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INTERESTS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 387niarkable manner the rivalry of the two nations ;but thatEngland, by persisting in the Navigation Act, laid the foundation of her naval power, requires no proof.The war with Spain, with the assistance of France, exercised a twofold influence upon the interests of Britain. Inthe first place, the conquest of Jamaica (1655) secured forever the colonial interest in the West Indies. Until that timeEngland possessed only a few of the smaller Carib islands,and that by sufferance rather than by any power of her own.It was the intention of Cromwell to wrest St.Domingo fromthe Spaniards, and thus to make England mistress of theWest Indies. In this he did not succeed ;but the conquestofJamaica, which, although at that time ofno moment, becamein a few years a flourishing English colony, compensated forthe disappointment; and as the demand for their produceincreased, the West Indian colonies gradually became ofsuch importance to England as necessarily to influence, andthat in a material degree, her relations with other nationswhich already had established; or were on the point ofestablishing, settlements in those islands. A second result ofthis war was the renewal of the scheme of conquests on thecontinent. It was the intention of the Protector to gain possession of the sea-port towns, and perhaps of the whole coastof the Spanish Netherlands; and France was obliged topledge herself beforehand to resign to England the placeswhich it was proposed should be taken, viz. Dunkirk,Mardyk, and Gravelines; and in this manner the twoformer really came into. the possession of the English. Buthis views were yet more extensive. He wished to gain alsothe principal portsin the North Sea and the Baltic ;and thetreaty with Sweden (1657) was intended to prepare the wayfor this. 1 At this period Charles X., the warlike successorof Christina, was planning the formation of a great Northern monarchy, by the conquest of Poland and Denmark.The Protector promised him support, and expected in return the possessionof Bremen, of Elsinore, and Dantzic.But a longerlife would have been requisiteto carry out1According to Hume, lie entered into this alliance with Sweden from merezeal in the Protestant cause. Nevertheless, according to the seventeenth articleof the treaty, he retained the right of disposing of all fortresses taken fromthe Danes ;which surely cannot have been wholly dictated oy zeal for theProtestant cause.2c2