Figure 1.-- |
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Battles cannot be fought from floating logs. None of the great river valley cultures, the beginning of civilizations, were notable for building large navies. The first great naval power was the Phoenecians. It is notable that great fleets were built from the two major Mediterranean peninsulas (Greece and Rome). Persia became a great naval power, but somehow failed to defeat the Greeks with a much smaller fleet. Athens and its fleet failed to defeat the Spartans, but it was not until the Romans built a fleet that they were able to defeat the Carthaginians. The center of Western history for two millenia was the Mediterranean. Europeans once outside the Mediterraneam clung largely to coastal waters, not daring to challenge the great unknown. The Arabs never challenged Byzantine mastery of the Mediterranean, but the Ottomans did and their mastery of naval arts finally enable them to take Constantinople. This set up a climatic 50-year struggle for mastery of the Mediterranean ending at Lepanto (1571). Lepanto marked not only the beginning of Ottoman decline, but also the largest, but last great battle of galleys. While a hugely important battle, the locus of European history had already shifted West to the Atlantic. The countries of Western Rurope had opened sea routes to Asia and vegun to collonize the Americas. Mastery of the Atlantic would be the cental issue in subsequent European history.
We know that armies came first because significant technological advances before navies could come into place. Battles cannot be fought from floating logs. None of the great river valley cuktures, the beginning of civilizations, were notable for building large navies.
The first great naval power was the Phoenecians. Cathage developed as a Pheonecian colony. And situated astride the passage between the Eastern and Western Mediterranean, Carthage thrived.
It is notable that great fleets were built from the two major Mediterranean peninsulas (Greece and Rome). Persia became a great naval power, but somehow failed to defeat the Greeks with a much smaller fleet. Athens and its fleet failed to defeat the Spartans.
It was not until the Romans built a fleet that they were able to defeat the Carthaginians. The center of the Roman Empire and Western history for three millenia was the Mediterranean. Europeans once outside the Mediterraneam clung largely to coastal waters, not daring to challenge the great unknown.
The Arabs never challenged Byzantine mastery of the Mediterranean, but the Ottomans did and their mastery of naval arts finally enable them to take Constantinople.
One of the great questions of history is why it was the Europeans who sailed east to open trade with China and discover the America. China n the 15th century still had technologyb in many areas that was superior to that of Europe. The great Chinese enuch admiral Zheng He (1371–1433) sailed great treasure fleets (1405-33). He sailed into the Indian Ocean and Some believe that he even reached the Atlantic. He was a gifted mariner, explorer, diplomat and fleet admiral. His ships were larger and more capable than the contemprary European ships. The emperor who supported these voyages was followed by an emperor who turned away from maritime affais and dismanteled the great Chinese fleet.
The Ottoman seizure of Constantinople set up a climatic 50-year struggle for mastery of the Mediterranean ending at Lepanto (1571). Lepanto marked not only the beginning of Ottoman decline, but also the largest, but last great battle of galleys. While a hugely important battle, the locus of European history had already shifted West to the Atlantic.
Building empires required battleships and the first real battleships were the ships of the line that emerged in the 16th century. Trade was possible with just merchant vessels, but not secure trade. Pirates could seize lightly armed mderchant vessels far from home and wih no means of summonsing assistance. Pirates are able to do so even in out modern age. And pirates were not the only problem. There were also attacks from rival maritime powers. European mariners solved many nautical problems in the 15th century. Additional problems had to be resolved in the 16th century. One of the most serious was how to put lzrge numbers of heavy iron guns on ships that were rolled back and forth in heavy seas. Before and even during the 16th century, naval battles were fought by galleys rowed by slaves and carrying infantry forces that tried to board enemy vessels. They carried only a few light artillery pieces. The superority of the ship-of-the line was settled at Lepanyo (1571). And one of the major naval of all time only a few years latter was settled by ships-of-the-line (1588). Navies struggled both to build ships providing stable gun plafors as well as improved rtillery throughout the 16th century. All the great monarchs of the day wanted battleships--Henry VIII (England), Phillip II (Spain), James VI (Scotland), and Francis I (France)all wanted these battleships. They were status symbols like 20th century battleships. Only wealthy monarchs could afford to build them. There was great difficulty figuring out how to design ships that could support a large array of guns. There were disasters such as the Mary Rose (England abd Vasa (Sweden). Gunfounding called the Black Arts was a major problem. Countries experiments with bronze, cast, iron, and wrought iron--steel was yet to come. Serviceable gun carriages were another problem to be resolved. [Konstam] This was the beginning of the modern naval race. It was the English that made the greatest effort reseolving the technical issues and well as a financial system to support a large navay establishment. The first true ship-of-the-line was not built until the17th century. Phineas Pett's Soverign of the Seas was launched for Charles I's navy (1637). It had a magnificent three gun decks and was capable of extended voyages to defend Englnd and its expandoing empire.
The longest naval conflict in history was the the 200-year struggle between England and France, two traditional enemies. The conflict began with Louis XIV's war to expand France borders to the Rhine. England respobded with commiting an army commanded by John Churchill Duke of Marlborough to the continental struggle. But usually the British fought the French at sea in a series of actual shooting war. Some were short and of only minor importance . Others were crucial, especially the Seven Years War and the Napoleonic Wars.
The great battles of World war I were land battles, but the War once the French stopped the Germans on the Marne was actually decided at sea. The Germans like the Prissians before them began the War with Europe's strongest stabdingvarmy and an efficent reserve system. Yet they forced the Entente (Britain, France, and Russia) with far greater resources. Thus if Germany was to win. it would have to be with a sharp, quick war. This had been Prussia's military dictrine for several centuries. A protracted war of attrition on the other hand favored Germany's adversaries. The Entente (now commonly referred to as the Allies) used their navies to strangle the Central Powers. Denied imported raw materils, German factories could not fully support the war effort. Denied imported food, German civilians began to suffer. Some faced starvation by the end of the War. The Entente then used their superiot resources to eventually win the War. It would be Germany's desperate attempt to break the Entente blockade by resuming unconditional sunmarine warfare. That proved to be a dissaster. Not only did they fail to blockade Britain, but this brought America into the War which doomed the Germany Empire. Entente control of the sea meant that a huge American army could be safely transpoeted to France, an army that would break the deadlock on the Western Front even before fully deployed.
World War II unlike World War I did have a series of epic naval battles. The Battle of the Atlantic was arguably the most important battle of World War II. The Alliied control of the Atlantic sealanes first kept Britain in the War and then permitted the American Arsenalmof Democracy to deliver huge quantities of supplies to the Beutishband Siviets and other Allies. It also made it possible to deliver American soldiers and airmen to the far-flung battlefields of the War. Amd as in World War I, Allied navies stragled both its major advesaries, the Geramns and Japanese, both of which had gone to war ironically to secure raw materials. World War II also brought to the fore a new element in naval war--naval aviation. Since the advent of gun-powder anf artillery, naval warfare had been based on building the most effective gun platforms. Pearl Harbor shifted the battleship to a sunsidary role. Three countries pursued naval warfare (America, Britain, and Japan). It was the Japanese at the urging of their innovation naval commander, Isoroku Yamamoto, that not only developed a carrier fleet, byt advanced aircraft tyoes and an effective aerial torpedo to go with it, Yamoto also perfected carrier tactics, massing his first line carriers in a potent striking force--not unlike German Panzer tactics. Unfortunately for Yamomoto, his country's military leaders badly misjudged the character of the American people and the Industrial potential of the United States.
Konstam, Angus. Soverigns of the Sea: The Quest to build the Perfect Renaissance Battleship .
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