f
water, and are much less advantageously placed with reference to the
resources of the country. To get the full benefit of superior
geographical position, these defects must be overcome. Furthermore, as
her distance from the Isthmus, though relatively less, is still
considerable, the United States will have to obtain in the Caribbean
stations fit for contingent, or secondary, bases of operations; which
by their natural advantages, susceptibility of defence, and nearness
to the central strategic issue, will enable her fleets to remain as
near the scene as any opponent. With ingress and egress from the
Mississippi sufficiently protected, with such outposts in her hands,
and with the communications between them and the home base secured, in
short, with proper military preparation, for which she has all
necessary means, the preponderance of the United States on this field
follows, from her geographical position and her power, with
mathematical certainty.

II. _Physical Conformation._--The peculiar features of the Gulf coast,
just alluded to, come properly under the head of Physical Conformation
of a country, which is placed second for discussion among the
conditions which affect the development of sea power.

The seaboard of a country is one of its frontiers; and the easier the
access offered by the frontier to the region beyond, in this case the
sea, the greater will be the tendency of a people toward intercourse
with the rest of the world by it. If a country be imagined having a
long seaboard, but entirely without a harbor, such a country can have
no sea trade of its own, no shipping, no navy. This was practically
the case with Belgium when it was a Spanish and an Austrian province.
The Dutch, in 1648, as a condition of peace after a successful war,
exacted that the Scheldt should be closed to sea commerce. This closed
the harbor of Antwerp and transferred the sea trade of Belgium to
Holland. The Spanish Netherlands ceased to be a sea power.

Numerous and deep harbors are a source of strength and wealth, and
doubly so if they are the outlets of navigable streams, which
facilitate the concentration in them of a country's internal trade;
but by their very accessibility they become a source of weakness in
war, if not properly defended. The Dutch in 1667 found little
difficulty in ascending the Thames and burning a large fraction of the
English navy within sight of London; whereas a few years later the
combined fleets