The Economic Causes of War Author:John Leslie Garner, Achille Loria Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: opposition to the smuggling carried on by English ships in Spanish America and by England's desire to deprive Spain of her commerce with her own colonies. Hollan... more »d's struggle for independence against Spain was in reality simply a privateering war on the Spanish merchant marine, and the Hispano-American colonial trade. The war of England against Napoleon was merely a reaction against the Napoleonic conquests which threatened Britain's commerce. In cases like these war admirably fulfills its function of increasing the revenues of the wealthy and especially of the great English proprietors. "The peace has made one general malcontent Of these high-market patriots; war was rent." —Byron, Don Juan. The invasion of Algiers was the effect of economic causes. The Crimean war was brought about by England's determination to defend the route to India, which was of the first importance to her commerce. Field Marshal von Moltke, in the preface of the popular edition of his Franco- Prussian War, says: "The great wars of recent times have broken out against the will of the governments. The bourse has now acquired an influence which can mobilize armies for theprotection of its interests. Mexico and Egypt were occupied by European armies to secure the payment of debts due high finance.'' The wealth of the mining region of Lorraine caused its annexation to Germany in 1870. The Chinese war was undertaken to impede the progress of the United States. The Spanish war was merely the result of the decline in the profits of the American sugar manufacturers. The war in the Transvaal was the work of financiers and speculators in gold mines, who expected to reap great profits from a military adventure in South Africa. These hopes on the part of British financiers were in their turn aroused by the disquie...« less