The characteristic feature of imperialism is precisely that it strives to annex not only agricultural regions, but even highly industrialized regions (German appetite for Belgium; French appetite for Lorraine), because the fact that the world is already partitioned obliges those contemplating a new partition to stretch out their hands to any kind of territory, and because an essential feature of imperialism is the rivalry between a number of great powers in the striving for hegemony,.e., for the conquest of territory, not so much directly for themselves, as to weaken the adversary and undermine his hegemony.