Naval warfare iscombat in and on thesea, theocean, or any otherbattlespace involving a major body of water such as a largelake or wideriver.
Thearmed forces branch designated for naval warfare is anavy. Naval operations can be broadly divided into riverine/littoral applications (brown-water navy), open-ocean applications (blue-water navy), between riverine/littoral and open-ocean applications (green-water navy), although these distinctions are more about strategic scope than tactical or operational division. The strategic offensive purpose of naval warfare isprojection of force by water, and its strategic defensive purpose is to challenge the similar projection of force by enemies.
Humankind has fought battles on the sea for more than 3,000 years.[1] Even in the interior of large landmasses, transportation before the advent of extensiverailways was largely dependent uponrivers,lakes,canals, and othernavigable waterways.
The latter were crucial in the development of the modern world in the United Kingdom, America, theLow Countries andnorthern Germany, because they enabled the bulk movement of goods andraw material, which supported the nascentIndustrial Revolution. Prior to 1750, materials largely moved by river barge or sea vessels. Thus armies, with their exorbitant needs for food, ammunition and fodder, were tied to the river valleys throughout the ages.
Pre-recorded history (Homeric Legends, e.g.Troy), and classical works such as TheOdyssey emphasize the sea. ThePersian Empire – united and strong – could not prevail against the might of theAthenian fleet combined with that of lesser city states in several attempts to conquer theGreek city states.Phoenicia's andEgypt's power,Carthage's and evenRome's largely depended upon control of the seas.
So too did theVenetian Republic dominate Italy's city states, thwart theOttoman Empire, and dominate commerce on theSilk Road and theMediterranean in general for centuries. For three centuries,Vikings raided and pillaged far into central Russia andUkraine, and even to distantConstantinople (both via theBlack Sea tributaries,Sicily, and through theStrait of Gibraltar).
Gaining control of the sea has largely depended on a fleet's ability to wage sea battles. Throughout most of naval history, naval warfare revolved around two overarching concerns, namelyboarding and anti-boarding. It was only in the late 16th century, when gunpowder technology had developed to a considerable extent, that the tactical focus at sea shifted to heavy ordnance.[2]
Many sea battles through history also provide a reliable source ofshipwrecks forunderwater archaeology. A major example is theexploration of thewrecks of various warships in thePacific Ocean.
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The first recorded sea battle was theBattle of the Delta, theAncient Egyptians defeated theSea Peoples in a sea battlec. 1175 BC.[3]As recorded on the temple walls of the mortuary temple of pharaohRamesses III atMedinet Habu, this repulsed a major sea invasion near the shores of the easternNile Delta using a naval ambush and archers firing from both ships and shore.
Assyrian reliefs from the 8th century BC showPhoenician fighting ships, with two levels of oars, fighting men on a sort of bridge or deck above the oarsmen, and some sort of ram protruding from the bow. No written mention of strategy or tactics seems to have survived.
Josephus Flavius (Antiquities IX 283–287) reports a naval battle betweenTyre and the king of Assyria who was aided by the other cities in Phoenicia. The battle took place off the shores of Tyre. Although the Tyrian fleet was much smaller, the Tyrians defeated their enemies.
TheGreeks ofHomer just used their ships as transport for land armies, but in 664 BC there is a mention of a battle at sea betweenCorinth and its colony cityCorcyra.
Ancient descriptions of thePersian Wars were the first to feature large-scale naval operations, not just sophisticated fleet engagements with dozens oftriremes on each side, but combined land-sea operations. It seems unlikely that all this was the product of a single mind or even of a generation; most likely the period of evolution and experimentation was simply not recorded by history.
After some initial battles while subjugating the Greeks of theIonian coast, the Persians determined to invade Greece proper.Themistocles ofAthens estimated that the Greeks would be outnumbered by the Persians on land, but that Athens could protect itself by building a fleet (the famous "wooden walls"), using the profits of thesilver mines atLaurium to finance them.
