The Next 100 Years

3: complete control of the maritime 
a p p roac h e s to t h e u n i t e d s tat e s by
t h e n av y i n o rd e r to p re c lu d e a n y
p o s s i b i l i t y o f i n va s i o n
In 1812, the British navy sailed up the Chesapeake and burned Washing­
ton. Throughout the nineteenth century, the United States was terrified that 
the British, using their overwhelming control of the North Atlantic, would 
shut off its access to the ocean, strangling the United States. It was not 
always a paranoid fear: the British did consider this on more than one occa­
sion. This general problem was, in other contexts, the origin of the Ameri­
can obsession with Cuba, from the Spanish- American War through the 
Cold War. 
Having secured the hemisphere in the late nineteenth century, the 

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BRAZIL
BRAZIL
FRENCH GUIANA
FRENCH GUIANA
SURINAME
SURINAME
GUYANA
GUYANA
VENEZUELA
VENEZUELA
PERU
PERU
ECUADOR
ECUADOR
COLOMBIA
COLOMBIA
BOLIVIA
BOLIVIA
PARAGUAY
PARAGUAY
URUGUAY
URUGUAY
ARGENTINA
ARGENTINA
CHILE
CHILE
South
South
Atlantic
Atlantic
Ocean
Ocean
South
South
Pacific
Pacific
Ocean
Ocean
BRAZIL
FRENCH GUIANA
SURINAME
GUYANA
VENEZUELA
PERU
ECUADOR
COLOMBIA
BOLIVIA
PARAGUAY
URUGUAY