Alfred Thayer Mahan
Alfred thayer Mahan (1840-1914), was the leading military historian of the 1890-1914 era. His concept of "sea power" had an enormous influence in shaping the startegif thought of naval officials across the world, especially in the United States, Germany, Japan and britain. His ideas still permeate the U.S. Navy.
Career
Mahan was born in West Point, N.Y., on Sept. 27, 1840. His father, Deniis mahan was an influential profesor ofmilitary tactics at West Point, where he taught many of the generals who comanded in the Civil War. After attending Columbia College in New York, the son entered the U.S. Naval Academy, graduating in 1859, second in a class of twenty. His career as a line officer on blockade duty during the Civil War was uneventful. Mahan was considered below par for seamanship; he became commander in 1872 and captain in 1885, and with that rank retired in 1896 after forty years of service. A decade later he was promoted to rear admiral on the retired list, but signed his many books and articles, "Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan." By the 1890s he had achieved international acclaim, particularly in Britain, where he had been given honorary degrees by Oxford and Cambridge. American recognition followed, with honorary degrees from Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Dartmouth. He was called from retirement to serve as a member of the Naval War Board for the Spanish-American War, as a delegate to the first Peace Conference at The Hague, as an occasional lecturer at the Naval War College, and as witness before several congressional committees. He was well known in military and naval circles, and was a friend and advisor of fellow naval historian President Theodore Roosevelt.
Historian
The turning point in Mahan's career came when he accepted a call in 1884 to lecture in naval history and strategy at the newly established Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. Out of these lectures grew his sea-power studies: The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783 (1890); The Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire, 1793-1812 (2 vols., 1892); and Sea Power in Relation to the War of 1812 (2 vols., 1905). The Life of Nelson: The Embodiment of the Sea Power of Great Britain (2 vols., 1897) so closely ties in with the later portions of the broad sweep of history from 1660 to 1815 that it may be rightly considered a part of the series. In addition to these works, Mahan wrote more than a hundred articles on international politics and related topics.
Sea Power
Mahan found in history two distinct but related lessons. One was the belief that national greatness was inextricably associated with the sea, with its use in peace and its control in war; the other was the conviction that for the control of the sea in war certain strategical disposition of forces was essential. The sea was a great highway over which men and goods might travel more easily and cheaply than by land, and any nation that bordered on the sea should profit from this fact. This involved not only production for foreign markets and the creation of a carrying medium to assure its transportation but the acquisition of colonies for bases, raw materials, and markets, and the maintenance of naval forces to lend necessary protection.
The primary mission of a navy in warfare was to secure the command of the sea. This not only permitted the maintenance of sea communications for one's own vessels while denying their use to the enemy but also, if necessary, provided the means for close supervision of neutral trade. This control of the sea could not be achieved by destruction of commerce but only by destroying or neutralizing the enemy fleet. This called for concentration of naval forces composed of capital ships, not overly large but numerous, well manned with crews thoroughly trained, and operating under the principle that the best defense is an aggressive offense.
Timeliness contributed no small part to the widespread acceptance and resultant influence of Mahan's views. The seemingly historically substantiated doctrine of sea power synchronized with the new colonialism which was asserting itself in most parts of the world. Similarly, amidst the confusion of thought and action growing out of changes in propulsion, ordnance, and armor and the increasing differentiation of types of craft, Mahan's emphasis on the capital ship and the command of the sea came at an opportune moment.
Although Mahan's influence on foreign powers has been generally recognized, only rather recently have scholars called attention to his role as significant in the growth of American overseas possessions, the rise of the new American navy, and the adoption of the strategic principles upon which it operated. He died in Washington, Dec. 1, 1914, a few months after the outbreak of World War I.
See also
Bibliography
- LaFeber, Walter. "A Note on the "Mercantilistic Imperialism" of Alfred Thayer Mahan," The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 48, No. 4 (Mar., 1962), pp. 674-685 online at JSTOR
- Paret, Peter, Gordon A. Craig, and Felix Gilbert, eds. Makers of Modern Strategy from Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age (1986), chapter on Mahan
- Puleston, W. D. Mahan: The Life and Work of Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, U.S.N 1939 online edition
- Schurman, Donald M. The Education of a Navy (1965), on British Royal Navy
- Seager II, Robert. Alfred Thayer Mahan: The Man and His Letters (Annapolis, 1977).
- Turk, Richard W. The Ambiguous Relationship: Theodore Roosevelt and Alfred Thayer Mahan (1987) online edition
Primary sources
- Mahan, Alfred Thayer. The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783 (1890) online edition
- Mahan, Alfred Thayer. The Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire, 1793-1812 (2 vols., 1892) [ online edition]
- Mahan, Alfred Thayer. Sea Power in Relation to the War of 1812 (2 vols., 1905). online edition
- Mahan, Alfred Thayer. The Life of Nelson: The Embodiment of the Sea Power of Great Britain (2 vols., 1897) online edition