The first Persian campaign, in 492 BC, was aborted because the fleet was lost in a storm, but the second, in 490 BC, captured islands in theAegean Sea before landing on the mainland nearMarathon. Attacks by the Greek armies repulsed these.
The third Persian campaign in 480 BC, underXerxes I of Persia, followed the pattern of the second in marching the army via theHellespont while the fleet paralleled them offshore. NearArtemisium, in the narrow channel between the mainland andEuboea, the Greek fleet held off multiple assaults by the Persians, the Persians breaking through a first line, but then being flanked by the second line of ships. But the defeat on land atThermopylae forced a Greek withdrawal, and Athens evacuated its population to nearbySalamis Island.
The ensuingBattle of Salamis was one of the decisive engagements of history. Themistocles trapped the Persians in a channel too narrow for them to bring their greater numbers to bear, and attacked them vigorously, in the end causing the loss of 200 Persian ships vs 40 Greek.Aeschylus wrote a play about the defeat,The Persians, which was performed in a Greek theatre competition a few years after the battle. It is the oldest known surviving play. At the end, Xerxes still had a fleet stronger than the Greeks, but withdrew anyway, and after losing atPlataea in the following year, returned toAsia Minor, leaving the Greeks their freedom. Nevertheless, the Athenians and Spartans attacked and burned the laid-up Persian fleet atMycale, and freed many of the Ionian towns. These battles involved triremes or biremes as the standard fighting platform, and the focus of the battle was to ram the opponent's vessel using the boat's reinforced prow. The opponent would try to maneuver and avoid contact, or alternately rush all the marines to the side about to be hit, thus tilting the boat. When the ram had withdrawn and the marines dispersed, the hole would then be above the waterline and not a critical injury to the ship.
During the next fifty years, the Greeks commanded the Aegean, but not harmoniously. After several minor wars, tensions exploded into thePeloponnesian War (431 BC) between Athens'Delian League and the SpartanPeloponnese. Naval strategy was critical; Athens walled itself off from the rest of Greece, leaving only the port atPiraeus open, and trusting in itsnavy to keep supplies flowing while the Spartan army besieged it. This strategy worked, although the close quarters likely contributed to the plague that killed many Athenians in 429 BC.
There were a number of sea battles betweengalleys; atRhium,Naupactus,Pylos,Syracuse,Cynossema,Cyzicus,Notium. But the end came for Athens in 405 BC atAegospotami in theHellespont, where the Athenians had drawn up their fleet on the beach, and were surprised by the Spartan fleet, who landed and burned all the ships. Athens surrendered to Sparta in the following year.
Navies next played a major role in the complicated wars of the successors ofAlexander the Great.
TheRoman Republic had never been much of a seafaring nation, but it had to learn. In thePunic Wars withCarthage, Romans developed the technique of grappling andboarding enemy ships with soldiers. TheRoman Navy grew gradually as Rome became more involved in Mediterranean politics; by the time of theRoman Civil War and theBattle of Actium (31 BC), hundreds of ships were involved, many of themquinqueremes mountingcatapults and fighting towers. Following the EmperorAugustus transforming the Republic into theRoman Empire, Rome gained control of most of the Mediterranean. Without any significant maritime enemies, the Roman navy was reduced mostly to patrolling forpirates and transportation duties. It was only on the fringes of the Empire, in newly gained provinces or defensive missions against barbarian invasion, that the navy still engaged in actual warfare.
While the barbarian invasions of the 4th century and later mostly occurred by land, some notable examples of naval conflicts are known. In the late 3rd century, in the reign of EmperorGallienus, a large raiding party composed by Goths, Gepids and Heruli, launched itself in the Black Sea, raiding the coasts of Anatolia and Thrace, and crossing into the Aegean Sea, plundering mainland Greece (including Athens and Sparta) and going as far as Crete and Rhodes. In the twilight of the Roman Empire in the late 4th century, examples include that of EmperorMajorian, who, with the help of Constantinople, mustered a large fleet in a failed effort to expel the Germanic invaders from their recently conquered African territories, and a defeat of anOstrogothic fleet atSena Gallica in theAdriatic Sea.
