Anvil is a tool used by blacksmiths, and it is the surface on which the object is placed which is worked on with a hammer- stroked with a hammer.
von Bülow meant (in 1899) that Germany will either have to colonize others ( be the hammer) or it would have to risk being colonized itself (being the anvil), hence showing the need for Germany to participate in colonization.
<span>Assuming that this is referring to the same list of options that was posted before with this question, <span>the correct two responses would be that massive amounts of resources were taken away from other economic sectors, and that the government failed to properly "guess" the proper production quotas. </span></span>
<span>The quote in your question is attributed to the European explorer Christopher Columbus. Columbus was of the belief that when he discovered North America, it was a sign that all the present earthly things were going to come to an end and be replaced with a "new heaven and new earth."</span>
Political cultural and economic gaps
