The colonizing nation is in the position of a merchant who increases his business by means of a considerable increase of his debts.

His use of the borrowed capital may be profitable, but none the less he makes his standing at the time of an emergency much more precarious.

In the same way colonies add to the responsibilities of a nation and scatter its military resources; and a nation placed in such a situation is much less likely to break the peace.
The economic and political development of Asia and Africa by the European Powers is in its infancy; and no certain predictions can be made as to its final effects upon the political relations among civilized nations.

Many important questions in respect thereto remain ambiguous.

What, for instance, are the limits of a practicable policy of colonial expansion?
In view of her peculiar economic condition and her threatened decrease in population have those limits been transgressed by France?
Have they been transgressed by Great Britain?
Considering the enormous increase in British responsibilities imposed by the maritime expansion of Germany, will not Great Britain be obliged to adopt a policy of concentration rather than expansion?
Is not her partial retirement from American waters the first step in such a policy?
Is not the Japanese alliance a dubious device for the partial shifting of burdens too heavy to bear?
How long can Great Britain afford to maintain her existing control of the sea?
Is there any way of ending such a control save either by the absolute exhaustion of Great Britain or by the establishment of a stable international system under adequate guarantees?
Will the economic development of Asia lead to the awakening of other Asiatic states like Japan, and the re-arrangement of international relations for the purpose of giving them their appropriate places?
A multitude of such questions are raised by the transformation which is taking place from a European international system into a political system composed chiefly of European nations, but embracing the whole world; and these questions will prove to be sufficiently difficult of solution.