Sea Power and Maritime Affairs

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Sea Power and Maritime Affairs

• Lesson 2 Sea Power in the Ancient Mediterranean
  World, from the Phoenicians to the Battle of
  Lepanto (1571)

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Learning Objectives

• The student will comprehend the importance of sea
  power and navies to the peoples of the
  Mediterranean basin during antiquity. Special
  emphasis will be placed on Crete, the
  Phoenicians, Persia, Greece, Rome and the Italian
  city-states of the Middle Ages and early
  Renaissance
• The student will understand the crucial role of
  the galley in naval warfare up to the Battle of
  Lepanto (October, 1571).

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Remember our Themes!

• The Navy as an Instrument of Foreign Policy
• Interaction between Congress and the Navy
• Interservice Relations
• Technology
• Leadership
• Strategy and Tactics
• Evolution of Naval Doctrine

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Remember our Themes!

• The Navy as an Instrument of Foreign Policy
• Interaction between Congress and the Navy
• Interservice Relations
• Technology
• Leadership
• Strategy and Tactics
• Evolution of Naval Doctrine

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Early Mediterranean Navies

• Water transportation was cheaper than overland
  routes, and especially in the Mediterranean
  basin.
• The Mediterranean Sea was the natural locale for
  much of the war fighting that resulted from
  commercial and national or ethnic rivalry that
  characterized antiquity
• From the outset, commercial or trading vessels
  were lumbering sailing ships naval vessels were
  galleys.

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Age of Galleys

• Circa 2,000 BC until the 16th Century.

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Galley Warfare

• Need for defense of merchant shipping gives rise
  to a new type of ship, the galley.
• Primary Secondary
• Propulsion Oars Sails
• Weapons Infantry Rams/Projectiles
• Formation Line-Abreast Not Applicable

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Greek Trireme - Galley with three banks
of oars.
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Principal Functions of Navies

• 1. Protect sea trade routes.
• 2. Block or disrupt enemys sea trade routes.

• Command Control of the Sea
• 1. Defend against sea-borne attack.
• 2. Isolate the enemys land forces.
• 3. Carry the attack across the sea to the enemy.

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Line Abreast Formations
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Line Abreast Formations
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Line Abreast Formations

• Naval infantry used to board and capture enemy
  galleys.

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Use of the Ram
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Use of the Ram
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Use of the Ram

• Rams used to sink or immobilize enemy galleys.

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Early Naval Powers
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Early Naval Powers

• Crete
• First maritime-oriented civilization - use of the
  sea.
• Worlds first Navy established (Circa 2,000 BC).
• Mahan-geographical position
• Natural resources- copper ore

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Early Naval Powers

• Phoenicians
• Seafaring peoples in eastern Mediterranean Sea.
• Colonies in southern and western Mediterranean
  Sea.

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Greeks and Persians at War (c. 492-480 B.C.)

• Background of Greeks
• By 5th century B.C., Greeks dominated Black and
  Aegean Seas and held trading monopoly on eastern
  Mediterranean.
• The Greeks exported olive, wine, and products of
  their gifted artisans and craftsmen established
  settlements and colonies as far away as the north
  shore of the Black Sea and Spain.
• The Greeks were chronically weakened by divisions
  into warring city-states.

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Greeks and Persians at War (c. 492-480 B.C.)

• Background of Persia
• Persia, a unified kingdom and empire, exuded from
  Iranian highlands, overwhelmed Phoenicians,
  Egyptians and all others in its path by 492
  B.C., Persia faced determined resistance from the
  Greek city-states to further expansion into
  Europe.

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Greco-Persian War and After
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Persian Empire

• Persians expand empire from modern-day Iran.
• Phoenicians supply the naval power
• First two attempts to take Greece
• 492 BC - Storm destroys Persian fleet.
• 490 BC - Defeated by Athenians at the Battle of
  Marathon (amphibious invasion)
• 10,000 Greeks threw Persians back to the sea

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King Xerces

• Persian King Xerxes mounted attacks in 480.
• Battle of Thermoplylae and Salamis

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Themistocles
Thermopylae Salamis
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Battle of Thermoplylae
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Battle of Salamis -- 480 BC
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Alexander the Great
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Alexander the Great

• King Philip of Macedon
• Conquers most of Greece by 338 BC.
• Philips son Alexander conquers the Persian
  Empire and forms a vast Greek empire.
• Secures Phoenician cities on the coast in order
  to neutralize Persian naval power.
• Siege of Tyre
• Control of sea lines of communication allows
  control of eastern Mediterranean Sea.
• Alexanders Empire
• Divided upon his death in 323 BC.

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Roman Sea Power (c. 264-410 A.D.)
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Background for Punic Wars/Roman Expansion
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Roman Galley

• Corvus Boarding device.
• - Allowed Roman soldiers to board Carthaginian
  ships.

Corvus
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Punic Wars (264-201 B.C.)
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Roman Navy

• Remained second to Roman Army, but
• Enabled Roman empire to expand east to the
  Caspian Sea and Persian Gulf.
• Cleared the Mediterranean Sea of pirates.
• Adapted Roman Armys missile tactics use of
  catapults to hurl stones, javelins, and
  combustible projectiles.

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Mediterranean Sea Power After Pax Romana
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The Players and the Action

• Roman Empire divided between East and West.
• Germanic barbarian invasions of the West.
• Byzantine Empire continues in the East.
• Crusades (1095)
• Last 2 centuries
• Crusaders are transported by merchant ships from
  Italian city-states, few naval battles.

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The Players and the Action

• Vikings - Invasions of Europe from Scandinavia -
  900s.
• Norman Invasion of England - Battle of Hastings
  1066
• Early Venice (1200s)
• Republican and Imperial Venice
  (1300s-mid 1400s)

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Ottoman Empire

• Challenges Venetian control of the Mediterranean
  Sea.

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From the Med to the Atlantic

• Implications for Sea Power
• Spain become formidable
• Christians states continue inner rivalry for
  Mediterranean
• Christians states unite to fight against the
  Ottoman Turkey
• Culmination Battle of Lepanto (5 October 1571)

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Battle of Lepanto - 1571

• Last battle of the Age of Galleys.
• Combined Christian fleet defeats Ottoman Turks.
• Use of cannon mounted on front of galleys to
  supplement naval infantry.
• Ottoman Empires domination of Mediterranean
  ends.
• Barbary system remains in North Africa.
• European powers forced to pay tribute for safe
  passage.

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Battle of Lepanto
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Transitions

• Battle of Lepanto last galley battle
• Shift from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic
• Spain and Portugal
• New Naval Ships
• Galleon
• Age of Mediterranean preeminence in European sea
  power OVER

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The Spanish Galleon
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Discussion
Next time The Age of Sail, Oceanic Sea Power and
the Emergence of European Nation States