Trade routes explain worldwide cruiser deployment

Worldwide shipping routes explain why Royal Navy deployments followed commercial geography rather than a simple map of imperial territory. The China Station protected approaches to the dense trade network farther south and west, while the South Atlantic Command and its South American division covered another major concentration of shipping. German, French, Polish, Soviet, Japanese, and American vessels and crews also used these routes. The same network sustained British commerce, required protection, and offered chances to locate enemy merchant personnel once war began.