Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/414

 402 THE MODERN NATIONS at first as Crown colonies — that is, with an administration con- trolled by the Crown. But after a short interval they were given ' responsible ' government, that is, an adminis- tration under their own control ; and subsequently the whole group of South African colonies were formed in 1909 into the federal Union of South Africa. This was the last com- pleted stage of that federation in groups of portions of the British empire which seems to offer the modern solution of the problem of retaining Imperial unity without choking local liberty. The Canadian dominion had provided the first example, and the Australian Federation a second in 1900. Meanwhile a new power had entered the colonial competition, and been brought into more complicated relations with Europe. 4. The T ne United States had not concerned themselves United with the doings or the rivalries of other nations except where American territory was concerned. They had had boundary and fishery disputes with Canada and therefore with the central authority of the British Empire ; they had asserted the ' Monroe doctrine ' formulated by one of the earlier presidents, under which they claimed to intervene if European powers sought to act against other American states. But now they were to be brought into more direct contact with the governments of the Old World. This was the immediate result of a war with Spain in which they became involved in 1898. The Spanish colonial dominion had for long been reduced to Cuba and other West Indian islands, and the Philippine group in the Pacific Ocean. We have The War seen how powerless the Spanish government itself ■with Spain. had become, before 1870. After a brief era of republicanism, Spain had settled the succession problem by recalling to the throne Alfonso, the son .of the exiled Isabella ; but she had not learnt to discipline herself to steady obedience to a stable rule, and the government of her colonies was arbitrary and uncontrolled. The misgovernment of Cuba led to insur- rections, the insurrections led to intervention by the United States, and the intervention to war. Neither the fleets nor the armies of Spain were in the least capable of coping with those of the United States, and when the war was ended she had to