Page:Anglo-American relations during the Spanish-American war (IA abz5883.0001.001.umich.edu).pdf/42

26 and Oceanica; Great Britain whose naval supremacy had remained unchallenged for a century and which sought to dominate the new expansion in the Orient and the Pacific as she had the earlier expansion in the North Atlantic; and, finally, the United States. They represented the two great alliances of Europe with Great Britain and the United States as isolated powers, the very danger of whose isolation was bound, sooner or later, to bring them into contact with each other.

Two new policies were destined to influence commercial expansion in the new area. The United States was responsible for both of them. Upon her entrance into Oceanica she had carried with her the same theories of trade that she held in the Western Hemisphere. These provided briefly that all undeveloped areas should be subject to native control and that the native governments should grant equal trading opportunities to all foreign nations. In order to secure this condition the United States had negotiated treaties with Hawaii, Japan, and Samoa. President Tyler, in his message of December 30, 1842, spoke concerning Hawaii. Any attempt, he said, by any power to take possession of the islands, colonize them, and subvert the native government could not but create dissatisfaction on the part of the United States. The United States seeks no peculiar advantages, no exclusive control over the Hawaiian government. Its forbearance in this respect would justify the American government, "should events hereafter require it, in making a decided remonstrance against the adoption of an opposite policy by any other power." The following