The Influence of Sea Power upon History quotes

Alfred Thayer Mahan quotes Showing 1-7 of 7 “Organized force alone enables the quiet and the weak to go about their business and to sleep securely in their beds, safe from the violent without or within.” “The study of history lies at the foundation of all sound military conclusions and practice.”

What is Alfred Thayer Mahan most famous for?

Alfred Thayer Mahan (September 27, 1840–December 1, 1914) was a US Navy flag officer, geostrategist, and historian. His most prominent work, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660–1783, had a widespread impact on navies around the world.

What did Alfred Mahan argue in his book The Influence of Sea Power Upon History that the US needed to do to become a great power?

Alfred Thayer Mahan helped to chart that course, arguing that American growth required access to overseas markets, which in turn required a preeminent navy to protect that access. America became a nation with global interests, and the seas were the path to new frontiers.

Who was Alfred T Mahan and why did he want to build up a modern navy?

According to his analysis of history, the great powers were those that maintained strong navies and merchant marines. He urged the United States forward in its naval building programs. Alfred Thayer Mahan also argued that modern navies needed repair and coaling stations.

What did Thayer Mahan change?

By arguing that sea power—the strength of a nation’s navy—was the key to strong foreign policy, Alfred Thayer Mahan shaped American military planning and helped prompt a worldwide naval race in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

How did the writings of Alfred Thayer Mahan encourage United States imperialism?

The way the writings of Alfred Thayer Mahan encourage United States imperialism: Mahan stated that the American economy would eventually be unable to handle the huge volumes of domestic imported commercial and industrial goods, and suggested that the United States must be searching for foreign markets.

What did Alfred Thayer Mahan believe was the source of power for countries?

Alfred Thayer Mahan’s study of history led him to strongly believe that a nation’s sea power determined its economic wealth and international prominence. In 1890, Mahan published his book, The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783.

What impact did Alfred T Mahan’s book have?

Alfred Thayer Mahan, published The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660–1783 in 1890. Mahan’s writings and lectures greatly influenced Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge, and other world leaders, including German Emperor Wilhelm II, shaping global policy based on sea power at the beginning of the 20th century.

What country was the first to use sea power?

The Portuguese Empire pioneered the Age of Discovery during the 15th. It was the first global sea power, and global empire. It was also the most powerful empire during the 15th and 16th centuries.

What is Mahan’s theory?

Mahan argued that British control of the seas, combined with a corresponding decline in the naval strength of its major European rivals, paved the way for Great Britain’s emergence as the world’s dominant military, political, and economic power.

What person coined the phrase sea power?

Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan

What does Seapower mean?

Sea power, means by which a nation extends its military power onto the seas. Measured in terms of a nation’s capacity to use the seas in defiance of rivals and competitors, it consists of such diverse elements as combat craft and weapons, auxiliary craft, commercial shipping, bases, and trained personnel.

What was the major type of warship used in ancient times?

What was the major type of warship used in ancient times? Ancient navies used special ships called galleys, which could be propelled by oars as well as sails.

Is China a sea power?

China is a large maritime nation. However, China is not a strong “sea power” na- tion. Its ocean economic development lags behind that of its land economy and the level of other world sea powers. Moreover, China is facing many daunting challenges and risks related with its harsh strategic situation.

Is it important for the United States to have a strong naval power today why?

Without one, there is no conceivable way the United States could continue to maintain the world’s greatest economy in today’s globalized world. A strong navy, used in concert with allied nations and backed up by a vigorous economy, is a potent deterrent to conflict and enables diplomacy.

What threats does the Navy protect the US from?

DELIVERING INTEGRATED ALL-DOMAIN NAVAL FORCES In day-to-day competition, joint forces must be able to protect the homeland, deter aggression, defend U.S. interests, and degrade threats from terrorism, piracy, transnational criminal organizations, and weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

Why does America have a navy?

Naval power . . . is the natural defense of the United States. The Navy was rooted in the colonial seafaring tradition, which produced a large community of sailors, captains, and shipbuilders. In the early stages of the American Revolutionary War, Massachusetts had its own Massachusetts Naval Militia.

