United States assigned 20 million dollars for further fortifications on Hawaii.
All these annexations were only the prelude to a step that is of dominant importance for the imperialist offensive of the United States on the Pacific—the building of the Panama Canal which was completed in August 1914. The cannons' roar of the imperialist war drowned out this event that signified a new Pacific epoch of American foreign policy, so that as a result it failed to receive the attention it deserved. But only after the opening of the Panama Canal which saved the, American fleet 8–10,000 miles and the hazardous trip around Tiera del Fuego and through the Magellan Straits, could American imperialism write upon its banners Roosevelt's words: "In the history of mankind there begins a Pacific era," and "the domination of the Pacific must belong to the United States." At the same time it must also be noted that the Washington Confernce, (which naive pacifist sheets designated as the beginning of a "peaceful" period in the development of Pacific relations), was nothing other than the carrying out of American plans of advance in the Pacific. At this very conference, the United States succeeded in isolating Japan and in breaking off the latter's alliance with Great Britain. A war by America, against the combined Anglo-Japanese fleet would have been an extremely difficult task. Japan, thanks to its military-strategic position, and its system of coastal fortifications, is almost impregnable against attack from the sea. It could be overcome only by a blockade extending over a period of years. But such a blockade is impossible for the American fleet if at the same time it must fight the British navy with its two strong bases on the Asiatic coast, in Hongkong and Singapore. From this standpoint the Washington Conference has strengthened the diplomatic position of the United States, while the possibility of a war between Japan and America is by no means eliminated, but on
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