1- The Influence of Seapower Upon History: 1660- 1783 was written by Alfred Thayer Mahan while serving as President of the United State Naval War College in 1890. Mahan believed that a nation’s economic and political strength can be secured from obtaining a strong naval command. By maintaining a merchant fleet to transport goods overseas, a strong combat fleet to protect the goods, and a system of international naval bases to supply both would gain access to foreign markets and unleash worldly power.
The book quickly became the topic of conversation as it detailed key factors including geography, government, national character, and population affected naval power. Mahan’s work not only influenced American Presidents but other foreign
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In the late 19th century European Powers were staking their claims to all parts of Africa. With most of the coast already claimed by 1890, the Congo Basin and the Upper Nile was the next focus. At the time, both the British and the French had ideas for a Trans-African Empire; British from south to north and the French from west to east. Eventually their paths would meet. And they did; in Fashoda. Jean- Baptiste Marchand led an expedition to establish a French presence along the Upper Nile as a result from the French parliament’s disapproval of the lack of British withdrawal from Egypt following the failure with Gordon at Khartoum. Traveling through over 250 miles of high grass between the Congo and the Nile, Marchand carried with him150 men, mostly Senegalese men and a few French officers. In addition, there were porters to transport a series of small boats and the parts to Faidherbe, an 80 foot steam …show more content…
During the 1905 Russo-Japanese war the only item that seemed to perform well was the Trans-Siberian railway supplying troops thousands of miles from Saint Petersburg. In the aftermath, everything from revolts to the Revolution of 1917 occurred. Furthermore, is displayed the weakness of autocracies like Russia’s who could not engage and unify the entirety of its people. Even more so, the effects of the war were felt with Russia’s allie; France. With Russia’s defeat and Germany not threatened by its eastern borders, France was once again vulnerable. France and Great Britain realizing its vulnerability to Germany as it was regaining power and the Triple Alliance formed the Anglo-Franco Alliance; ending Britain’s “splendid isolation”. The Anglo- Franco Alliance began in 1904 and then the Anglo-Russian Alliance following in 1907. This began the dividing of allies for the First World