US without oceans to defend them ... - Historum

**AlpinLuke** · April 28th, 2012, 12:45 PM

I have discussed and thought many times about the role of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans as "natural defenses" of the United States, overall in occasion of the Second World War.

What can we imagine if the world was different and if the Atlantic Ocean wasn't: would have US been able to avoid that the war arrived at their own soil?

Actually we could wonder about something more ancient: if Northern America was a territory with a certain contact with European continent ... would have UK been able to keep the colonies?

**tjadams** · April 28th, 2012, 01:41 PM

The two bodies of water are a natural, massive barrier that has, and does still to a certain
extent, protect the US.
If the US was tightly balled into one tiny mass that is Europe, I"m sure we would have
been fighting each other for centuries over territory just as Europe has done.
If the NAmer. Cont. touched Europe, then I can see England able to march soldiers to
the colonies, in conjunction with troops sent on water. It would have made the American
Rev. a totally different theater of rebellion.

RusEvo · April 29th, 2012, 05:09 AM

Its hard to imagine an America existing without the oceans.

**Rongo** · April 29th, 2012, 05:41 AM

The difference would have been too much for the mind to fathom. (Well, at least my mind.

)

betgo · April 29th, 2012, 08:41 AM

Think this quote is in another thread. The US has a huge advantage of large oceans and no threats in the western hemisphere.

Bismarck once contrasted his nation's foreign policy difficulties with the easy situation of the U.S. (the only strong power in the Western Hemisphere), saying "The Americans are a very lucky people. They're bordered to the north and south by weak neighbors, and to the east and west by fish."

**tjadams** · April 29th, 2012, 10:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by betgo

Think this quote is in another thread. The US has a huge advantage of large oceans and no threats in the western hemisphere.

Bismarck once contrasted his nation's foreign policy difficulties with the easy situation of the U.S. (the only strong power in the Western Hemisphere), saying "The Americans are a very lucky people. They're bordered to the north and south by weak neighbors, and to the east and west by fish."

Works for me.