least, should not universally fall into decay.

* * * * *

It is one of the anomalies of Cuban history that while the island was
denied the enjoyment of even those incipient and inchoate intimations of
potential nationality which were granted to other Spanish provinces,
such as Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia and Peru, it was nevertheless,
perhaps more than any other, involved from early times in the
international complications and conflicts of Spain. At least equally
with the mainland coasts Cuba's shores were ravaged by pirates and
freebooters, and were attacked or menaced by the commissioned fleets of
hostile powers. Her insular character and her geographical position
doubtless accounted for this in great degree, as did also the purblind
policy of Spain in failing to give her the care and protection which
were lavished upon other no more worthy possessions.

So it came to pass that for a time Cuba was actually conquered and
seized by an alien power and was forcibly separated from Spanish
sovereignty; and that for many years thereafter she was the object of
covetous desire and indeed of almost incessant intrigue for acquisition
by two of Spain's chief rivals and adversaries. For nearly half a
century Great Britain and France were frequently, almost continuously,
each planning to annex Cuba as a colonial possession, either by conquest
in war or through barter or purchase in time of peace. It was not until
a third great power arose and asserted in unmistakable terms its
paramount interest in the island, only a little while previous to our
own time, that such designs were reluctantly forsaken.

It was the interesting fortune of Cuba, therefore, not only to engage
the early and earnest diplomatic interest of the United States in her
behalf, but also to afford to that country occasion for the conception,
formulation and promulgation of perhaps the most important of all the
fundamental principles of its state policy in international affairs. We
have suggested, in anticipation of the narrative, that Cuba was largely
to be credited with the inception of the impulse for the prompt
construction of the Isthmian Canal. In a far more valid and direct sense
Cuba suggested the enunciation of the Monroe Doctrine. It is true that
in relation first to Louisiana and then to Florida there had previously
been preliminary hints at and approximations to that Doctrine. But those
were territories contiguous with