In his influential book, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783, Alfred Thayer Mahan promoted the importance of naval strength for the success and prosperity of a nation. The president of the Naval War College from 1892-1893, Mahan
believed the United States should take an active, unapologetic approach to foreign policy, and he felt that the best way to
accomplish this was by building up the navy, primarily as a deterrent against conflict. His work had a strong impact on
Theodore Roosevelt, who served as Secretary of the Navy in the 1890s, and helped to inspire much of the overseas expansion
of the Progressive Era.
Read this excerpt from Mahan's influential book, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783, and answer the questions.
As you read, you will examine details that show how Mahan's work impacted the Progressive movement, particularly the
foreign policy approaches of the progressive presidents. Use the Highlighting tool (LO) to identify these details, and think about
how the relationships between the details help present a more complete picture of the book's impact.
-Having therefore no foreign establishments, either colonial or military, the ships of war of the United States, in war, will be
like land birds, unable to fly far from their own shores. To provide resting places for them, where they can coal and repair,
would be one of the first duties of a government proposing to itself the development of the power of the nation at sea.
The question is eminently one in which the influence of the government should make itself felt, to build up for the nation a
navy which, if not capable of reaching distant countries, shall at least be able to keep clear the chief approaches to its own.
The eyes of the country have for a quarter of a century been turned from the sea; the results of such a policy and of its
opposite will be shown in the instance of France and of England. Without asserting a narrow parallelism between the case of
the United States and either of these, it may safely be said that it is essential to the welfare of the whole country that the
conditions of trade and commerce should remain, as far as possible, unaffected by an external war. In order to do this, the
enemy must be kept not only out of our ports, but far away from our coasts.