A Historian Started an Arms Race | A.T. Mahan and #TeamSeas

I bet most of you have never heard of Alfred Thayer Mahan, but he revolutionized naval strategy, not just for the US, but the entire world. In fact, his 1890 book set off an arms race to create the most powerful battleships that only ended with a World War. All that was to control the waters for the sake of commerce. And today, I join a whole bunch of YouTubers who want to draw attention to a new crisis in our international waters, and while it certainly won’t have as catastrophic of implications as the arms race, this has permanent global effects. Plastics pollute our waters, and we want to do something about that. So go to team seas dot org, which is linked in the description, where you can contribute to removing plastic from the oceans.
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*Bibliography*

Christopher L. Connery, “Ideologies of Land and Sea: Alfred Thayer Mahan, Carl Schmitt, and the Shaping of Global Myth Elements,” Boundary 2 28, no. 2 (Summer 2001): 173-201.

Pekka Korhonen, “The Pacific Age in World History,” Journal of World History 7, no. 1 (1996): 41-70.

Huw W. G. Lewis-Jones, “Displaying Nelson: 'Navalism' and the Exhibition of 1891,” International Journal of Maritime History 17, no. 1 (2005): 29-67.

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[CynicalHistorian]

Click "read more" for further info, corrections, and bibliography


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*Bibliography*



Christopher L. Connery, “Ideologies of Land and Sea: Alfred Thayer Mahan, Carl Schmitt, and the Shaping of Global Myth Elements, ” _Boundary_ 2 28, no. 2 (Summer 2001): 173-201.

Pekka Korhonen, “The Pacific Age in World History, ” _Journal of World History_ 7, no. 1 (1996): 41-70.

Huw W. G. Lewis-Jones, “Displaying Nelson: 'Navalism' and the Exhibition of 1891, ” _International Journal of Maritime History_ 17, no. 1 (2005): 29-67.

[hrunchtayt]

The Great White Fleet had one of the most baller peacetime paint schemes of any navy.

[JamesBrown-snle]

I did my Masters Thesis on Mahan and his influence on Naval Development in the British Dominions pre-WWI. It's nice to see him getting a bit more attention from the Youtube Historians.

[jaredrevis]

"Most of you have probably never heard of Mahan"
Me, shoving all my books on the Japanese navy and my portrait of Akiyama Saneyuki under my bed: "haha yeah"

[seandawson]

I feel like I had a dream last night where I saw this exact topic being discussed

[macrossMX]

It's funny in hindsight that Japan would resent the 5:5:3 provision in the Washington Naval Treaty. Even Yamamoto was right that the treaty was necessary because he know that the US has the industrial capacity to easily surpass that 5:3 ratio.

And considering that the US ended the war with 4 Alabama, 4 Iowa, 9 Independence and 30+ Essex compared to Japan's 2 Yamato and 1 Taihou (all sunk in the end), he was not wrong.

[HistoryOfRevolutions]

Franklin Delano Roosevelt once stated:

"A war of ideas can no more be won without books than a naval war can be won without ships. Books, like ships, have the toughest armor, the longest cruising range, and mount the most powerful guns"

[ninjawarrior]

Congrats! You managed to talk about the events of the 1910s without uttering the name of that former Princeton President from Virginia!

[PaywallsMirrored]

Mahan was 'Clausewitz of the Seas.'

[ProgressOnly]

My grandfather worked in the Navy on a tin can after WW2 and mostly did shop maintenance and upkeep. Lots of lead paint they just let run into the ocean.

[CloroxBleach-nuvo]

I just graduated from navy boot camp this week, I’ve missing your videos…thank you for making this themed one! And thank you for making my day so much better with history 😊

[jakebeach]

I had this idea when I read the first book in Ian W. Toll's Pacific war series. Mahan really created some mayhem.

[cdcdrr]

"Ah, the great Mariana Trench. What fabulous wonders will I encounter within the deep? What extraordinary beauty of nature awaits the Muse's soul, who gazes in stark wonder at the resplendence of boundless reefs of coral, and the mighty predators of the sea as they glide over, casting their dark shadow to make one feel tiny and timid? What treasure of the imagination- OH GODD*MN IT ALL TO HELL, THERE'S NOTHING BUT F*CKING PLASTIC IN THIS FORSAKEN PLACE!"

[dankuser]

Mahan is critically underrated. He should seriously get more attention considering his impact on the world

[warlordofbritannia]

I generally enjoy Beard, but I think his criticisms of Mahan were either disingenuous or overly-cynical--like he read only the minutaie of Mahan and missed the bigger point, which largely aligned with Beard's (the importance of maritime commerce, I mean; I would argue Mahan only took a different methodology)

[usabestarmy]

I think your conclusion that party of navies was disproven in WW1 is wrong. The British navy in 1914 was still by far the largest navy in the world. Also the German naval buildup was not just to challenge British control of the seas, it was also to protect the huge number of German merchant ships on the seas that otherwise would have to rely on non German navies.

[jakepearson]

The marines are re-navying. They don’t have tanks and are removing/changing entire MOSs. So, there’s that...yay

[impcec]

“Keep in mind, Marines at this point were very much a part of the Navy.”

Don’t let them hear you say that!

[Idahoguy]

Imperial Germany challenging British hegemony was basically a d*ick waving contest. As was the race for bigger battleship navies between Britain and the USA after WW1. WW1 showed the effectiveness of submarine warfare. The Pacific War should the effectiveness in destroying an enemy’s merchant fleet.
So was Mahan right about a navy protecting the sea lanes. I think so.

[alishahellewaage]

Im curious, why do the Mahan Doctrine is stereotyped with the decisive naval doctrine, despite when i skim through his book, he talks more about the preparation and purpose of the said decisive naval battle rather than the battle itself?