During theMuslim conquests of the 7th century,Muslim fleets first appeared, raidingSicily in 652 (seeHistory of Islam in southern Italy andEmirate of Sicily), and defeating theByzantine Navy in 655.Constantinople was saved from aprolonged Arab siege in 678 by the invention ofGreek fire, an early form offlamethrower that was devastating to the ships in the besieging fleet. These were the first of many encounters during theByzantine-Arab Wars.
TheCaliphate became the dominant naval power in theMediterranean Sea from the 7th to 13th centuries, during what is known as theIslamic Golden Age. One of the most significant inventions in medieval naval warfare was thetorpedo, invented inSyria by theArab inventor Hasan al-Rammah in 1275. His torpedo ran on water with arocket system filled withexplosivegunpowder materials and had three firing points. It was an effective weapon againstships.[6]
In the 8th century theVikings appeared, although their usual style was to appear quickly, plunder, and disappear, preferably attacking undefended locations. The Vikings raided places along the coastline of England and France, with the greatest threats being in England. They would raid monasteries for their wealth and lack of formidable defenders. They also utilized rivers and other auxiliary waterways to work their way inland in the eventual invasion of Britain. They wreaked havoc in Northumbria and Mercia and the rest of Anglia before being halted by Wessex. KingAlfred the Great of England was able to stay the Viking invasions with a pivotal victory at the Battle of Edington. Alfred defeated Guthrum, establishing the boundaries ofDanelaw in an 884 treaty. The effectiveness of Alfred's 'fleet' has been debated; Kenneth Harl has pointed out that as few as eleven ships were sent to combat the Vikings, only two of which were not beaten back or captured.[citation needed]
The Vikings also fought several sea battles among themselves. This was normally done by binding the ships on each side together, thus essentially fighting a land battle on the sea.[1] However the fact that the losing side could not easily escape meant that battles tended to be hard and bloody. TheBattle of Svolder is perhaps the most famous of these battles.
As Muslim power in the Mediterranean began to wane, the Italian trading towns ofGenoa,Pisa, andVenice stepped in to seize the opportunity, setting up commercial networks and building navies to protect them. At first the navies fought with the Arabs (offBari in 1004, atMessina in 1005), but then they found themselves contending withNormans moving into Sicily, and finally with each other. The Genoese and Venetians fought four naval wars, in 1253–1284, 1293–1299,1350–1355, and 1378–1381. The last ended with a decisive Venetian victory, giving it almost a century to enjoy Mediterranean trade domination before other European countries began expanding into the south and west.
In the north of Europe, the near-continuous conflict between England and France was characterised by raids on coastal towns and ports along the coastlines and the securing of sea lanes to protect troop–carrying transports. TheBattle of Dover in 1217, between a French fleet of 80 ships underEustace the Monk and an English fleet of 40 underHubert de Burgh, is notable as the first recorded battle using sailing ship tactics. Thebattle of Arnemuiden (23 September 1338), which resulted in a French victory, marked the opening of theHundred Years War and was the first battle involving artillery.[7] However thebattle of Sluys, fought two years later, saw the destruction of the French fleet in a decisive action which allowed the English effective control of the sea lanes and the strategic initiative for much of the war.
TheSui (581–618) andTang (618–907) dynasties of China were involved in several naval affairs over the triple set of polities ruling medievalKorea (Three Kingdoms of Korea), along with engaging naval bombardments on the peninsula fromAsuka periodYamato Kingdom (Japan).
