Great Britain and the Isthmian Canal, 1898-1901

Abstract

ALTHOUGH the literature on the isthmian canal diplomacy is extensive,' another addition to the numerous articles and books already written on the subject may be useful for the following reasons: While much attention has rightly been paid to the part played by this phase of United States diplomacy on the emergence of the United States as a world power, far less study has been devoted to the changing course of British policy. It is not always sufficiently recognized that vital British interests were also involved in the solution of the canal question and that the role of giving up rights hitherto enjoyed is at least as difficult as the assumption of fresh responsibilities. Moreover, today, of less importance appear purely rnational gains and of far more significance the development of grood Anglo-American relations, for the Anglo-American alliance forms the very cornerstone of the defense of the free world. The sig,nature of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty in i9OI markedand the British cabinet was in no doubt about this-the conscious British recognition of the eventual United States supremacy in the Western Hemisphere and thus entailed a fundamental change in the relations of the two countries. The danger of an Anglo-American collision over a struggle for predominance in Central America and in the Caribbean was removed and the basis of the later alliance was laid in these years. There are few more decisive events in the history of international relations in the twentieth century. Yet the American side of the story is much better known than the British. The State Department records and the private papers of the principal American negotiators-Hay, Choate, and Henry White-have been available for some time, but the British Foreign Office archives for this period have