Im not sure if this is correct but I believe that he said that because he didint want to be the one who started the war.
He was the first American President in attending a Peace Conference, and not only he attended but he was one of the major powers who actively participated in it by proposing peaceful negotiations to a long-lasting peace in Europe, that included not to punish Germany harshly.
The main way in which the nature of European exploration changed by the seventeenth century was that by this time, the major European powers such as Spain and Portugal had claimed large amounts of territory in the New World, and already exporting large amounts of natural resources back to their homeland.
Building dams on the Chagres river to create Gatun lake
