Not content with the commercial conquests which German trade was making in all countries of the earth, the Kaiser wanted a place in the sun exclusively his own.

The world seemed, however, as firmly closed to the late-comer in search of colonies as it was open to him as the bearer of cheap and useful goods.

Such remnants of territory as lay on the counter he quickly seized, but they hardly made an empire.
It is not, therefore, a daring conjecture that the Kaiser was as carefully watching the decrepit empire of Spain as he was the traditional sick man of Europe, the empire of Turkey.

In 1898 revolutions were sapping both the extremities of the Spanish dominions.
The Kaiser, while he doubtless realized that Cuba would not fall to him, in all probability expected that he would be able to get the Philippines.

Certain it is that at the close of the Spanish American War he bought all the remaining Spanish possessions in the Pacific.