Historical Geography of the British Colonies e-bog

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. These three dependencies are well placed for commanding both the trade of the Mediterranean and the route to the East and Australasia. Gibraltar is at the Western opening of the inland sea. Cyprus is at its Eastern extremity, nearer than any other of the Levantine islands to Egypt and the Suez Canal. Malta is in the centre, half-way between Gibraltar and Cyprus, and near the coasts of Italy and Tunis - the two points in the circle of the Mediterranean which in old days justified the advantages of their natural position by giving to Rome and Carthage pre-eminence over their neighbours. The distance by sea from Plymouth to Gibraltar is nautical miles; from Gibraltar to Malta 980 from Malta to Port Said about 940, and to Cyprus rather under miles; and from Cyprus to Port Said 250 miles. The whole aspect of the Mediterranean was changed by the opening of the Suez Canal. Viewing it under its modern conditions as the high road to the East, the three de pendencies of Great Britain in this sea are, taken together, a singularly strong chain of positions. But it must not be forgotten that the great colonizing nation of the present day holds points which in old times would have practically tapped the whole of the Mediterranean. While the world centred round the inland sea, and that sea was all in all, the parts of its shores, from which com merce and civilization flowed, were the coasts of Phoenicia and Asia Minor, the Delta of the Nile, the African pro montory of Carthage, and the three Northern peninsulas of Greece, Italy, and Spain.