of the average population; and yet those counties are still crowded.[179] Among those who abandon their homes in search of easier conditions of living, certain ages and certain social and industrial classes predominate.

A typical emigrant group to America represents largely the lower walks of life, includes an abnormal proportion of men and adults, and about three-fourths of it are unskilled laborers and agriculturists.[180] Colonization, the most potent instrument of organized expansion, has in recent centuries changed the relative significance of the great colonial nations of Europe.

It raised England from a small insular country to the center of a world power.

It gave sudden though temporary preeminence to Spain and Portugal, a new lease of life to little Holland, and ominous importance to Russia.

Germany, who entered the colonial field only in 1880, found little desirable land left; and yet it was especially Germany who needed an outlet for her redundant population.