Why was shipbuilding important to the romans' international trade?
a major part of rome's economy was the selling of ships to foreign merchants.
italy was covered with forests, which provided the lumber needed to build ships.
romans could build ships faster and better than their neighbors.
the fastest way to move goods between italy and asia or africa was by ship.

i think they came to washington to protest

the fact that could also be added to column b is that during world war ii, specifically between the years 1941 and 1945, japan expanded its territory towards the indonesian territory in what was known later as part of the "pacific war". in that time, japan could conquer the philipines, singapore,   borneo, central java, malang, cebu, sumatra and various other islands of the area, therefore expanding its territory for a brief period of time.