The Tang dynasty aided the Korean kingdom ofSilla (see alsoUnified Silla) and expelled the Korean kingdom ofBaekje which were supported by Japanese naval forces from the Korean peninsula (seeBattle of Baekgang) and helped Silla overcome its rival Korean kingdoms,Baekje andGoguryeo, by 668. In addition, the Tang had maritime trading, tributary, and diplomatic ties as far as modernSri Lanka, India,IslamicIran andArabia, as well asSomalia inEast Africa.
From theAxumite Kingdom in modern-dayEthiopia, theArab travellerSa'd ibn Abi-Waqqas sailed from there to Tang China during the reign ofEmperor Gaozong. Two decades later, he returned with a copy of theQuran, establishing the first Islamicmosque in China, the Mosque of Remembrance inGuangzhou. A rising rivalry followed between the Arabs and Chinese for control of trade in the Indian Ocean. In his bookCultural Flow Between China and the Outside World, Shen Fuwei notes that maritime Chinese merchants in the 9th century were landing regularly at Sufala in East Africa to cut out Arab middle-men traders.[8]
TheChola dynasty of medieval India was a dominant seapower in theIndian Ocean, an avid maritime trader and diplomatic entity with Song China. Rajaraja Chola I (reigned 985 to 1014) and his son Rajendra Chola I (reigned 1014–42), sent a great naval expedition that occupied parts ofMyanmar,Malaya, andSumatra.
In theNusantara archipelago, large ocean going ships of more than 50 m in length and 5.2–7.8 metersfreeboard are already used at least since the 2nd century AD, contacting India to China.[9]: 347 [10]: 41 Srivijaya empire since the 7th century AD controlled the sea of the western part of the archipelago. TheKedukan Bukit inscription is the oldest record of Indonesian military history, and noted a 7th-century Srivijayan sacredsiddhayatra journey led byDapunta Hyang Sri Jayanasa. He was said to have brought 20,000 troops, including 312 people in boats and 1,312 foot soldiers.[11]: 4 The 10th century Arab textAjayeb al-Hind (Marvels of India) gives an account of an invasion in Africa by people called Wakwak orWaqwaq,[12]: 110 probably the Malay people of Srivijaya or Javanese people ofMataram kingdom,[13]: 27 [14]: 39 in 945–946 CE. They arrived at the coast ofTanganyika andMozambique with 1000 boats and attempted to take the citadel of Qanbaloh, though eventually failed. The reason of the attack is because that place had goods suitable for their country and for China, such as ivory, tortoise shells, panther skins, andambergris, and also because they wanted black slaves fromBantu people (calledZeng orZenj by Arabs,Jenggi by Javanese) who were strong and make good slaves.[12]: 110 Before the 12th century, Srivijaya is primarily land-based polity rather than maritime power, fleets are available but acted as logistical support to facilitate the projection of land power. Later, the naval strategy degenerated to raiding fleet. Their naval strategy was to coerce merchant ships to dock in their ports, which if ignored, they will send ships to destroy the ship and kill the occupants.[15][16]
In 1293, the MongolYuan dynasty launched an invasion toJava. The Yuan sent 500–1000 ships and 20,000–30,000 soldiers, but was ultimately defeated on land bysurprise attack, forcing the army to fall back to the beach. In the coastal waters, Javanesejunks had already attacked the Mongol ships. After all of the troops hadboarded the ships on the coast, the Yuan army battled the Javanese fleet. After repelling it, they sailed back toQuanzhou. Javanese naval commanderAria Adikara intercepted a further Mongol invasion.[17]: 145 [14]: 107–110 Although with only scarce information, travellers passing the region, such asIbn Battuta andOdoric of Pordenone noted that Java had been attacked by the Mongols several times, always ending in failure.[18][19] After those failed invasions,Majapahit empire quickly grew and became the dominant naval power in the 14–15th century. The usage of cannons in theMongol invasion of Java,[20]: 245 led to deployment ofcetbang cannons byMajapahit fleet in 1300s.[21] The main warship of Majapahit navy was thejong. The jongs were large transport ships which could carry 100–2000 tons of cargo and 50–1000 people, 28.99–88.56 meter in length.[22]: 60–62 The exact number of jong fielded by Majapahit is unknown, but the largest number of jong deployed in an expedition is about 400 jongs, when Majapahit attacked Pasai, in 1350.[23] In this era, even to the 17th century, the Nusantaran naval soldiers fought on a platform on their ships calledbalai and performed boarding actions. Scattershots fired from cetbang are used to counter this type of fighting, fired at personnel.[20]: 241 [24]: 162
In the 12th century, China's first permanent standing navy was established by theSouthern Song dynasty, the headquarters of the Admiralty stationed atDinghai. This came about after the conquest of northern China by theJurchen people (seeJin dynasty) in 1127, while the Song imperial court fled south fromKaifeng toHangzhou. Equipped with the magneticcompass and knowledge ofShen Kuo's famous treatise (on the concept oftrue north), the Chinese became proficient experts of navigation in their day. They raised their naval strength from a mere 11 squadrons of 3,000 marines to 20 squadrons of 52,000 marines in a century's time.
