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IMPERIALISM
111

of the 20th centuries. He divides the world into five "main economic areas," as follows: (1) Central Europe (the whole of Europe with the exception of Russia and Britain); (2) Britain; (3) Russia; (4) Eastern Asia; (5) America; and he includes the colonies in the "areas" of the State to which they belong, "setting on one side a small number of countries not yet situated in these areas, such as Persia, Afghanistan, Arabia, Morocco and Abyssinia."

Here is a summary of these economic data:

Area Pop. Transport Trade Industry
CHIEF
ECONOMIC
AREAS
in
mill'ns
of sq.
km.
in
mill'ns
Rlys.
in thous.
of km.
Merch.
fleet in
in mills.
of tons
Impt.
& expt.
in mlds.
of Mks.
Outp't
of Coal
in mls.
of tns.
Outp't
of Iron
in mls
of tns.
No. of
Cotton
spindles
(mls.)
Cent. Europe 27.6 388 204 8 41 251 15 26
[23.6] [146]
British 28.9 398 140 11 25 249 9 51
[284] [355]
Russian 22.6 131 63 1 3 16 3 7
Eastern Asia 12 389 8 1 2 8 00.2 2
America 30 148 379 6 14 245 14 19

The figures in brackets show the area and population of the colonies

We notice three areas of highly developed capitalism—that is, with a high development of means of transport, of trade and of industry. They are the Central European, the British areas, and the American. Amongst them are three States which dominate the world: Germany, Britain, the United States. Imperialist rivalry and the struggle between them have become very keen because Germany only has a restricted area and few colonies; (the creation of "Central Europe" being not yet achieved, and it is being fashioned in a life-and-death struggle).

For the moment the distinctive feature of Europe is political division. In the British and American areas, on the other hand, political concentration