Sea-Power and Other Studies | Page 2

the term is not of very recent date. Grote [2]
speaks of 'the conversion of Athens from a land-power into a
sea-power.' In a lecture published in 1883, but probably delivered
earlier, the late Sir J. R. Seeley says that 'commerce was swept out of
the Mediterranean by the besom of the Turkish sea-power.'[3] The term
also occurs in vol. xviii. of the 'Encyclopædia Britannica,' published in
1885. At p. 574 of that volume (art. Persia) we are told that
Themistocles was 'the founder of the Attic sea-power.' The sense in
which the term is used differs in these extracts. In the first it means
what we generally call a 'naval power'--that is to say, a state having a
considerable navy in contradistinction to a 'military power,' a state with
a considerable army but only a relatively small navy. In the last two
extracts it means all the elements of the naval strength of the state
referred to; and this is the meaning that is now generally, and is likely
to be exclusively, attached to the term owing to the brilliant way in
which it has been elucidated by Captain A. T. Mahan of the United
States Navy in a series of remarkable works.[4] The double use of the
term is common in German, though in that language both parts of the
compound now in use are Teutonic. One instance out of many may be
cited from the historian Adolf Holm.[5] He says[6] that Athens, being
in possession of a good naval port, could become '_einebedeutende
Seemacht,' i.e. an important naval power. He also says[7] that Gelon of
Syracuse, besides a large army (_Heer_), had 'eine
_bedeutendeSeemacht,' meaning a considerable navy. The term, in the
first of the two senses, is old in German, as appears from the following,
extracted from Zedler's 'Grosses Universal Lexicon,' vol. xxxvi:[8]
'Seemachten, Seepotenzen, Latin. summae _potestates_maripotentes.'
'Seepotenzen' is probably quite obsolete now. It is interesting as
showing that German no more abhors Teuto-Latin or Teuto-Romance
compounds than English. We may note, as a proof of the indeterminate
meaning of the expression until his own epoch-making works had
appeared, that Mahan himself in his earliest book used it in both senses.
He says,[9] 'The Spanish Netherlands ceased to be a sea-power.' He
alludes[10] to the development of a nation as a 'sea-power,' and[11] to
the inferiority of the Confederate States 'as a sea-power.' Also,[12] he
remarks of the war of the Spanish Succession that 'before it England
was one of the sea-powers, after it she was the sea-power without any

second.' In all these passages, as appears from the use of the indefinite
article, what is meant is a naval power, or a state in possession of a
strong navy. The other meaning of the term forms the general subject of
his writings above enumerated. In his earlier works Mahan writes 'sea
power' as two words; but in a published letter of the 19th February
1897, he joins them with a hyphen, and defends this formation of the
term and the sense in which he uses it. We may regard him as the
virtual inventor of the term in its more diffused meaning, for--even if it
had been employed by earlier writers in that sense--it is he beyond all
question who has given it general currency. He has made it impossible
for anyone to treat of sea-power without frequent reference to his
writings and conclusions.
[Footnote 2: _Hist._ofGreece, v. p. 67, published in 1849, but with
preface dated 1848.]
[Footnote 3: _Expansion_ofEngland, p. 89.]
[Footnote 4: _Influence_of_Sea-power_onHistory, published 1890;
_Influence_of_Sea-power_on_the_French_Revolution_andEmpire, 2
vols. 1892; _Nelson:_the_Embodiment_of_the_Sea-power_ofGreat
Britain, 2 vols. 1897.]
[Footnote 5: _GriechischeGeschichte. Berlin, 1889.]
[Footnote 6: Ibid. ii. p. 37.]
[Footnote 7: Ibid. ii. p. 91.]
[Footnote 8: Leipzig und Halle, 1743.]
[Footnote 9: _Influence_of_Sea-power_onHistory, p. 35.]
[Footnote 10: Ibid. p. 42.]
[Footnote 11: Ibid. p. 43.]
[Footnote 12: Ibid. p. 225.]
There is something more than mere literary interest in the fact that the
term in another language was used more than two thousand years ago.
Before Mahan no historian--not even one of those who specially
devoted themselves to the narration of naval occurrences--had evinced
a more correct appreciation of the general principles of naval warfare
than Thucydides. He alludes several times to the importance of getting
command of the sea. This country would have been saved some
disasters and been less often in peril had British writers--taken as
guides by the public--possessed the same grasp of the true principles of
defence as Thucydides exhibited. One passage in his history is worth

quoting. Brief as it is, it shows that on the subject of sea-power he was
a predecessor of Mahan. In a speech in favour of prosecuting the war,
which he puts into the mouth of Pericles, these words occur:-- _oimeu
_gar_ouch_exousiu_allaeu_autilabeiu_amachei_aemiu_deesti
_gae_pollae_kai_eu_uaesois_kai_kat_aepeirou_megagar
_to_tes_thalassaeskratos. The last