The United States Navy

Ever since the Civil War, the United States navy had stayed largely dormant as American foreign policy drew inwards and the focus turned to the frontier and economic industrialization. As a result of this, the United States Navy became obsolete and its operations poorly organized due to lack of experience. With its limited role following the Civil War, the United States Navy fell decrepit and had few foreign uses, such as in Korea during the Korean Intervention.

In the 1880's, the government began to expand the role and funding for the navy. It linked the powerful American steel corporations with the new naval shipyards to establish a mutually beneficial relationship that would bring profit to the steelyards and a better navy to the United States. At the end of the 1880's the USS Charleston and the USS Baltimore were designed and completed. But as a testament to how lacking the United States was in naval power, the company that created these steel cruisers, the first of their kind for the United States, was British. In the early 1890's, the USS Texas and the USS Maine are also laid down and sent out. In the early 1900's the USS Connecticut was laid down as the first of six battleships that would later be used for President Roosevelt's Great White Fleet. The USS Holland was the first commissioned naval submarine in 1900. All of this advancement in the United States Navy culminated in the creation of the USS South Carolina in 1910 as the first American dreadnought, the flagship of the new century.

At the same time that the United States began to churn out their ships, other nations around the world did the same. There is a connection between this new naval arms race and Alfred Thayer Mahan's book, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History which discussed the importance of maintaining a strong navy to control the seas in time of war. Commerce raiding and secondary tasks were nothing compared to the dominance of naval task groups to win the dominance of the seas. Mahan was massively influential in the naval doctrine of the United States as well as playing a significant role in the development of the Japanese and German naval doctrines. What The Art of War did for strategy and what Vom Kriege (Clausewitz) did for political-military relations, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History did to naval doctrine.

With this new navy, President Roosevelt sent it on a world wide tour in 1907 that would last a little more than a year. The newest cruisers and battleships would be sent around the world as an offhand show of strength to the Germans, British, and Japanese. As a continuing part of his Big Stick policy, Roosevelt showed the world that their threats and policies were to be respected and honored because we had the navy, the big stick, to back it up. We showed that we could sent a fleet around the world to any place, something that had not been done on such a scale with modern warships. Roosevelt showed the rest of the world that the United States could maintain its two ocean navy and be strong in both. It was the ultimate show of naval arms in the early 20th century. As other nations begin to do the same, this massive naval arms race will eventually lead to the Washington Naval Conference of 1921 to limit the largest nations' navies.

Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far - President Theodore Roosevelt

And yet a mere century after the rapid build-up of the United States Navy and just 30 years after Regan's "600 ship navy", the United States naval build-up is far slower than it ever has been in the last 100 years. But this is simply because the last century has seen the complete dominance of the United States on the high seas (although recently the Chinese have begun to challenge this just as the Soviets did during the Cold War). The United States Navy consists of 10 active aircraft carriers, 8 more than the next country, and dozens of guided missile cruisers, destroyers, and submarines. The United States Marines and Navy SEALS are the most capable special forces around the world and our nuclear subs freely travel the waves. The lasting influence of A.T. Mahan, the initial US Navy build-up, and both World Wars have brought the United States to the naval powerhouse that it is today. Without the policies of the US government under McKinley and Roosevelt, it could be very possible that the Germans, Russians, or Japanese would be the masters of the seas today and not the United States Navy.

Works Cited

Hacker, Barton C., and Margaret Vining. "The Steel Navy and the Naval Industrial Complex." American Military Technology: The Life Story of a Technology. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2006. 53-54.Google Books. Web. 7 Nov. 2015.

Here's the Entire U.S. Navy Fleet in One Chart. Digital image. Popular Mechanics. N.p., 30 Apr. 2015. Web. 08 Nov. 2015.

Holmes, James R. "Japanese Maritime Thought: If Not Mahan, Who?" Naval War College Review. By Toshi Yoshihara. Vol. 59. Newport: United States Naval War College, n.d. 24-26. United States Naval War College. Naval War College, Summer 2006. Web. 7 Nov. 2015.

"Mahan & The Influence of Sea Power Upon History." Global Security. Global Security Institute, n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2015.

"A POWERFUL PRESENCE THROUGH THE YEARS." America's Navy. Navy Recruiting Command, n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2015.

"U.S. Navy Ship List, 1890." BLUEJACKET.COM. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2015.