Caprivi now became chancellor, and managed to negotiate a series of commercial treaties, in 1892-1894, with the countries of Central Europe (Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy), and later with Servia and Roumania, the purpose of which was to lower the import-duty on corn on condition that the foreign states favored German manufactures. These treaties at once induced the peasants to combine and in 1893 a great agricultural union was formed, called the Bund der Landwirte, with which an older association, the Deutsche Bauernbund, almost immediately coalesced.
Commercial and Colonial Expansion.—But the great features of recent German history have been the growth of German trade and commerce, the great colonial expansion in Africa and Polynesia, and the rapid increase of her navy.
MONUMENT OF VICTORY, BERLIN
Erected in the Königs Platz at the conclusion of the Franco-Prussian war of 1871. It consists of a circular temple surrounded with a colonnade of sixteen pillars, standing upon a square base or pedestal, and surmounted by a cylindrical shaft bearing a colossal gilt bronze Victory, winged and holding a wreath. The total height is one hundred and ninety-four feet. It may be ascended by an interior staircase. Upon the base are elaborate reliefs of the various campaigns commemorated.
In 1905 Germany intervened to disturb the French policy in Morocco, resulting in a conference of the powers interested at Algeciras. In 1911 Germany again intervened by sending a warship to Agadir for the protection of German property and German subjects. The action occasioned a complication of the European situation, and all but resulted in war. Germany’s claim for territorial compensation was not entertained by France, and Great Britain, as ally of France, claimed the right to be consulted if territory were to be conceded. The net result, after months of diplomatic intercommunication, was a readjustment of frontiers. (See [German Colonial Possessions].)
The history of the German Empire since 1914 is chiefly that of the leading Teutonic power in the great European war of 1914-1917.
ST. PETER’S, ROME