This paper was the dissertation submitted in 1996 to complete her Master of Arts Degree in Latin American Studies at the Institute of Latin American Studies (ILAS) of the University of London. It sought to provide a scholarly account on the circumstances under which the nineteenth century Anglo-Venezuelan territorial dispute on the Esequibo region was resolved, . However, its main purpose is to discuss to what extent the events leading to the arbitration of 1898, and the arbitration decision itself, can be considered at the same time a victory to the United States, the last triumph to the declining British presence in the Western Hemisphere, and one of the greatest failures in the history of the Venezuelan foreign policy.