In Guatemala and Costa Rica the influence of Germany is immense; the importance of her capital in Central America can only be compared with that of England in the Argentine. It is valued at £15,000,000. Germans acquire landed property, build railroads, and found banks. In these regions two dominating influences are in conflict: German imperialism and the Monroe doctrine. The Kaiser hastens to recognise President Madriz in Nicaragua, while the revolutionists, protected by the United States, hasten to deprive him of his ephemeral power. Dispersed throughout Chili, Venezuela, Peru, and Central America, the Germans are concentrating in southern Brazil. They aspire to the integral colonisation of three Brazilian States--Santa-Catalina, Parana, and Rio Grande do Sul. Since 1825 a slow current of humanity has invaded these rich provinces: 350,000 Germans are established there, where they rule the municipalities, enjoy rights of self-government, despise the negroes and half-castes, and live in an aristocratic isolation. They { 293} have retained the language, traditions, and prejudices of their native country. In certain colonies of the South there are only 10 per cent. of Brazilian citizens; the Germans represent the prevailing race, the effective nationality. Their efforts further the territorial ambition of _Das Deutschtum_.
Economists recommend that the excessive immigration which constantly pours into the United States should be directed towards South America. A tenth part of the population of the United States admits to a Teutonic origin; there are eight millions of Germans in the huge northern democracy. Thanks to affinities of race, or thanks to the assimilative action of the national spirit, this colossal colony does not form a State within the State; its members adapt themselves to the American life, and in the numerous schools of the country they assimilate an Anglo-Saxon culture. They do not threaten the normal development of the republic, as do the negroes of the South and the Asiatics of the Far West.
In Brazil the Germans occupy eight thousand square miles of territory. They proudly contrast the magnificent destinies of the _Vaterland_ with the turbulent federalism of the Brazilian States. The colonisation companies affiliated to the powerful and active banks, in especial the _Deutsche Uberseeische Bank_, a marvellous instrument of conquest, are extending the prosaic Teutonic hegemony through Brazil and the whole of Latin America. In Chili Germans direct the education of the country, and organise the army; just as in the Prussian schools, they teach an intolerant patriotism and a strongly nationalistic history.