Page 87 - The interest of America in sea power, present and future

68 The Isthmus and Sea Power.

mus and the Caribbean were vital elements in
determining the issue of that stern conflict.
For centuries, also, the treasures of Mexico
and Peru, upon which depended the vigorous
action of the great though decadent military
kingdom of Spain, flowed towards and accumu-
lated around the Isthmus, where they were
reinforced by the tribute of the Philippine
Islands, and whence they took their way in the
lumbering galleons for the ports of the Penin-
sula. Where factors of such decisive influence
in European politics were at stake, it was in-
evitable that the rival nations, in peace as
well as in open war, should carry their ambi-
tions to the scene ; and the unceasing struggle
for the mastery would fluctuate with the con-
trol of the waters, which, as in all maritime
regions, must depend mainly upon naval pre-
ponderance, but also in part upon possession
of those determining positions, of whose ten-
ure Napoleon said that " war is a business of
positions." Among these the Isthmus was
chief.
The wild enterprises and bloody cruelties of
the early buccaneers were therefore not merely
a brutal exhibition of unpitying greed, indica-