Post War 1865-1898, Essay Example

Alfred T Mahan (1840-1914) was a US Naval Captain and a geostrategist.  He achieved fame for his naval strategies and is considered to have influenced other countries navies world-wide.  His naval tactics were best explained in his book ‘The Influence of Sea Power upon History’.  “Mahan urged the strengthening of the U.S. Navy to protect the nation’s merchant shipping. He favored annexation of Hawaii and construction of a Central American canal. One of his supporters was Theodore Roosevelt. Many of Mahan’s ideas were realized during and after the Spanish-American War (1898).”  (How stuff works, 2008)

Mahan was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the US Navy in 1861.  He served as a Union Officer in the American Civil War. By 1855 he was a full Captain  and commanded the USS Wachusett. It was around this time that he was appointed a lecturer in history and tactics at the US Naval War College. Mahan was highly influenced by the tactics of Horatio Nelson a British Admiral and Nelsons tactics in the Battle of Trafalgar and Battle of the Nile. After the Civil War the US Navy did not want to replace its fleet of sailing ships with that of iron clad steamships. Mahan argued that only a fleet of armoured steam powered battleships would be the decisive factor in a modern naval battle.  His tactics were a major influence on other Navies since that time but were most widely adopted by the US Navy in the Pacific with sea warfare against the Imperial Japanese Navy.  This became known as the ‘Decisive battle doctrine’.

During the war with the Japanese in the Pacific Mahan stated ” As head of the Naval War College, Mahan believed that America’s survival depended upon a strong navy. He argued that a strong navy would require island possessions to serve as naval bases. The time had come, Mahan wrote, for Americans to turn their “eyes outward, instead of inward only, to seek the welfare of the country.” (Buschini., 2000).

Mahan retired in 1906 with the Naval rank of Rear Admiral. His tactics remain essential reading at Naval Military academies world-wide.

Works Cited

Buschini., J. (2000). Expansion in the Pacific. Retrieved 4 15, 2010, from Small Planet Communications, Inc. : http://www.smplanet.com/imperialism/letter.html

How stuff works. (2008, 2 27). Alfred T Mahen. Retrieved 4 15, 2010, from How stuff works: http://history.howstuffworks.com/historians/alfred-t-mahan.htm