Alfred Thayer Mahan

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Alfred Thayer Mahan
There may be another Alfred Thayer Mahan in this
years class or the next. We cannot afford to
miss him. VADM Stansfield Turner, President
Naval War College
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BACKGROUND

• Active Learning Exercise List Making
• From Your Reading, what do we know about Mahan?
• Who was he?
• What influenced his theories on War?

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BACKGROUND

• Born 1840 at West Point
• Father instructor USMA
• USNA Class of 1859
• A loner, misfit, aloof
• Mid cruise USS Plymouth
• Civil War Southern blockade
• USNA SEANAV Instructor

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BACKGROUND (CONT)

• CO, USS Wachusett, steam sloop
• Naval War College President
• Author
• CO, USS Chicago
• Traveled thru Europe
• Saw British Empire 1st hand
• Contemporary of Corbett
• Corbett resentful of Mahan

Mahans Last Command USS CHICAGO
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The Influence of Sea Power upon History

• Impact on world leaders was immediate. Those
  influenced
• Queen Victoria
• King Edward VII
• Theodore Roosevelt
• Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Emperor of Japan
• Adolph Hitler
• President McKinley
• Emperor Wilhelm II
• Admiral Tirpitz

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Active Learning Exercise List Making

• What were Mahans main theories Naval Strategy?

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Mahans Naval Theories

• Command of the sea through naval superiority
• Maritime commerce, overseas possessions, foreign
  markets produce national wealth and greatness
• Seapower equals
• production
• shipping
• colonies and markets

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Mahans Naval Theories

• Central theme
• In every war between England/France from 1688 to
  Napoleon command of the sea or the lack of it
  determined the victor
• Concentration is the predominant principle
• Fleet should be primarily battleships
• Never divide the fleet!

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Mahans Naval Theories

• Blockading might bottle up the enemy, but to
  succeed you must engage and beat the enemys
  fleet at sea
• Naval bases and coaling stations are essential
• Agreed with Clausewitz
• war is simply a violent political movement
• French Naval Strategy failed because they assumed
  the defense

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Naval warfare of the period

• Ships of sail (shifting to steam during his life)
• Fleet with most cannon usually won
• Fleet formations were like a fan
• spread out while searching for the enemy,
  maximizing search and allowing communications
• collapsed in order to maximize fire power to
  engage the enemy

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Naval warfare of the period

• If outnumbered, engage in sporadic fighting
• Rise of battlecruiser
• larger than frigate, smaller than battleship,
  break lines communication
• Attacker keep enemy separated and inferior by
  concentrating against one unit while holding the
  other in check

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Requirements for Sea Power Nation

• Geographic Position
• Physical conformation
• extent of territory
• number of population
• national character
• policies of government

Mahan believed for the U.S. to be a world power,
construction of the Panama Canal was a
necessityTheodore Roosevelt agreed!
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State of U.S. Navy during Mahan

• During Civil War
• 700 vessels/5000 guns
• 5 Years Later
• 200 vessels/1300 guns
• Navy remained sail
• Strategy coastal defense
• Top 12 68 USNA grads
• still LTs in 1889

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Rise of the American Sea Power

• Believed U.S. had to expand. He influenced
• Creation of Panama Canal
• Hawaiian acquisition
• Expansion into Phillipines, Guam, Marianas, Wake
  Is.
• By 1900 U.S. an empire
• Convinced Theodore Roosevelt U.S. needed to
  project power into Chinese Yangtze valley

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Weakness of Mahans theories

• Failed to anticipate power of the submarine
• Did not discuss amphibious warfare
• Power projection was ignored
• Reliance on Mahans theories Battleship king up
  to WWII