Word: fleets
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...history of the U.S. Its industries were booming, its commerce thriving and its merchants fighting to gain markets overseas in the face of tough foreign competition. All of that pointed to the need for a strong Navy. And, to be sure, the nation was getting one. The fleet was no longer the dilapidated collection of small warships it had been when Roosevelt wrote his book about the War of 1812. By the late 1890s, it could be reckoned among the top four or five in the world...
...matter was urgent because Roosevelt and his circle were not the only people who had discovered the influence of sea power on world affairs. Mahan's lessons from history had had an almost universal resonance. Under Kaiser Wilhelm II and Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, Germany was building a battle fleet as large as the U.S. one and equally fast. France and Russia, now in alliance, were also pouring resources into new construction, as were Italy and Austria-Hungary in the Mediterranean. The most amazing growth, from virtually nowhere, was that of the Japanese navy in the Far East...
...refusal to pay international debts had led to a blockade of its coastline by various European navies, notably Germany's. Urged on by the nationalist wing of the U.S. press, Roosevelt had instructed Dewey, now an admiral, to patrol with a large force in waters nearby, ostensibly on seasonal fleet maneuvers but with an intent that was clear...
...player in the region. Russia, France and Britain had significant battleship squadrons in the Far East. The fastest-growing naval force of all belonged to Japan, which was increasingly suspicious of Russia's creeping territorial controls in Manchuria. In February 1904, Japan launched a surprise attack on the Russian fleet anchored at Port Arthur on the coast of China. The 20th century struggle for dominance of East Asia had begun in earnest...
...another gift from the gods to Roosevelt. He had long worried about czarist ambitions in Asia, as he worried about German ambitions in the Atlantic. He was full of admiration for the Japanese armed services as they steadily vanquished the larger Russian armies on land and smashed the Russian fleet in the epic battle of Tsushima in May 1905. But the President did not want complete Japanese domination of the Far East either, and so he actively lobbied both sides to turn to the peace table. Since Britain was diplomatically allied to Japan, and France to Russia, neither...