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In 1890, Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, a lecturer in naval history and the president of the United States Naval War College, published [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0486255093/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0486255093&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=6af39f430c29f3dbe72f7f98764f5893 The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660–1783], a revolutionary analysis of the importance of naval power as a factor in the rise of the British Empire. Two years later, he completed a supplementary volume, [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/198760749X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=198760749X&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=0845bc003071ddd9422e048f7a0259f6 The Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire, 1793–1812].
Mahan argued that British control of the seas, combined with a corresponding decline in the naval strength of its major European rivals, paved the way for Great Britain’s emergence as the world’s dominant military, political, and economic power. Mahan and some leading American politicians believed that these lessons could be applied to U.S. foreign policy, particularly in the quest to expand U.S. markets overseas.
