Page 183 - The interest of America in sea power, present and future

164 The Future in Relation to

acterized the great era of colonization, which
followed the termination of the religious wars
in Europe, and led to the world-wide contests
of the eighteenth century. In one nation the
action is mainly political, — that of a govern-
ment pushed, by long-standing tradition and
by its passion for administration, to extend the
sphere of its operations so as to acquire a
greater field in which to organize and domi-
nate, somewhat regardless of economical ad-
vantage. In another the impulse comes from
the restless, ubiquitous energy of the individual
citizens, singly or in companies, moved pri-
marily by the desire of gain, but carrying ever
with them, subordinate only to the commercial
aim, the irresistible tendency of the race to
rule as well as to trade, and dragging the home
government to recognize and to assume the
consequences of their enterprise. Yet again
there is the movement whose motive is
throughout mainly private and mercantile, in
which the individual seeks wealth only, with
little or no political ambition, and where the
government intervenes chiefly that it may re-
tain control of its subjects in regions where
but for such intervention they would become