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The Influence of Sea Power upon History

 

 
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The Influence of Sea Power upon History
 
 
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The Influence of Sea Power Upon History (ISBN 0-486-25509-3) is an influential treatise
Treatise

A treatise is a formal and systematic exposition in writing of the principles of a subject, generally longer and more detailed than an essay. A lengthy discourse on some subject....
 on naval warfare
Naval warfare

Naval warfare is combat in and on seas, oceans, or any other major bodies of water such as large lakes and wide rivers....
 written in 1890 by Alfred Thayer Mahan
Alfred Thayer Mahan

Alfred Thayer Mahan was a United States Navy flag officer, Geostrategy, and educator. His ideas on the importance of sea power influenced navies around the world, and helped prompt naval buildups before World War I....
. It details the role of sea power throughout history and discusses the various factors needed to support a strong navy.

book was published by Mahan while President of the US Naval War College
Naval War College

The U.S. Naval War College is an education and research institution of the United States Navy that specializes in developing ideas for naval warfare and passing them along to officers of the Navy....
, and was a culmination of his ideas regarding naval warfare and its superiority.

Mahan began the book with an examination of what factors lead to a supremacy of the seas, especially how Britain
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name and the state form of the United Kingdom from 1 January 1801 until 12 April 1927....
 was able to rise to its near dominance.






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The Influence of Sea Power Upon History (ISBN 0-486-25509-3) is an influential treatise
Treatise

A treatise is a formal and systematic exposition in writing of the principles of a subject, generally longer and more detailed than an essay. A lengthy discourse on some subject....
 on naval warfare
Naval warfare

Naval warfare is combat in and on seas, oceans, or any other major bodies of water such as large lakes and wide rivers....
 written in 1890 by Alfred Thayer Mahan
Alfred Thayer Mahan

Alfred Thayer Mahan was a United States Navy flag officer, Geostrategy, and educator. His ideas on the importance of sea power influenced navies around the world, and helped prompt naval buildups before World War I....
. It details the role of sea power throughout history and discusses the various factors needed to support a strong navy.

Overview

The book was published by Mahan while President of the US Naval War College
Naval War College

The U.S. Naval War College is an education and research institution of the United States Navy that specializes in developing ideas for naval warfare and passing them along to officers of the Navy....
, and was a culmination of his ideas regarding naval warfare and its superiority.

Mahan began the book with an examination of what factors lead to a supremacy of the seas, especially how Britain
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name and the state form of the United Kingdom from 1 January 1801 until 12 April 1927....
 was able to rise to its near dominance. He identifies such features as geography, population, and government, and expands the definition of sea power as comprising a strong navy and commercial fleet. Mahan also promotes the belief that any army would succumb to a strong naval blockade.

The book then goes on to describe a series of European and American wars and how naval power was used in each.

Impact


The arguments of The Influence of Seapower Upon History,1660-1783
The Influence of Sea Power upon History

The Influence of Sea Power Upon History is an influential treatise on naval warfare written in 1890 by Alfred Thayer Mahan. It details the role of sea power throughout history and discusses the various factors needed to support a strong navy....
 influenced naval policies of governments for decades. In the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, it encouraged President Teddy Roosevelt to support a greater navy; Mahan and Roosevelt became friends after Roosevelt published his own naval histories in the 1880s. It also motivated the U.S. government to project American power through its navy, thus contributing to American Imperialism.

The treatise's influence was not limited to the United States. Mahan's work encouraged enlargement of the German and Japanese navies (Kaiser Wilhelm II ordered a copy aboard every ship of the Imperial German Navy) contributing to the naval arms race
Tirpitz Plan

The Tirpitz Plan, formulated by Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, was Germany's strategic aim to build the second largest navy in the world after the United Kingdom, thereby advancing itself as a world power....
 between Britain and Germany. The resulting tension was a major factor in the development of World War I
World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
.

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