Who wanted the US to have a strong navy overseas?

Among his many interventions in American life, Roosevelt acted with vigor to expand the military, naval power especially, to protect and promote American interests abroad. This included the construction of eleven battleships between 1904 and 1907.

What are the three components of Admiral Mahan’s plan for the US?

Mahan’ s doctrine stated that: (1) The United States should be a world power; (2) Control of the seas is necessary for world power status; (3) The way to maintain such control is by a powerful Navy.

What effect did Alfred Thayer Mahan’s beliefs have on American foreign policy quizlet?

Effectively, Mahan’s book helped prompt the annexation of Hawaii and Puerto Rico, and the control of Samoa, the Philippine Islands, and Cuba.

In 1890, Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, a lecturer in naval history and the president of the United States Naval War College, published The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660–1783, a revolutionary analysis of the importance of naval power as a factor in the rise of the British Empire. Two years later, he completed a supplementary volume, The Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire, 1793–1812.

Mahan argued that British control of the seas, combined with a corresponding decline in the naval strength of its major European rivals, paved the way for Great Britain’s emergence as the world’s dominant military, political, and economic power. Mahan and some leading American politicians believed that these lessons could be applied to U.S. foreign policy, particularly in the quest to expand U.S. markets overseas.

The 1890s were marked by social and economic unrest throughout the United States, which culminated in the onset of an economic depression between 1893 and 1894. The publication of Mahan’s books preceded much of the disorder associated with the 1890s, but his work resonated with many leading intellectuals and politicians concerned by the political and economic challenges of the period and the declining lack of economic opportunity on the American continent.

Mahan’s books complemented the work of one of his contemporaries, Professor Frederick Jackson Turner, who is best known for his seminal essay of 1893, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History.” An American history professor at the University of Wisconsin, Turner postulated that westward migration across the North American continent and the country’s population growth had finally led to the “closing” of the American frontier, with profound social and economic consequences. While Turner did not explicitly argue for a shift towards commercial expansion overseas, he did note that calls for a “vigorous foreign policy” were signs that Americans were increasingly looking outside the continental United States in order to satiate their desire for new economic opportunities and markets.

Mahan was one of the foremost proponents of the “vigorous foreign policy” referred to by Turner. Mahan believed that the U.S. economy would soon be unable to absorb the massive amounts of industrial and commercial goods being produced domestically, and he argued that the United States should seek new markets abroad. What concerned Mahan most was ensuring that the U.S. Government could guarantee access to these new international markets. Securing such access would require three things: a merchant navy, which could carry American products to new markets across the “great highway” of the high seas; an American battleship navy to deter or destroy rival fleets; and a network of naval bases capable of providing fuel and supplies for the enlarged navy, and maintaining open lines of communications between the United States and its new markets.

Mahan’s emphasis upon the acquisition of naval bases was not completely new. Following the Civil War, Secretary of State William Seward had attempted to expand the U.S. commercial presence in Asia by purchasing Alaska in 1867, and increasing American influence over Hawaii by concluding a reciprocity treaty that would bind the islands’ economy to that of the United States. Seward also attempted to purchase suitable Caribbean naval bases. Finally, he attempted to ratify a treaty with the Colombian Government that would allow the United States to build an isthmian canal through the province of Panama. In the wake of the Civil War, however, Congress became preoccupied with Reconstruction in the South, and the Senate rejected all of Seward’s efforts to create a network of American naval bases.

In the 1890s, Mahan’s ideas resonated with leading politicians, including Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt, and Secretary of the Navy Herbert Tracy. After the outbreak of hostilities with Spain in May 1898, President William McKinley finally secured the annexation of Hawaii by means of joint resolution of Congress. Following the successful conclusion of the Spanish-American War in 1898, the United States gained control of territories that could serve as the coaling stations and naval bases that Mahan had discussed, such as Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. Five years later, the United States obtained a perpetual lease for a naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.