country that it has easy access to the high sea itself, while at the
same time it controls one of the great thoroughfares or the world's
traffic, it is evident that the strategic value of its position is
very high. Such again is, and to a greater degree was, the position of
England. The trade of Holland, Sweden, Russia, Denmark, and that which
went up the great rivers to the interior of Germany, had to pass
through the Channel close by her doors; for sailing-ships hugged the
English coast. This northern trade had, moreover, a peculiar bearing
upon sea power for naval stores, as they are commonly called, were
mainly drawn from the Baltic countries.

But for the loss of Gibraltar, the position of Spain would have been
closely analogous to that of England. Looking at once upon the
Atlantic and the Mediterranean, with Cadiz on the one side and
Cartagena on the other, the trade to the Levant must have passed under
her hands, and that round the Cape of Good Hope not far from her
doors. But Gibraltar not only deprived her of the control of the
Straits, it also imposed an obstacle to the easy junction of the two
divisions of her fleet.

At the present day, looking only at the geographical position of
Italy, and not at the other conditions affecting her sea power, it
would seem that with her extensive sea-coast and good ports she is
very well placed for exerting a decisive influence on the trade route
to the Levant and by the Isthmus of Suez. This is true in a degree,
and would be much more so did Italy now hold all the islands naturally
Italian; but with Malta in the hands of England, and Corsica in those
of France, the advantages of her geographical position are largely
neutralized. From race affinities and situation those two islands are
as legitimately objects of desire to Italy as Gibraltar is to Spain.