When the German Parliament convened, nothing could be kept under wraps anymore. At the very least, Britain, France, and the other countries already knew that there was a force within Germany casting covetous eyes on overseas colonies.
Just as Bismarck had said, the current German government could not possibly waste effort on those rotten lands. The rotten lands were no more than Africa and the islands of the Pacific Ocean. The good places—India, Indochina, the Caribbean Sea coast, the Middle East, North Africa, and Australia—were all under British and French control.
Latin America was rather special. It was now considered an independent continent, not anyone's colony, at most a semi-economic colony of Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, and the United States.
Most of Latin America had once been colonies of Spain and Portugal. After the Spanish and Portuguese colonial forces were driven out of Latin America, a vacuum of power emerged there. European colonial powers such as Britain, France, and the Netherlands had tried to fill that void, but they encountered resolute opposition from the United States and the former suzerains, Spain and Portugal.
In 1823, the United States even issued the Monroe Doctrine, declaring that America was for Americans and opposing European countries colonizing and interfering in American affairs. Britain, France, and the others were wary of the strength of the three nations, so they did not forcibly carve it up. By the time American national power surged in the nineteenth century, even if the European great powers wanted to divide it up, they no longer had the strength to do so.
With Bismarck in Germany, the colonialists could still be suppressed. But Bismarck was, in the end, only a chancellor and could represent only this administration.
Hohenzollern Castle.
"Representative Klein, many thanks for your information. Please accept this small