... Gambetta voiced the sentiment of the era, "to remain a great nation, or to remain one, you must colonize." Even before the 1870s national rivalries had played a direct role in European imperial expansion for the sake of national pride and there had been cases of territory being seized to keep it out of the hands of a rival power and not for any intrinsic value of its own. Muraviev's activities in the Far East in the 1850s, for example, had been inspired in large part by fear of British dominance of the coastline of northeast Asia and its possible consequences for Russia. From the 1870s onwards, national feelings became even more important, and according to M.S Anderson, "was breeding more bitter rivalries, more active envy, more acute fears, between nations.1" Governments had the fear that they would lose out to other countries if they did not participate in the ...

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