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

Illustrates the entangled histories of the Pacific's nineteenth-century wars, and how those wars shaped the modern US Navy.

Thomas M. Jamison (Author)

9781009559737, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 12 December 2024

304 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.3 cm, 0.61 kg

'Drawing on extensive and impressive archival work and a good grasp of relevant literature, Thomas Jamison puts the Pacific far more central in the development of American naval power than existing analyses that focus on Atlantic and Caribbean dimensions … this is a valuable account, one that has much to offer not only scholars of American great power development but also those interested in technological developments, navies and strategies in the late nineteenth century. The argument about the justification of naval investment in response to security concerns and prestige considerations is of course also all-too-relevant today.' Jeremy Black, The NYMAS Review

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.

Introduction
1. The confederate 'navy to construct'
2. The Pacific's civil war inheritance
3. Pacific naval races and the old steam navy
4. Pacific wars and their lessons
5. The Californian case for a new navy
6. The US new navy wins a race – finally
7. The Sino-Japanese war and new 'yankees' in the Pacific
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: History of the Americas [HBJK]