Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler

sometimes by work, but sometimes by plain doing nothing, depending on how things 'come
out,' to become the lord of the planet.
It cannot be emphasized sharply enough that any German internal colonization must serve
to eliminate social abuses particularly to withdraw the soil from widespread speculation, best
can never suffice to secure the future of the nation without the acquisition of new soil.
If we do not do this, we shall in a short time have arrived, not only at the end of our soil, but
also at the end of our strength.
Finally, the following must be stated:
The limitation to a definite small area of soil, inherent in internal colonization, like the same
final effect obtained by restriction of procreation, leads to an exceedingly unfavorable
politicomilitary situation in the nation in question.
The size of the area inhabited by a people constitutes in itself an essential factor for
determining its outward security. The greater the quantity of space at the disposal of a
people, the greater its natural protection; for military decisions against peoples living in a
small restricted area have always been obtained more quickly and hence more easily, and in
particular more effectively and completely than can, conversely, be possible against
territorially extensive states. In the size of a state's territory there always lies a certain
protection against frivolous attacks, since success can be achieved only after hard struggles,
and therefore the risk of a rash assault will seem too great unless there are quite exceptional
grounds for it. Hence the very size of a state offers in itself a basis for more easily preserving
the freedom and independence of a people, while, conversely, the smallness of such a
formation is a positive invitation to seizure.
Actually the two first possibilities for creating a balance between the rising population and
the stationary amount of soil were rejected in the so-called national circles of the Reich. The
reasons for this position were, to be sure, different from those above mentioned: government
circles adopted a negative attitude toward the limitation of births out of a certain moral
feeling; they indignantly rejected internal colonization because in it they scented an attack
against large landholdings and therein the beginning of a wider struggle against private
property in general. In view of the form in which particularly the latter panacea was put
forward, they may very well have been right in this assumption.
On the whole, the defense against the broad masses was not very skillful and by no means
struck at the heart of the problem.
Thus there remained but two ways of securing work and bread for the rising population.
3. Either new soil could be acquired and the superfluous millions sent off each year, thus
keeping the nation on a selfsustaining basis; or we could
4. Produce for foreign needs through industry and commerce, and defray the cost of living
from the proceeds.
In other words: either a territorial policy, or a colonial and commercial policy.
Both ways were contemplated, examined, recommended, and combated by different political
tendencies, and the last was finally taken.
The healthier way of the two would, to be sure, have been the first.
The acquisition of new soil for the settlement of the excess population possesses an infinite
number of advantages, particularly if wee turn from the present to the future.
For once thing, the possibility of preserving a healthy peasant class as a foundation for a
whole nation can never be valued highly enough. Many of our present-day sufferings are only
the consequence of the unhealthy relationship between rural and city population A solid
stock of small and middle peasants has at all times been the best defense against social ills
such as we possess today. And, moreover this is the only solution which enables a nation to
earn its daily bread within the inner circuit of its economy. Industry and commerce recede
from their unhealthy leading position and adjust themselves to the general framework of a
national economy of balanced supply and demand. Both thus cease to be the basis of the
nation's sustenance and become a mere instrument to that end. Since they now have only a