Summary: The Influence Of Sea Power
After the conclusion of the American Civil War in 1865, there was a period during which the American Military was among the strongest in the world. However, after the war, citizens and politicians began to question the need for a strong military. General Sheridan, Commanding General of the Army (1844), evaluated that the probability of a full scale attack on America was highly improbable due to complicated logistics across seas. This, therefore allowed Americans to focus on domestic problems as opposed to international interests. One of these problems was a lack of naval strategy. As a result of a military revival beginning in 1883, the Naval War College, a post-graduate institute for officers to study the art of war, was born under Commodore Stephen Luce.
In order to supplement the need for the study of strategy, Luce invited Captain Alfred Mahan to teach and “lay the foundations of that science” at the institution. Mahan eventually composed a trilogy of books which established his reputation as the premier naval strategist to this day. The most famous of these, was The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783 (1890). In this volume, Mahan reflected upon both successful and unsuccessful naval engagements of the past to inaugurate a new American naval doctrine.
Mahan’s plan to win wars, was to gain and maintain sea control. In order to accomplish this, he believed that sea communications— the routes and paths taken— would be the most influential factor. Once a navy controls or restricts another’s communications, the controlling party gained the “weather gauge.” Upon gaining this upper hand, the armada was to begin its
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While a great deal was learned from the past through his studies of Jomini, Mommsen, and others, it did not account for the changing future. Both the technologies and the desires of the American citizens evolved to ultimately make his navy
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