Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 13529-h.htm or 13529-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/5/2/13529/13529-h/13529-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/5/2/13529/13529-h.zip) +-----------------------------------------------------------+ | Transcriber's Note: | | | | Inconsistent hyphenation, and spelling in the original | | document have been preserved. | | | | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. For | | a complete list, please see the end of this document. | | | +-----------------------------------------------------------+ THE INFLUENCE OF SEA POWER UPON HISTORY 1660-1783 by A. T. MAHAN, D.C.L., LL.D. Author of "The Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire, 1793-1812," etc. Twelfth Edition [Illustration] Boston Little, Brown and Company Copyright, 1890, by Captain A. T. Mahan. Copyright, 1918, by Ellen Lyle Mahan. Printed in the United States of America PREFACE. The definite object proposed in this work is an examination of the general history of Europe and America with particular reference to the effect of sea power upon the course of that history. Historians generally have been unfamiliar with the conditions of the sea, having as to it neither special interest nor special knowledge; and the profound determining influence of maritime strength upon great issues has consequently been overlooked. This is even more true of particular occasions than of the general tendency of sea power. It is easy to say in a general way, that the use and control of the sea is and has been a great factor in the history of the world; it is more troublesome to seek out and show its exact bearing at a particular juncture. Yet, unless this be done, the acknowledgment of general importance remains vague and unsubstantial; not resting, as it should, upon a collection of special instances in which the precise effect has been made clear, by an analysis of the conditions at the given moments.