this type. But they were only one group among many. Huguenots from
France, Moravians from Austria, persecuted 'Palatines' and
Salzburgers from Germany, poured forth in an almost unbroken
stream. It was natural that they should take refuge in the only
lands where full religious freedom was offered to them; and these
were especially some of the British settlements in America, and
the Dutch colony at the Cape of Good Hope.

It is often said that the overflow of Europe over the world has
been a sort of renewal of the folk-wandering of primitive ages.
That is a misleading view: the movement has been far more
deliberate and organised, and far less due to the pressure of
external circumstances, than the early movements of peoples in the
Old World. Not until the nineteenth century, when the industrial
transformation of Europe brought about a really acute pressure of
population, can it be said that the mere pressure of need, and the
shortage of sustenance in their older homes, has sent large bodies
of settlers into the new lands. Until that period the imperial
movement has been due to voluntary and purposive action in a far
higher degree than any of the blind early wanderings of peoples.
The will-to-dominion of virile nations exulting in their
nationhood; the desire to obtain a more abundant supply of
luxuries than had earlier been available, and to make profits
therefrom; the zeal of peoples to impose their mode of
civilisation upon as large a part of the world as possible; the
existence in the Western world of many elements of restlessness
and dissatisfaction, adventurers, portionless younger sons, or
religious enthusiasts: these have been the main operative causes
of this huge movement during the greater part of the four
centuries over which it has extended. And as it has sprung from