No Alfred Thayer Mahan- influence on US geostrategy ?

Well, without Mahan's influence the Dreadnaught race is a lot less likely to gt started; we'd probably still see Dreadnaught herself and a handful of contemporaries, but in their original role as testbeds for new weaponry and building-styles, rather than as an enduring new type of warship.

Instead, we'd be more likely to see Jackie Fisher's vision of war come along- fleets (or at least the Royal Navy) divided between a coastal force of torpedo boats, submarines and destroyers to "infest" the Channel, North Sea and Med in order to make the movement of enemy shipping impossible, while squadrons of battlecruisers patrolled the open oceans looking for enemy commerce-raiders.

This might make the dynamics of an altrnative naval race interesting- if the Admiralty think big-gun battleships ar a waste of money and nothing a squadron of torpedo boats can't fix, will they be as threatened by th Germans trying to build them? Assuming they do of course...
 
No Mahan means a huge change in naval geostrategy during at least the first half of the 20th century. It's quite possible that (parts of) WW2 don't happen in anything remotely resembling OTL. In particular, the Japanese were quite heavily influenced by him, and I suspect Pearl Harbor would simply not take place if he effectively wasn't around. (Of course, this is assuming WWI and some of the following take place more or less as OTL, which may not even be the case)
 
Well, without Mahan's influence the Dreadnaught race is a lot less likely to gt started; we'd probably still see Dreadnaught herself and a handful of contemporaries, but in their original role as testbeds for new weaponry and building-styles, rather than as an enduring new type of warship.

Instead, we'd be more likely to see Jackie Fisher's vision of war come along- fleets (or at least the Royal Navy) divided between a coastal force of torpedo boats, submarines and destroyers to "infest" the Channel, North Sea and Med in order to make the movement of enemy shipping impossible, while squadrons of battlecruisers patrolled the open oceans looking for enemy commerce-raiders.

This might make the dynamics of an altrnative naval race interesting- if the Admiralty think big-gun battleships ar a waste of money and nothing a squadron of torpedo boats can't fix, will they be as threatened by th Germans trying to build them? Assuming they do of course...

I doubt it. Fisher's 'flotilla' concept was developed more in mind with dealing with France and Russia. It became out of date with the Triple Entente. For Fisher the revolutionary warship was the battlecruiser, Dreadnought was constructed as a means of basically ending the battleship race, but the 'Big Gun Club' of the Royal Navy didn't pay attention.

Mahan's work was more instrumental in justifying the construction and expansion of other nations' navies besides Britain.
 
I doubt if too much would change. Though I am a fan of Mahan and even read his work back in early high school, he didn't come up with the ideas, he mearly put them into words.

The ideas of controlling sea lanes, power projection, naval choke points, fleets in being and lines of communication were already being put into effect throughout naval history. Britain took control of Gibraltar and the Cape Colony for these reasons and well before Mahan too. The US fought the Barbary pirates, balked at the Danish Straits tribute and Commodore Perry advocated occupying Hawaii, Taiwan and just about every Pacific Island he step his feet on to well before Mahan.

Mahan just made it easier to justify already obvious naval strategy and geopolitical goals.

Benjamin
 
Kaiser Bill was obsessed with ATM, he kept the book beside his bed and read bits daily, so perhaps the IGN doesn't become the 2nd largest in the world without ATM.
 
... Commodore Perry advocated occupying Hawaii, Taiwan and ...

Say the the US government passes some kind of weak recognition of the potential of securing such an island for US business interests (can't see anyone at the time valuing it's strategic interests). Small but enterprising business men make their way to the island and start up companies. (There are resources there to work with) Formosa does have a good position for a lot of things and within the next few decades the Europeans are going to be sailing by looking for markets themselves. If those business ventures can come into creation, they have the potential to boom over time. Is there anything that has a chance of pulling American immigration that far out? (I'm inclined to say no) Also, what's someones best guess as to the Formosa population circa 1850-70's?

If developed it changes the US pacific politics, relations with the Asian markets and nations in just about every way, stifles Japan, opens up a lot of positive interest with Russia in the area following the sale of Alaska and her 'support' during ACW, ... and on and on. It's next to impossible to have direct annexation during this time, but just wondering if anything can be set in motion for the island enveloped in US control of any sort.
 
Kaiser Bill was obsessed with ATM, he kept the book beside his bed and read bits daily, so perhaps the IGN doesn't become the 2nd largest in the world without ATM.

A myth that keeps on perpetuating itself. The expansion of the IGN was fueled from within before either Wilhelm II or Tirpitz.
 
Mahan merely popularized ideas that were already around. I'm not sure how much effect this would have on naval development, as I'm sure someone else would have written similar works.

Maybe in the US it would make a bigger difference, as it was pretty hard to convince anyone to build a battle fleet. Maybe we would have stayed with a cruiser fleet longer.
 
If it is true that Mahan popularized the idea/term "Middle East", then that might change, but it likely won't mean much.
 
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