Enter the Fourth Reich..

Peter Oborne's column in the DT today is chilling thesis that the recent bailout of Greece will cement a chain of events leading to the virtual colonization of poorer EU countries by the rich ones, namely Germany. Enter the Fourth Reich.

Whenever Northern Europe, with or without France, decided to create an empire in which its manufactured goods would be marketed to poor countries in exchange for basic minerals and agricultural goods produced by cheap labor, the plan failed. Back in the 1700's such a plan was the talk of the town in London with respect to how England's relationship with America would be forged. Similar dreams prevailed in the UK and Europe regarding Africa's enormous potential as a market for manufactured goods and a producer of food and minerals.

Most of Europe intended to implement this dream through colonization.

The Dutch, however, were content to simply establish trading centers to stock, load and refurbish their East Indies merchant fleet. Cape Town was established as a refueling and re-provisioning station and only took on colonial characteristics with the rise of Boer immigrants. The Dutch never intended to actually rule; no money in that.

Ultimately, they had to rule owing to the restlessness of the natives. Hence, Kapstadt, Batavia and New Amsterdam. Nor were the Dutch immune to generous self-helpings of Shanghaied mariners haplessly sailing the Java and South China Seas. They rapidly learned that Chinese labor was infinitely more productive than Javanese and Sudanese tribes-people.