The German Empire 1867-1914 by William Harbutt Dawson

Author:William Harbutt Dawson [Dawson, William Harbutt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781351059411
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2018-05-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XIX

(1890–1900)

EMPEROR WILLIAM II. DOMESTIC AFFAIRS—(i) THE NEW COURSE

THE position of the Minister who followed Prince Bismarck would have been difficult in the most favourable circumstances; the accidents of the first Chancellor’s retirement made it also in a special degree unenviable. Count Waldersee, who had not come to the helm after all, had said that while he would not like to be Bismarck’s successor he would gladly take a turn after that successor had eased the way. General von Caprivi had not wished for a distinction which, though a proud, was a painful one, and when in accepting it he asserted that he did so from a feeling of “imperious patriotic duty,” his words were not those of empty convention. He succeeded at once in disarming his critics, however, when at his first official appearance in the Prussian Diet he confessed with creditable candour that he had hitherto been “strange to political affairs,” yet promised that he would do his best. He had a high reputation as a capable administrator both in the army and the navy, for though a soldier he had once been head of the Admiralty, and all who knew him praised him as a man of perfect honour. Such qualities, added to soldierly simplicity and straightforwardness, more than counterbalanced for absence of brilliancy, and promised him success in the task of tiding over a critical transition.

Nevertheless, one of his first measures brought down upon him much shortsighted and undeserved censure. This was the conclusion in July, 1890, of the African convention whereby Germany ceded to Great Britain her rights in Witu and agreed to recognize a British protectorate over the dominions of the Sultan of Zanzibar, while she received in return the island of Heligoland and certain advantageous frontier rectifications in East Africa (giving access to the lakes), West Africa, and South-west Africa. The acquisition of the Elbe island realized a long-cherished German dream, but all political parties, and the colonial party in particular, contended that the price paid for it was excessive, since the renunciation of all claims in respect to Zanzibar and Witu made a great Central African empire impossible. For Great Britain the agreement had the advantage that there was henceforth no danger of British East Africa being hemmed in by German territory. On the other hand the cession of Heligoland was severely criticized, though the fact that it was made by a Conservative Ministry kept the militant imperialists under restraint.

To Germans in general the possession of Heligoland appealed at that time only on the ground of sentiment. The naval authorities, looking further, already recognized its importance for the completion of their plans and were prepared to buy it on any terms. Nothing was said in the agreement about the harbour of refuge for the benefit of British shipping which Bismarck had dangled before Lord Granville’s eyes when at Caprivi’s suggestion he first proposed the cession of Heligoland six years before, and it was understood that the only shipping which the island, when duly fortified, would protect would be the imperial navy.

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