![]() ![]() During his first year on the faculty, he remained at his home in New York City researching and writing his lectures. Luce pointed Mahan in the direction of writing his future studies on the influence of sea power. Before entering on his duties, College President Rear Admiral Stephen B. In 1885, he was appointed as a lecturer in naval history and tactics at the Naval War College. He had an affection for old square-rigged vessels rather than the smoky, noisy steamships of his own day and he tried to avoid active sea duty. While in actual command of a ship, his skills were not exemplary and a number of vessels under his command were involved in collisions with both moving and stationary objects. interests during the final stages of the War of the Pacific. As commander of the USS Wachusett he was stationed at Callao, Peru, protecting U.S. In 1865, he was promoted to lieutenant commander, and then to commander (1872), and captain (1885). Commissioned as a lieutenant in 1861, Mahan served as an officer on USS Worcester and James Adger and as an instructor at the Naval Academy. He then joined the steam-corvette Pocahontas of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron and participated in the Battle of Port Royal in South Carolina early in the American Civil War. Early career Īfter graduation he was assigned to the frigate Congress from 9 June 1859 until 1861. Naval Academy, where he graduated second in his class in 1859. ![]() Against the better judgment of his father, Mahan then entered the U.S. He then studied at Columbia for two years, where he was a member of the Philolexian Society debating club. Mahan attended Saint James School, an Episcopal college preparatory academy in western Maryland. Mahan's middle name honors "the father of West Point", Sylvanus Thayer. Mahan was born on September 27, 1840, at West Point, New York, to Dennis Hart Mahan, a professor at the United States Military Academy and the foremost American expert on fortifications, and Mary Helena Okill Mahan (1815–1893), daughter of John Okill and Mary Jay, daughter of Sir James Jay. Prominent alums of "Philo" include Hamilton Fish, Joyce Kilmer, and Thomas Merton.Ĭolumbia's history, as seen by those who have studied, taught, and worked here.Ĭolumbians have changed the world and how we see it.Alfred Thayer Mahan ( / m ə ˈ h æ n/ Septem– December 1, 1914) was a United States naval officer and historian, whom John Keegan called "the most important American strategist of the nineteenth century." His book The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660–1783 (1890) won immediate recognition, especially in Europe, and with its successor, The Influence of Sea Power Upon the French Revolution and Empire, 1793–1812 (1892), made him world-famous and perhaps the most influential American author of the nineteenth century. Theodore Roosevelt befriended Mahan and subscribed to his theories. Read more about Alfred Thayer Mahan in the Columbia Encyclopedia Although Mahan saw military might as a means for avoiding war, the global growth inspired by his theories very clearly set the stage for World War I. Mahan’s work influenced strategists in other countries as well, leading to naval buildups in England, Germany, and Japan in particular. ships could refuel and protect commerce and even the construction of the Panama Canal, which facilitated the movement of fleets and freight. Navy, which replaced small cruisers with massive battleships and underwent a concomitant change in tactics continued expansion overseas (to the Philippines, Hawaii and other Pacific islands, and the Caribbean), which allowed the creation bases at which U.S. In the United States, Mahan’s theories found a particularly receptive audience in Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt: His work bolstered the case for rapid expansion and reconfiguration of the U.S. It was there, inspired in part by a history of Rome, that he began developing his theories in 1890 he turned his lecture notes into The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783.Īppearing at a time when Japan and the nations of Europe were engaged in a fiercely competitive arms race, Mahan’s work had a singularly profound influence on politics worldwide. A longtime naval officer who cut his teeth on the Union side in the Civil War, Mahan eventually lectured on history and strategy at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I. Mahan studied at Columbia for two years beginning in 1854-he was a member of the Philolexian Society, the campus literary club established in 1802-before decamping for Annapolis, from which he graduated in 1859. an occasional excess, from which recovery is easy."īy arguing that sea power-the strength of a nation’s navy-was the key to strong foreign policy, Alfred Thayer Mahan shaped American military planning and helped prompt a worldwide naval race in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
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