Page 332 - The interest of America in sea power, present and future

310 Strategic Features of the Gulf of ;

naturally to an accumulation of resources such
as great mercantile communities always entail.
These, combined with its nearness to the
United States, and its other advantages of
situation, make Cuba a position that can have
no military rival among the islands of the
world, except Ireland. With a friendly United
States, isolation is impossible to Cuba.
The aim of any discussion such as this
should be to narrow down, by a gradual elimi-
nation, the various factors to be considered, in
order that the decisive ones, remaining, may
become conspicuously visible. The trees being
thus thinned out, the features of the strategic
landscape can appear. The primary processes
in the present case have been carried out be-
fore seeking the attention of the reader, to
whom the first approximations have been pre-
sented under three heads. First, the two deci-
sive centres, the mouth of the Mississippi and
the Isthmus. Second, the four principal routes,
connecting these two points with others, have
been specified; these routes being, i, between
the Isthmus and the Mississippi themselves
2, from the Isthmus to the North American
coast, by the Windward Passage 3, from the
;