PAGE DIAGRAM ILLUSTRATING THE VALUE OF THE CENTRAL POSITION 54 GULF OF MEXICO AND CARIBBEAN SEA 101 RODNEY AND GUICHEN, APRIL 17, 1780 161 GRAVES AND DE GRASSE, SEPTEMBER 5, 1781 167 THE BALTIC AND ITS APPROACHES _Facing page_ 185 NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN _Facing page_ 197 THE ATTACK AT TRAFALGAR 214 SCENE OF NAVAL WAR, JAPAN AND RUSSIA 278 PART I NAVAL PRINCIPLES MAHAN ON NAVAL WARFARE I. THE VALUE OF HISTORICAL STUDY[13] The history of Sea Power is largely, though by no means solely, a narrative of contests between nations, of mutual rivalries, of violence frequently culminating in war. The profound influence of sea commerce upon the wealth and strength of countries was clearly seen long before the true principles which governed its growth and prosperity were detected. To secure to one’s own people a disproportionate share of such benefits, every effort was made to exclude others, either by the peaceful legislative methods of monopoly or prohibitory regulations, or, when these failed, by direct violence. The clash of interests, the angry feelings roused by conflicting attempts thus to appropriate the larger share, if not the whole, of the advantages of commerce, and of distant unsettled commercial regions, led to wars. On the other hand, wars arising from other causes have been greatly modified in their conduct and issue by the control of the sea. Therefore the history of sea power, while embracing in its broad sweep all that tends to make a people great upon the sea or by the sea, is largely a military history; and it is in this aspect that it will be mainly, though not exclusively, regarded in the following pages.