. Arthur and Fritz Kahn Collection 1889-1932. Kahn, Fritz 1888-1968; Kahn, Arthur David 1850-1928; Natural history illustrators; Natural history. \ ,-lfl. ,.. S«E^ 32. England's Mediterranean Lifeline POINT OF PROJECTION: 20°N, 60°E Britain, with her superior navy, was able to colonize and hold part of southern Africa. For France, Germany, and Italy, which werc not great naval powers, the way to Africa lay across or around the Mediterranean, which did not always coincide with British dominance in the area. In the nineteenth Century, steam navigation, plus the opening'of the Suez Canal, provide
. Arthur and Fritz Kahn Collection 1889-1932. Kahn, Fritz 1888-1968; Kahn, Arthur David 1850-1928; Natural history illustrators; Natural history. \ ,-lfl. ,.. S«E^ 32. England's Mediterranean Lifeline POINT OF PROJECTION: 20°N, 60°E Britain, with her superior navy, was able to colonize and hold part of southern Africa. For France, Germany, and Italy, which werc not great naval powers, the way to Africa lay across or around the Mediterranean, which did not always coincide with British dominance in the area. In the nineteenth Century, steam navigation, plus the opening'of the Suez Canal, provided a short cut from Great Britain to East Africa, India, and the Far East. Overnight the long route around the Cape of Good Hope feil into comparative disuse, and the Mediterranean became one of the world's most heavily traveled thoroughfares. The great bulk of this commerce originated or ended somewhere in the British Empire. Rubber and tin from Malaya, wool from Australia, gold from South Africa, oil from the Middle East, cotton from India, and countless other products of Asia, Africa, and the Pacific passed through Suez. Eastbound vessels from England, western Europe, and the Americas, bringing coal, manufactures, and other products of the West, passed through the Sträit of Gibraltar. Defending this vital trunk line was naturally a major aim of British strategy (sEE MAP 32). Therefore, to threaten Great Britain's naval supremacy in this great highway of trade was to threaten world peace. For years, France, Italy, and Spain recognized this Status quo. The British Navy in the Mediterranean was generally maintained at a strength greater than that of any other European navy. With fortifications and docks at Gibraltar, Malta, Alexandria, Port Said, and at Aden on the Red Sea, Britain managed to protect her Mediter- ranean lifeline without difficulty for seventy years until the fall of France in June, 1940. Bcfore this war, France ruled the largest and strategically most import
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