Page 85 - The Interest of America in Sea Power Present and Future

66 The Isthmus and Sea Power. ;

— to all, at least, of those peoples who, whether
directly commercial or not, share in the wide-
spreading benefits and inconveniences arising
from the fluctuations of trade. But enterpris-
ing commercial countries are not content to be
mere passive recipients of these diverse in-
fluences. By the very characteristics which
make them what they are, they are led per-
force to desire, and to aim at, control of these
decisive regions ; for their tenure, like the key
of a military position, exerts a vital effect upon
the course of trade, and so upon the struggle,
not only for bare existence, but for that in-
crease of wealth, of prosperity, and of general
consideration, which affect both the happiness
and the dignity of nations. Consequently, in
every age, according to its particular tempera-
ment and circumstances, there will be found
manifested this desire for control ; sometimes
latent in an attitude of simple watchfulness
sometimes starting into vivid action under the
impulse of national jealousies, and issuing in
diplomatic rivalries or hostile encounter.
Such, accordingly, has been the history of
the Central American Isthmus since the time
when it became recognized as the natural cen-