Page:A Short History of the World.djvu/407

 The British Empire in 1914 387 Photo: Underload &• Vitdtirwooci. STREET IN HONG KONG its ways were sea ways, and its common link was the British Navy. Like all empires, its cohesion was dependent physically upon a method of communication ; the development of seamanship, ship- building, and steamships between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries had made it a possible and convenient Pax — ^the " Pax Britannica," and fresh developments of air or swift land transport might at any time make it inconvenient.