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ensuing alterations in the American system would be so great 
      and so violent as to wreck permanently democratic government 
      in the United States. Should the American fleet be destroyed 
      by a joint attack on two fronts, the very independence of certain 
      sections of the country might be difficult to maintain.
 
      
 
 
3. The Political Effects
 
      
 
 
Democracy and free institutions develop under conditions of 
      peace and security and tend to deteriorate where war or the danger 
      of war is constant.
 
      An important by product of Britain's naval supremacy in the past 
      has been the growth of freedom and democracy behind the shield 
      of British sea power. While Europe east of the Rhine and south 
      of the Baltic remained mostly under autocratic regimes during 
      the last century, not only has Great Britain become steadily 
      more democratic but Canada, Australia, South Africa and new Oealand 
      have become, in effect, democratic self-governing nations. It 
      was because of Britain's power that the Low Countries and the 
      Scandinavian Kingdoms were able to develop their democratic regimes. 
      And who can deny that it was British naval supremacy during the 
      nineteenth century which permitted