Projection.

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The American military historian Alfred Thayer Mahan was the first of his profession to enunciate the role that sea power played in the history of great world powers.

Military history prior to Mahan consisted of evaluation of ground forces, not naval forces.

Mahan made some interesting observations that have seemed to hold true ever since Mahan was first published [circa 1900].

World and regional powers of the past found being a naval power much to their advantage. Powers with a small population could wield an influence way out of proportion to their population strength by the judicious use of naval forces. Projecting power is the modern term used to describe this activity of navies.

Projection of power by navies has ancient lineage and modern lineage both.

Athens in it's war with Sparta, was able to hold the Spartans, a much superior land power, at bay, by the use of naval power. The Athenians could strike at will anywhere along the coast of Sparta, an ability for which the Spartans had no counter. The Spartans had to devote a goodly portion of their army to just protect their coastline from attacks of the Athenians. Attacks that could manifest themselves at any time. Judicious use of naval forces allowed for the Athenians to develop and maintain the initiative [Athens did succumb to the Spartans after say a twenty five year war].

The Romans did not become a world class power until they were able to master the art of naval warfare. This ability at naval warfare allowed the Romans to extend their dominion over all over the Mediterranean, extending and projecting their power which until that time was limited to the marching power of the legions.

In the Middle Ages, and in the years just after the discovery of the New World by Spain, small countries and city-states such as Venice, Portugal, and Holland, minor countries population wise, exerted and projected power all over the world with their fleets.

Not only with military force, but with trade and cultural influence, these naval powers exerted very disproportionate influence in places far removed from their home bases.

Holland in particular, a country largely reclaimed from the sea, and possessing almost no trees, was able through trade and skill at seamanship able to build a fleet that rivaled any other power in the world. This was similar to the situation three thousand years earlier in Egypt, a desert country also without trees, but through trade with Lebanon, was able to create a fleet that gave them regional domination, militarily and trade wise.

Indeed, the felling of trees all over the Mediterranean by the various historical naval powers of the region, Egypt, Greece, Rome, Venice, Spain, has had a devastating effect on the ecology of the entire region.

What was once heavily wooded and fertile land has been decimated over the millenniums by the felling of trees to build wooden ships. [I once read an interesting article about how the forests of northern Italy were stripped bare to harvest trees used in the building of the fleet commanded by the Venetians. And exact record has been maintained of how many trees of what types were needed to build one Venetian galley, and it numbers something like eight hundred trees of all varieties were felled to build one galley. An immense undertaking.]

And of course, the British were able to rule the largest empire in the world through their dominant navy. A navy that consisted of a force in the nineteenth century that could beat at any given moment the fleets of the next two world powers combined.

Even the Mongols, normally thought of as only a land power, realized the important function of naval power. In their war with the Song Empire [southern China], the Mongols employed a large fleet of river going craft [riverine] that allowed them to fight the Song on several fronts at once, keeping the Song on the defensive and allowing the Mongols to maintain the initiative, much as the Athenians had done to the Spartans. Subsequent naval adventures of the Mongols to Japan and Java did result in disaster for the Mongols, but not for want of trying.

In the time of Mahan, a number of ascendant countries all vied for the role of naval power. Aspiring world powers to include the United States, Japan, Germany, Russian, and even the Austro-Hungarian Empire all developed large fleets and attempted to project power to various parts of the world. In the case of the U.S. and Japan, these two countries were successful. The latter three listed countries were not successful in their endeavor to develop strong winning navies, but once again, not from want of trying. They did realize the importance of a strong, ocean going navy, and did attempt to establish themselves as world powers through strong navies.

After World War Two [WW2], the U.S. remained as the last great naval power for quite a long time. And this did allow the U.S. to project almost unlimited power throughout the entire world. The Soviets also saw the value of naval power and did build a navy to rival that of the U.S., but like all other things following the collapse of the Soviet Union, a strong navy has gone the way of the dodo for the Russians. In the area of naval power, the U.S. ranks alone in this category and will probably do so for some time to come

coolbert.