Ideologies of Western Naval Power, c. 1500-1815

This ground-breaking book provides the first study of naval ideology, defined as the mass of cultural ideas and shared perspectives that, for early modern states and belief systems, justified the creation and use of naval forces. Sixteen scholars examine a wide range of themes over a wide time period and broad geographical range, embracing Britain, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Sweden, Russia, Venice and the United States, along with the "extra-national" polities of piracy, neutrality, and international Calvinism. This volume provides important and often provocative new insights into both the growth of western naval power and important elements of political, cultural and religious history.

J.D. Davies is a Vice-President of the Society for Nautical Research and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Alan James is a Senior Lecturer in War Studies at King's College London. Gijs Rommelse is Head of History at the Haarlemmermeer Lyceum in Hoofddorp, the Netherlands, and an Honorary Visiting Fellow at the University of Leicester.

Introduction: The Ghost at the Banquet: Navies, Ideologies, and the Writing of History Section One: Navies and National Identities 1. Groom of the Sea: Venetian Sovereignty Between Power and Myth 2. National Flags as Essential Elements of Dutch Naval Ideology, 1570-1800 3. Towards a Scientific Navy: Institutional Identity and Spain's Eighteenth-Century Navy 4. The French Navy from Louis XV to Napoleon I: What Role and by What Means? Section Two: Monarchical Projects 5. Fleets and States in a Composite Catholic Monarchy: Spain c. 1500-1700 6. "Great Neptunes of the Main": Myths, Mangled Histories, and "Maritime Monarchy" in the Stuart Navy, 1603-1714 7. Colbert and La Royale: Dynastic Ambitions and Imperial Ideals in France Section Three: Communities of Violence 8. Corsairs in Tunis from the Sixteenth to Nineteenth Centuries: A Matter of Religion and Economics 9. Transnational Calvinist Cooperation and "Mastery of the Sea" in the Late Sixteenth Century 10. Shadow States and Ungovernable Ships: The Ideology of Early Modern Piracy 11. Greeks into Privateers: Law and Language of Commerce Raiding Under the Imperial Russian Flag, 1760s-1790s Section Four: Constructing Strategies 12. Kingship, Religion and History: Swedish Naval Ideology, 1500-1830 13. Neutrality at Sea: Scandinavian Responses to 'Great Power' Maritime Warfare, 1651-1713 14. Naval Ideology and Its Operational Impact in Eighteenth Century Britain 15. Debating the Purpose of a Navy in a New Republic: The United States of America, 1775-1815 Section Five: Afterword. Afterword