Britain and the United States had sought…

Britain and the United States had sought to ease tensions by entering into the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850 because the canal interests of Britain and the United States had continued to clash, particularly in Nicaragua.

The governments had agreed specifically that neither would acquire rights to or construct a Nicaraguan canal without the participation of the other.

This general principle had been extended to any canal or railroad across Central America, to include the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico and Panama.

In effect, since neither government was then willing or able to begin a canal, the treaty had been for the time an instrument of neutrality.