Scope and Definitions

Abstract

Water, in rivers and lakes, in marshes and fens, in narrow and landlocked seas, in the great oceans themselves, covers seven-tenths of the surface of the Earth. Human beings have used boats, originally perhaps only canoes dug out from logs, or lashed-up rafts or basket-work coracles waterproofed with animal skins, to cross water for at least three quarters of the 40 000 years since our species, homo sapiens sapiens, first emerged. When they crossed water, whether this was fresh or salt, their purpose would sometimes have been to fight an enemy or to flee from him. There is even evidence of a kind, written or pictorial or archaeological, from several continents and going back for two or three thousand years, that links boats and ships with extensive and organised fighting. Potentially the subject is as vast as its horizons are hazy, but this book will drastically limit the field of view and focus narrowly on a single aspect: the use by governments of naval force as an instrument to further their political purposes. Even this restricted zone will be selectively explored: to pick out instances that have retained their interest and potential relevance rather than to compile a record of events. History, one kind of history at least, is the politics of the past. We study it to improve our chances of coping with the present and the future.

Sur mer les vrais titres de domination sont la force, non la raison (Cardinal Richelieu, 1626).