NAVAL POWER Mahan proved that sea power has exercised a determining influence on history.

He proved that sea power has been necessary for commercial success in peace and military success in war.

He proved that, while many wars have culminated with the victory of some army, the victory of some navy had been the previous essential.

He proved that the immediate cause of success had often resulted inevitably from another cause, less apparent because more profound; that the operations of the navy had previously brought affairs up to the "mate in four moves," and that the final victory of the army was the resulting "checkmate." Before Mahan proved his doctrine, it was felt in a general way that sea power was necessary to the prosperity and security of a nation.

Mahan was not the first to have this idea, for it had been in the minds of some men, and in the policy of one nation, for more than a century.