Imperialism at sea : : naval strategic thought, the ideology of sea power, and the Tirpitz Plan, 1875-1914 / / Rolf Hobson.

• Superior document: Studies in Central European histories
• VerfasserIn: Hobson, Rolf,
• Place / Publishing House: Boston : : Brill Academic Publishers,, [2002]; ©2002
• Year of Publication: 2002
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in Central European histories.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource.

Was Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz' plan for naval expansion and the development of a "risk fleet" as a way to position Wilhelmine Germany as a world power to rival Britain so unique? This comparative study of the modern naval strategy of Germany, Britain, France, and the United States seeks to answer that question. First, Hobson is the only naval scholar to simultaneously compare the "Tirpitz Plan" with plans of the other leading nations of that time. Second, Hobson also interacts with how other scholars have assessed the complex interplay between naval history--both in and outside Germany--maritime law, and naval strategy. Hobson offers a unique interpretation of the causes and objectives of the German Imperial Navy at the end of the nineteenth century, forces that ultimately led to the First World War.

Table of Contents

Machine generated contents note: Part One -- The Changing Framework of International Rivalry, 1840-1914 -- Chapter 1: Industrialization, People's War, -- and the Limits to Land and Sea Power 11 -- The End of the Congress System, the -- Advent of Industrialized People's War, -- and Germany's "Semi-Hegemony," 1850-1871 13 -- Industrialization and the Effectiveness -- of Britain's Sea Power, 1840-1914 24 -- Competitive Modernization, Arms Races, -- and War, 1840-1914 39 -- The Naval Balance of Power, Maritime Law, -- and the Limits to Britain's Sea Power 57 -- Part Two -- Naval Strategy in an Industrializing World, 1865-1895 -- Chapter 2: Adapting History in Britain and France 84 -- Britain and Blue Water 85 -- France and the Jeune Ecole 96 -- Chapter 3: German Grand Strategy and the -- Prussian School of Naval Thought, 1871-1895 110 -- German Grand Strategy and the Navy 113 -- The Prussian School of Naval Thought -- The Prussian School, Operational Doctrine, -- and the Renewal of the Fleet -- Chapter 4: Navalism, Strategy, and History in -- Mahan's Thought and Influence -- Mahan's Elements of Sea Power- -- Strategic and Navalist -- Mahan's Imperialism -- The Basics of Mahan's Strategy -- Chapter 5: From the Prussian to the German -- School, 1891-1895: Operational Doctrine -- and the Ideology of Sea Power -- Mahan and German Navalism -- The Prussian School Meets Mahan -- A Decade of Intra-Service Rivalry -- Tirpitz and the Axioms of the Prussian School: -- The Memoranda of 1891-1892 -- The Honing of Prussian Naval Thought, 1892-1894: -- The Operational Doctrines of Dienstschrift IX -- The Ideology of Sea Power in Dienstschrift IX -- Part Three -- The Origins and Objectives of the Tirpitz Plan, 1895-1914 -- Chapter 6: From Dienstschrift IX to the Risk -- Theory, 1895-1900 -- The Acceptance of the High Command's -- Construction Program, 1895-1897 -- From Prusso-German Naval Defense to -- the "Fleet against England": The First -- and Second Navy Laws, 1897-1900 -- Chapter 7: The "Risk Fleet" and the German -- School of Naval Thought -- The "Final Objectives" of Construction Policy -- Numbers, Allies, and Position -- Strategic Options and Maritime Law under -- the Primacy of the Tirpitz Plan -- From Maltzahn to Wegener: The German -- School and Geopolitics -- Chapter 8: The Peculiarities of Wilhelmine -- Navalism -- Semiabsolutist Navalism -- Social Imperialism from Weber to -- the "Kehrites": The Historiographical -- Politics of the "Risk Fleet" -- Conclusion -- Sources -- Index.