U.S. Navy expert Mahan Profile: The man who changed the entire naval landscape

George? Dewey was born in Montpellier, Vermont. Graduated from the Naval Academy. After the outbreak of the Civil War, he fought in the Union Navy, participating in the Battle of New Orleans and the Battles of Port Hudson and Fort Donneson. From 1864 to 1865 he was transferred to the North Atlantic Blockade Naval Squadron. In 1897, he became the commander of the U.S. Asian Fleet, stationed in Hong Kong, and immersed himself in the study of the coastal situation of the Spanish Philippine Islands. After the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in 1898, it sailed from Hong Kong to the Philippines and defeated the Spanish fleet at the Battle of Manila Bay, allowing the United States to seize the Philippines and expand its power to the western Pacific. In 1899 he was awarded the rank of sole Admiral of the Navy. He later served as The Administrator of the U.S. Navy. He died on 16 January 1917.

"Heart of the Ocean" – Mahan

There are two of the most influential super bullmen in the history of modern Western navy, one is British Admiral Nelson, who destroyed Napoleon's fleet, and the other is American Navy Rear Admiral Mahan.

Although this old man has not commanded a naval battle, the books written by others have exploded all over the world, and the President of the United States, the British Prime Minister, the German Emperor, and the Japanese Emperor all regard Mahan as a "high-ranking man who has not been met in a hundred years", and regard his masterpiece as the "Bible" of the Navy, and the naval departments of various countries have begun to expand their fleets according to what Mahan says. To this day, Mahan is still regarded as a giant by naval circles around the world. If Clausewitz is the "soldier saint" of the Western army, then Mahan is the western naval "soldier saint".

Mahan's father was a very good Army officer in the United States, a professor at West Point, and he trained a large number of generals, and when he also wanted to train his son, Mahan did not look down on his father's army, but chose the navy, which made his father quite depressed. At the age of 19, Mahan graduated second from the U.S. Naval Officer School. Don't look at Mahan as obsessed with the navy, but he is not the kind of person who likes to drive warships to fight naval battles, but prefers to talk on paper. He himself said: "This is no longer the era of heroes at sea, it is very difficult to become a hero by being brave alone, it is better to do some naval theoretical research." "Speaking of which, you may think that this guy Mahan is not a coward, there is a kind of going to the sea to fight with the enemy fleet, hiding in the study to read, write and write what is the skill?" You'd be wrong to think that way. Tell you, in those years, there was really a shortage of naval masters who engaged in theory, especially those who could influence the world's navies, and Mahan was really suitable for this, which is the truth of "each has its own strengths and cannot be forced".

At the age of 43, Mahan wrote a book on the U.S. Naval Civil War, which was seen by Ruth, the dean of the U.S. Naval War College, the world's first naval warfare college. Mahan was depressed at this time--in his 40s, he didn't have any achievements to be depressed--as soon as he heard that someone had hired him as a lecturer, he was very happy, and quickly ran to the academy with books. Mahan's level of lectures is really good, and the students like him a lot. He compiled the teaching plan during the lecture into a book "The Influence of Sea Power on History: 1660-1783", but he did not expect that the book would be popular as soon as it was published, first at home, then abroad, and Mahan suddenly became a big celebrity. In 1902, he became president of the U.S. Naval Historical Society, and became the number one authority on U.S. naval theory. Before his death in 1914, Mahan had been writing non-stop, and the more he wrote, the more addicted he became, and he was simply a naval theorist. In addition to the one we mentioned earlier, his masterpieces include The Influence of Sea Power on the French Revolution and Empire: 1793-1812, The Influence of Sea Power and the Relationship of the War of 1812, Naval Strategy, and the biography of the British Admiral Nelson and the American Admiral Farragut. Until now, these masterpieces of his are still reprinted in one edition and have been flourishing for a long time.

So what does Mahan say in his masterpiece? Why is it so hot?

Simply put, the basic meaning of Mahan is this: Why can a country be strong and why can commerce prosper? It's because of the control of the ocean. You look at the British Empire, cows, right? People are the hegemons of the sea, and many land powers cannot defeat it. Therefore, we in the United States must also learn the lesson, and we must also make a fuss on the ocean. How's the fuss? That would require a strong naval force. As long as a country has a strong fleet of battleships, then it is not what it wants?!

These ideas put forward by Mahan are still in line with the tastes of the Western countries at that time, which of them does not want to be the king of the hegemony? Look at the reactions of the major powers to Mahan's thought and you will see how much influence Mahan has had. First of all, Britain, which is already the world's first maritime power, the Royal Navy is very invincible, but there has been no naval warfare theory to give a hand, and Mahan's book surprised them, and they admired this American officer. When Mahan came to England, Queen Victoria received him, and the prime minister and the secretary of the navy and other cabinet members also honored him as a guest, and Oxford and Cambridge universities rushed to award him honorary degrees.

Looking at Germany, the crazy and belligerent Kaiser Wilhelm II was thinking about how the German Empire could dominate the world, he was fascinated by Mahan's book as soon as he saw it, and felt that he had never read such a classic book in his life, Wilhelm II immediately ordered all German warships to be equipped with this book, and at the same time began to let the Minister of the Navy Marshal Tirpitz desperately develop the German naval power.

Japan in the east was also shocked by Mahan's book, and the Meiji Emperor, who advocated force, ordered everyone in the Imperial Japanese Navy to read this book, and when they understood it, they vigorously developed the Japanese combined fleet so that they could crush China and provoke Europe and the United States.

In Mahan's native United States, even more so, Theodore? President Roosevelt praised Mahan's book as the strongest of all the naval writings he knows, and the U.S. media claimed that Mahan's book "pointed the United States in the right direction." The U.S. government also began to work hard to develop its naval power, and by the end of the 19th century, the United States had become the world's fifth-largest naval power, and by the 20th century, the United States' vast fleet was almost invincible.

Mahan's "theory of sea supremacy" had much more impact on world navies than that. From the fleet battles between Japan and Russia in the Far East in the early 20th century, to the naval expansion competition between Britain and Germany before World War I, to the us-Japan contest in the Pacific theater of World War II, the shadow of Mahan's thought can be seen. To this day, Mahan's influence is still unquenchable, which big congress despises "sea power"? What major power does not value the development of naval power? As a result, Mahan became the greatest naval theorist in the history of the world.

Alfred? Thiel? Mahan Founder of the "Theory of Sea Power". Graduated from annapolis naval officer school. Served in the Union during the American Civil War. He was president of the Naval Military Academy in Newport from 1886 to 1889 and from 1892 to 1893, where he taught naval history and naval strategic theory. After the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, he became a member of the U.S. Naval Strategy Committee in 1898. In 1899, he participated in the First Hague Peace Conference. He became president of the American Historical Society from 1902 onwards. In 1906 he was promoted to rear admiral (non-active). In 1908 he became Chairman of the Naval Commission. He died in New York in 1914. He devoted his life to naval theoretical research and writings, and put forward the idea of "sea power theory", which had a great impact on the naval strategies of all countries in the world. He is the author of The Influence of Sea Power on History: 1660-1783, The Influence of Sea Power on the French Revolution and Empire : 1793-1812, Naval Strategy, and Nelson's Biography.

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