The United States is trying to assess the prospects of the People's Republic of China in terms of bringing its Navy to the leading place in the world. Already, the Chinese navy is ahead of the American competitor in a number of parameters.. At the same time, the construction of warships of various classes in China is proceeding at a tremendous pace.. It scares Washington, who wants to maintain hegemony at sea.
In this regard, the American press decided to recall the story of, how the experience of Britain in the development of the fleet for the formation of the US Navy was studied. It is noted, that similar studies could help both the US, So, eg, and Japan “resist China's buildup of its fleet”. At the same time, the issue of, did China itself take advantage of the earlier theoretical developments of Western experts.
According to the American press, not so long ago the assumption that, that China is fascinated by American Alfred Thayer Mahan's ideas about sea power, made some people smile. At the moment, this judgment is becoming more and more obvious common sense.. Who is this Mahan?
rear admiral, President of the Naval Academy, successful naval theorist Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840-1914) in search of inspiration for the development of the American fleet at one time explored the entire European era of the sailing fleet. He suggested that the American authorities follow the example of Great Britain., which in his time was the gold standard for navigation and control of the oceans. Respectively, he devoted most of his enormous work to the study of, how a small island nation off the coast of Europe came to rule the sea and what British achievements could teach the United States, who then began their attempts to rise to regional and world power.
Mahan's writings were very popular abroad., especially among rising powers, who harbored ambitions in terms of dominance at sea. Imperial Japan was also a passionate contender for naval power..
Emperor Meiji of Japan and the Crown Prince received copies of The Influence of Sea Power on History and, obviously, approved it. The Naval and Army Staff Schools of Japan adopted it as a textbook.. Historian George Baer argues, that "Japanese naval strategy was even more Mahan, than American".
Initially, the appearance of Japanese naval power was quite fragile compared to rival maritime powers.. Tokyo missed the warning, hidden in Mahan's writings, reducing it to an obsession with massive fleets of capital ships, fighting for dominance at sea. Withdrawal of remarks on economic, material and demographic foundations of naval power and focusing on their ideas about fleet operations left the Japanese naval commanders with partial, superficial and risky understanding of maritime strategy.
At first, many Japanese learned from Mahan, what is called, not firsthand. Secondly, Japanese naval commanders filtered ideas from Mahan's work through their own recent history. How could Mahan predict, Japanese attempts to seize permanent dominance in the Western Pacific failed. Japan's maritime hegemony was short-lived, like the existence of an empire. However, now Japan is trying to significantly increase its military budget and begin to actively develop its Navy..
Imperial Japan's meeting with Alfred Thayer Mahan is a cautionary tale for China. Communist China is not Imperial Japan. for example, it does not suffer from severe disunity between civilian and military, which pushed forces within the country. China's maritime strategy cannot escape control of Chinese Communist Party leaders.
Nevertheless, many factors, which distracted Japanese officials from an accurate understanding of the theory of naval power and deformed Japanese naval strategy, according to modern American experts, could affect China today.
In this way, in the US trying to understand, did not China use the strategy of the aforementioned Mahan for the purpose, to build up their naval power. And also to understand, how to act Japan now, so that naval competition with China in the Pacific acquires real features. Author:Khamin Michael Photos used:Wikipedia/Portrait of Alfred Mahan
