IV
COLONIES AND SEA POWER
Colonies and Sea Power are supposed to be closely connected: it is to be proved that Colonies are only born of Sea Power, and also that Sea Power is born of Colonies.
The natural birth of colonies is admirably described by Captain Mahan. As a nation sent out commercial shipping it felt the need of distant stations—commercial bases—and these grew into colonies. 'A foothold in a foreign land, a new outlet for what it had to sell, a new sphere for its shipping, more employment for its people, more comfort and wealth for itself.'[1] This was the old idea of colonies when the world was vast and mostly unexplored. So were founded those Phœnician colonies which developed into states like Carthage, in no way bound to the mother state, but sympathetic in many matters from ties of self-interest, chiefly through a supreme distrust of other nationalities. Those who went forth, however, went always to found a new empire, not to create a foreign possession.
- ↑ Influence of Sea Power on History.
