Maritime power

A maritime power is a nation with a very strong navy, which often is also a great power, or at least a regional power. A maritime power is able to easily control their coast, and exert influence upon both nearby and far countries. A nation that dominates the world navally is known as a maritime superpower.

Maritime power[]

Emerging[]

Many countries that become maritime powers, become strong in order to defend themselves from an extant threat, such as the USSR did during the Cold War, in order to defend themselves from the United States Navy. In this scenario, it is common for the emerging maritime power to focus largely upon area denial tactics, rather than power projection.^[1]

Possible[]

Actual[]

Maritime powers are often much more involved in global politics and trade.^[2]

History[]

Due to its status as an island nation which needed naval protection against continental European states, Britain's fleet of naval and trade ships were already several times larger than that of its closest rival before the advent of the Industrial Revolution. Britain was only able to maximise the economic advantage of the Industrial Revolution by using the same naval power to convince or force other countries to purchase their factory-manufactured goods.^[3]

Historic maritime powers[]

• The British Empire was at one point a Superpower, alongside being a Maritime power (19th century).^{[citation needed]}
• Chile in the 1880s and 1890s. From 1879 to 1881 Chile successfully reduced Peru's navy and blockaded its ports in the naval campaign of the War of the Pacific. With the ship with Esmeralda laid down in 1883 Chile was able to lay claim to possessing the most powerful navy in the Americas.^[4][5] In 1885 this ship was deployed to Panama to show the Chilean flag and conduct gunboat diplomacy during an emerging crisis in the region. By annexing Easter Island in 1888, Chile joined the imperial nations in their partition of Oceania.^[6]: 53
• The Dutch Republic held a virtual monopoly in global commerce and trade routes during the second half of 17th century.^{[citation needed]}
• The Empire of Japan was the leading Asian maritime power in the 19th and 20th century. By 1920, the Imperial Japanese Navy was the third largest navy in the world, behind the Royal Navy and the United States Navy.^[7]
• The German Empire In 1910 the German high seas fleet was one of the most powerful navy as they built many ships and had the biggest submarine fleet in the world, with 120 submarines in total.^{[citation needed]}
• The Portuguese Empire pioneered the Age of Discovery during the 15th. It was the first global sea power, and global empire. It was also the most powerful empire during the 15th and 16th centuries.^{[citation needed]}
• The Republic of Genoa was one of the most powerful maritime and commercial powers of the Mediterranean and Black Seas during the Late Middle Ages.^[8]
• The Republic of Venice dominated trade on the Mediterranean Sea between Europe, North Africa and the Levant from the High Middle Ages to the beginning of the early modern period, conquering numerous territories along the Adriatic Sea.^[9]
• The Roman Empire, by 30 BC, Roman dominion extended from the Iberian Peninsula to Egypt. Romans controlled the whole Mediterranean Sea and called it Mare Nostrum (Latin: "Our Sea").^[10]
• The Soviet Union. Although the USSR traditionally had a strong focus on land, a period of rapid naval expansion allowed them to dominate their area.^[11]
• The Spanish Empire, was one of the first global empires and the most powerful empire during the 16th and first half of the 17th centuries.^{[citation needed]}

Current maritime powers[]

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• China.^{[G20][BRICS][11]} China is a great power, and is considered by many scholars to be an emerging global superpower.^{[12][13][14][15][16]}
• France.^{[G7][G20][17]} France is also a great power with its nuclear powered aircraft carrier and a large surface fleet.^[18]
• India.^{[G20][BRICS][19][20][21][22]} India is a great power with blue-water capabilities.
• Russia.^{[G20][BRICS][23]} Russia is also a great power, and has been characterized as a potential superpower.^[24][25]
• United Kingdom.^{[G7][G20][A][B]} Royal Navy is considered a Blue water navy^[26]
• United States of America.^{[G7][G20][11]} Nearly all scholars consider the USA a superpower of the 20th and early 21st century.^{[27][28][29][30][31][32]}

See also[]

• Command of the sea
• Maritime republics
• Naval power
• Thalassocracy

Notes[]

^ Nation is a member of the Group of Twenty.^[33]

^ Nation is a member of the Group of Seven.^[34]

^ Nation is a member of BRICS.^[35]

Bibliography[]

• Tellegen-Couperus, Olga (1993). Short History of Roman Law. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-07251-4.

References[]

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