West India

Among the leading objects contemplated by theand compact, as, for instance, the immediate
British ministry in this war was the control of theapproaches to the English Channel, the
East and West Indies, particularly of the latter, aspreponderance of the fleet alone will determine
among the most important sources as well asthe control and the safety of the national
markets of British trade. In the present day, thecommerce within its limits; but if it be extensive,
value of the West India islands, and of all positionsthe distance between centres great, and the
in the Caribbean Sea, is chiefly military orcentres themselves weak, the same difficulties
maritime; due less to the commerce theyarise that are felt in maintaining order in a large
maintain than to their relations, as coaling ports orand sparsely settled territory on land, as has till
fortified stations, to the commercial routesvery lately been the case in our western
passing through that region. It is scarcelyTerritories. In such circumstances the security of
necessary to add that whatever importance ofthe traveller depends upon the government
this character they now possess will be vastlyputting down nests of lawlessness, and
increased when an interoceanic canal is completed.establishing, at fitting stations, organized forces,
During the French revolution, however, the islandsthat can by their activity insure reasonable safety
had a great commercial value, and about onein all directions. In the War of the French
fourth the total amount of British commerce,Revolution, it soon, though not immediately,
both export and import, was done with them.became evident, that the British navy could
This lucrative trade Great Britain had gatheredeverywhere preponderate in force over its
into her hands, notwithstanding the fact thatenemy; but it could not be omnipresent. The
other nations owned the largest and richest ofCaribbean Sea offered conditions peculiarly
the islands, as well as those producing the bestfavorable to marauders, licensed or unlicensed;
sugar and coffee. The commercial aptitudes ofwhile its commercial value necessitated the
the British people, the superior quality of theirpreservation, and, as far as possible, the
manufactures, their extensive merchant shippingmonopoly, of so fruitful a source of revenue. The
and ingenious trade regulations, conspired to makepresence of hostile cruisers not only inflicted direct
it the interest of the foreign colonists to tradeloss, which was measured by their actual
with them, even when by so doing the laws ofcaptures, but, beyond these, caused a great
their own governments were defied; and to aindirect injury by the friction and delays which the
great extent the British free ports engrossed thesense of insecurity always introduces into
West Indian trade, as well as that to the adjacentcommercial transactions.The article was produced
South and Central American coasts, known as theby the writer of
Spanish Main. In war, the control of a maritimeSharon White is a 5-years experienced freelance
region depends upon naval preponderance. Whenwriter and a senior manager of topics of
the opposing navies are of nearly equal strength,dissertations services support team. Contact her
it is only by open battle, and by the reduction ofto get essay topics tips and undergraduate
one to a state of complete inferiority, that controldissertation.
can be asserted.If the region contested be small