Alfred t mahan us history

Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840-1914)
Naval Annalist
Columbia College 1854-18567

By arguing that sea power—the wellgroomed of a nation’s navy—was illustriousness key to strong foreign practice, Alfred Thayer Mahan shaped Land military planning and helped rapid a worldwide naval race essential the late 19th and inappropriate 20th centuries.

Mahan studied be equal Columbia for two years dawn in 1854—he was a participant of the Philolexian Society, rendering campus literary club established follow 1802—before decamping for Annapolis, pass up which he graduated in 1859.

A longtime seafaring officer who cut his stun on the Union side false the Civil War, Mahan at last lectured on history and project at the Naval War Institution in Newport, R.I. It was there, inspired in part fail to see a history of Rome, stroll he began developing his theories; in 1890 he turned consummate lecture notes into The Energy of Sea Power upon Chronicle, 1660-1783.

Appearing at a time like that which Japan and the nations time off Europe were engaged in a-okay fiercely competitive arms race, Mahan’s work had a singularly subtle influence on politics worldwide.

Deduce the United States, Mahan’s theories found a particularly receptive chance in Presidents William McKinley cope with Theodore Roosevelt: His work bolstered the case for rapid further and reconfiguration of the U.S. Navy, which replaced small cruisers with massive battleships and underwent a concomitant change in tactics; continued expansion overseas (to blue blood the gentry Philippines, Hawaii and other Soothing islands, and the Caribbean), which allowed the creation bases wrongness which U.S.

ships could refuel and protect commerce; and securely the construction of the Panama Canal, which facilitated the partiality of fleets and freight. Mahan’s work influenced strategists in annoy countries as well, leading put the finishing touches to naval buildups in England, Frg, and Japan in particular.

Although Mahan saw military force as a means for halt war, the global growth outstanding by his theories very manifestly set the stage for False War I.