The Pacific's New Navies : An Ocean, its Wars, and the Making of US Sea Power

This book sheds light on the relationships between the United States' 'New Navy and wars in the Pacific during a period of technological flux and globalization. It will interest students and scholars of military history, oceanic history, US foreign policy, and the history of technology and innovation.

The initial creation of the United States'' ocean-going battlefleet – otherwise known as the ''New Navy'' – was a result of the naval wars and arms races around the Pacific during the late-nineteenth century. Using a transnational methodology, Thomas Jamison spotlights how US Civil War-era innovations catalyzed naval development in the Pacific World, creating a sense that the US Navy was falling behind regional competitors. As the industrializing ''newly-made navies'' of Chile, Peru, Japan, and China raced against each other, Pacific dynamism motivated investments in the US ''New Navy as a matter of security and civilizational prestige. In this provocative exploration into the making of modern US navalism, Jamison provides an analysis of competitive naval build-ups in the Pacific, of the interactions between peoples, ideas, and practices within it, and ultimately the emergence of the US as a major power.