THE SORBONNE T R A N S L A T E D B Y ARTHUR BARTLETT MAURI CE ' h u m a n c rrv N . Y . A N D 1 0 3 0 N ro , , : D B P G 8: CO MPAN Y OU LEDAY, A E 1 9 2 1 1 4239 A ' co rm cm , xgz x, n no unwm v, n o : co u rm ALL HTS ESE VED NC D THA 0! TRA T O RIG R R , I LU ING T NSLA I N N O YORBIGN N ES C D THE SCAND V AN I T LA GUAG , IN LU ING INA I PU B L I S H E R ’ S N OT E ALUATIONS o f foreign imports , ex o rts . p , etc , etc , mentioned in Professor ’ D em angeo n s book are interesting pri marily for purposes of comparison with the cor fo r o r responding figures previous years periods, as showing growth or decrease . Translation of these am ounts into terms ' o f American money w o f ould, therefore, be only secondary interest or pertinence . However, for the convenience o f as ar such readers may be interested , the p values o f foreign m oneys mentioned in the book are here given Par Value in Am erican Mo ney (Great Britain) Po und Sterling Shilling o 8 Fl rin .4 (Japan) Yen (Argentina) Peso (Spain) Peseta (Italy) Lira (France) Franc AMERI CA AND THE RACE FO R W O R L D D O M I N I O N x ii INTRODUCTION in a word, she fed the world wi th the treasures of s r . her money, her t ength , and her life But has the hour of the passing of o ur hegemony struck ! Is o ur o ld continent on the po int of eclipse by the suns o f young and rising nations ! The end of the nineteenth centu ry had al ready shown us the vitality and the power of o f certain nations outside Europe ; some, like the o United States, nourished by the blood f Europe ; ’ others, like Japan, modelled on Europe s ex ’ ample, and directed by Europe s advice . In ff stimulating the e ort of these newcomers, in r at ophying the productive virtues of Europe, has not the war brought us to the very brink of the precipice ! a o Depopul ted and impoverished, will Eur pe be likely to hold the economic ties that have been the foundation of her wealth ! Will she continue to be the great bank furnishing the capital to ! As new lands capitalistic powers Japan and, S above all , the United tates, have become her rivals . Will the equipment that transports from sea to sea the men and the products of the earth remain in her hands ! Other merchant marines are being built to dispute the profitable sh e monopoly. Will be always the great fac tory selling to young peoples the manufactured articles ! In the United States and Japan great INTRODUCTION industries are organizing and developing in menacing opposition . Will she always be the great economic force ! No longer is she alone in exploiting, colonizing, and financing . Well may it be said that we are beholding o Europe in decay . Therefore it is wise to c n sider in just what parts o f the world the in fluence of Europe is crumbling and which are the nations directly benefiting by this change of . ff fortune It seems clear that, in di erent spheres ff o f and by di erent means , the heirs Europe are S the United tates and Japan . The Monroe Doctrine has long limited European political ambition upon the American continent ; the tremendous effort o f the United States in in du strial production is imposing similar bounds ’ upon Europe s economic expansion . Latin o u r s America, long commercial va sal , is yielding o little by little t Yankee influences ; and , more a o l over, by curious turn in the current, d Eu rope herself is actually opening to young America o a kind f land to be colonized . In the Far East, Japan is working to achieve economically the aspira tion that her missionaries and diplo mats are preaching from India to Siberia : Asia f r s o the Asiatics . Thus race from among whom Europe long recruited slaves and labourers are beginning to demand a political equality that INTRODUCTION will be the first step to their economic independ i ence . It s the entire fortune of Europe that is tottering . It will perhaps take years for this shifting of no w o n o u r power, going before eyes , to become complete . But both duty and interest warn us to keep open this new page of history . The writer has drawn his information from various parts of the globe ; wherever Europeans have visited . His attempt is merely to correlate the most significant facts, with the hope that in every land men better informed about local conditions will lend their cooperation . For the moment it is enough to indicate the subject ’ s importance and direction . l lTh e rm cx al so urce o f nfo r a o n are c ed in th e co ur o f th p p s i m ti it se e narrative . Mo s t o f the figures q uo ted are fro m eith er o flicxal do cum ents o r eco no m ic pu blica io ns The au ho r has ra n m uch fro m ar c es h a h ave a ar n F n t . t d w ti l t t ppe ed i re ch and fo reign newspapers ; bu t these articles h ave always been verified and co m h l t! : t ared . An es ec a de is o ed to t e B le uo rdm r the Da Bu e in p p i l bt w a Q ( ily ll t ) , and the Bulletin Peri odigue de la Preu e Etrangere (Perio dical Bulleti n o f the Fo re n Press u sh ed th e Mi n s r o f Fo rei n Affa rs and the M n s r o f ig ) , p bli by i t y g i , i i t y W Th c n h bh catio n es a ar. e ar es i ese u s ec ho se dea n Wi h So u h ti l t p , p i lly t li g t t Am er ca h ave een re ared i h the rea es care. i , b p p w t g t t AME R I CA AND THE RACE FO R W O R L D D O M I N I O N 4 AMERICA AND WORLD DOMINION o ! w in the early part of the reign of L uis III, as reduced almost to ruin ; most of the forges stopped work, and some never resumed activity . It took a long time to reap the blessings of peace, ff and despite the e orts of Colbert, the century ended without metallurgy having fully recovered its earlier prosperity . Nearer at hand, we know that the Napoleonic wars left France enfeebled, while across the Channel the industrial revo lu tio n builded the modern wealth o f Great Britain . But these comparisons are inadequate because the great war has been a plague on a scale hitherto unknown ; bringing to grips armies of many millions, representing lands of many hundreds o f millions ; employing destructive engines that have mowed down millions of lives , annihilated what had been wrought by s o f centurie toil and thrift, brought about the upheaval o f the earth itself. The war struck th e o f at roots a wise and exact civilization , disorganizing the agencies that supported it, tumbling down the very foundations o f its existence, the intensive production of fields, the l o f de icate and specialized work factories, the business of transport and of international rela i tions . In attempting to estimate the evil , it s f seen that, above all , the war has had three ef ects upon European economy : it h as s topped pro THE WEAKENING OF EUROPE 5 duction , it has forced Europe to buy overseas, thus turning former debtor nations into creditors ; n a d, as a terrible agent of destruction , it has s ubstituted the task of reconstruction fo r that f r o f creating new wealth o exchange . Above all , in its destruction of life, it has dried up the source of energy and vitality . TH E I O F O U TION N U RO P I . CR SIS PR D C I E E U O E R PE , even before the war, was unable to No w sh export food products . e is becoming more and more dependent upon other lands . With the war, while her agricultural yield was being gravely diminished, forcing her to costly r impo tations, overseas production was stima lated in order to supply the enormous needs of the belligerent nations .