|
Alfred Thayer Mahan (September 27, 1840 – December 1, 1914) was a United States Navy admiral, geostrategist, and historian, who has been called "the most important American strategist of the nineteenth century."〔Keegan, John. ''The American Civil War'' Mexico: Knopf, 2009. p. 272.〕 His concept of "sea power" was based on the idea that countries with greater naval power will have greater worldwide impact; it was most famously presented in ''The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660–1783'' (1890). The concept had an enormous influence in shaping the strategic thought of navies across the world, especially those of the United States, Germany, Japan and Britain, ultimately causing a European naval arms race in the 1890s which culminated in the First World War. His ideas still permeate the US Navy doctrine. Several ships have been named as the , including the lead vessel of a class of destroyers. ==Early life and education== Mahan was born on September 27, 1840, in West Point, New York, to Dennis Hart Mahan (a professor at the United States Military Academy) and Mary Helena Mahan. His middle name, Thayer, honors "the father of West Point", Sylvanus Thayer. He attended Saint James School, an Episcopal college preparatory academy in western Maryland. He then studied at Columbia for two years where he was a member of the Philolexian Society debating club and then, against his parents' wishes, transferred to the Naval Academy, where he graduated second in his class in 1859. Commissioned as a lieutenant in 1861, Mahan served the Union in the American Civil War as an officer on , , , and , and as an instructor at the Naval Academy. In 1865, he was promoted to lieutenant commander, and then to commander (1872), and captain (1885). As commander of the he was stationed at Callao, Peru, protecting US interests during the final stages of the War of the Pacific.〔See "The Ambiguous Relationship: Theodore Roosevelt and Alfred Thayer Mahan" by Richard W. Turk; Greenwood Press, 1987. 183 pgs. page 10.〕〔See Larrie D. Ferreiro 'Mahan and the "English Club" of Lima, Peru: The Genesis of The Influence of Sea Power upon History', The Journal of Military History part I– Volume 72, Number 3, July 2008, pp. 901–906.〕 Despite his success in the Navy, his skills in actual command of a ship were not exemplary, and a number of vessels under his command were involved in collisions, with both moving and stationary objects. He had an affection for old square-rigged vessels and did not like the smoky, noisy steamships of his time; he tried to avoid active sea duty. The books he wrote ashore made him arguably the most influential naval historian of the period. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Alfred Thayer Mahan」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|