Naval Power: A History of Warfare and the Sea from 1500 Onwards »

JEREMY BLACK is Professor of History at the University of Exet, UK. He is an authority on early modern British and continental European history, with special interest in international relations, military history, the press, and historical atlases. A prolific historian, he is the author of over sixty books in addition to over a dozen edited volumes. Among his most recently published books are The English Seaborne Empire (Yale University Press, 2004); Rethinking Military History (Routledge, 2004); The Hanoverians: The History of the Dynasty (Hambledon & London, 2004); Using History (Hodder Arnold, 2005); and George III: Americas Last King (Yale University Press, 2006).

A wide-ranging account of Naval Power and its relationship to international relations from 1500 to the present day.

List of tables x

List of abbreviations x

Foreword xi

Preface xiii

1 Introduction 1

2 1500-1660 8

Ships 10

Portuguese naval power 13

Naval warfare 19

Mediterranean warfare 22

Baltic warfare 30

Adantic warfare 31

The Armada 32

Dutch naval power 36

The French navy 38

English naval power 38

A naval revolution? 42

3 1660-1775 49

1660-90 49

The 1690s 50

The War of the Spanish Succession, 1702-13 56

The Anglo-French Alliance, 1716-31 59

Conflict with the Bourbons, 1739-48 64

Naval power and British policy, 1749-55 70

The Seven Years' War, 1756-63 74

The war at sea 77

4 1775-1815 82

Non-Western navies 82

The USA 89

European navies 90

Infrastructure 91

Battle 93

Improved capability 94

The War of American Independence, 1775-83 98

The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars 102

The War of 1812-15 103

British naval power 104

Blockade 107

Britain's maritime position 111

Defining naval strength and modernity 113

5 1815-1914 116

1815-50 117

Steam power 121

The 1850s 125

The 1860s 127

The 1870s-80s 130

Towards the dreadnought 136

6 1914-45 150

The First World War 150

Submarine warfare 153

Mines 158

A host of naval powers, 1914-18 159

Inter-war developments 162

Naval air power 165

Tasks and roles 167

The Second World War, 1939-45 170

The U-boat war 177

War in the Pacific 179

Amphibious warfare 185

7 1945-2010 189

The changing nature of naval power 189

The USA as the naval superpower 190

The Cold War 193

Naval conflict 199

American-Soviet competition 201

After the Cold War 203

Power projection 209

Trade protection 211

Debating procurement 213

Conclusions 214

8 Thefuture 216

China: The next naval great power? 216

Russian naval moves 220

Counter-insurgency at sea 223

The diversity of naval powers 225

Conclusions 227

9 Conclusions 229

Notes 232

Selected further reading 256

Index 259