Employingpaddle wheel crafts andtrebuchets throwinggunpowder bombs from the decks of their ships, the Southern Song dynasty became a formidable foe to the Jin dynasty during the 12th–13th centuries during theJin–Song Wars. There were naval engagements at theBattle of Caishi andBattle of Tangdao.[25][26] With a powerful navy, China dominated maritime trade throughoutSouth East Asia as well. Until 1279, the Song were able to use their naval power to defend against the Jin to the north, until theMongols finally conquered all of China. After the Song dynasty, the Mongol-ledYuan dynasty of China was a powerful maritime force in the Indian Ocean.
The Yuan emperorKublai Khan attempted to invade Japan twice with large fleets (of both Mongols and Chinese), in 1274 and again in 1281, both attempts being unsuccessful (seeMongol invasions of Japan). Building upon the technological achievements of the earlier Song dynasty, the Mongols also employed earlycannons upon the decks of their ships.[27][page needed]
While Song China built its naval strength, the Japanese also had considerable naval prowess. The strength of Japanese naval forces could be seen in theGenpei War, in the large-scaleBattle of Dan-no-ura on 25 April 1185. The forces ofMinamoto no Yoshitsune were 850 ships strong, whileTaira no Munemori had 500 ships.
In the mid-14th century, the rebel leaderZhu Yuanzhang (1328–1398) seized power in the south amongst many other rebel groups. His early success was due to capable officials such asLiu Bowen andJiao Yu, and their gunpowder weapons (seeHuolongjing). Yet the decisive battle that cemented his success and his founding of theMing dynasty (1368–1644) was theBattle of Lake Poyang, considered one of thelargest naval battles in history.[27]: 228–231
In the 15th century, the Chinese admiralZheng He was assigned to assemble a massive fleet forseveral diplomatic missions abroad, sailing throughout the waters of the South EastPacific and the Indian Ocean. During his missions, on several occasions Zheng's fleet came into conflict withpirates. Zheng's fleet also became involved in a conflict inSri Lanka, where the King of Ceylon traveled back to Ming China afterwards to make a formal apology to theYongle Emperor.
The Ming imperial navy defeated a Portuguese navy led byMartim Afonso de Sousa in 1522. The Chinese destroyed one vessel by targeting its gunpowder magazine, and captured another Portuguese ship.[28][29] A Ming army and navy led byKoxinga defeated a western power, theDutch East India Company, at theSiege of Fort Zeelandia, the first time China had defeated a western power.[30] The Chinese used cannons and ships to bombard the Dutch into surrendering.[31][32]
In theSengoku period of Japan,Oda Nobunaga unified the country by military power. However, he was defeated by theMōri clan's navy. Nobunaga invented theTekkosen (largeAtakebune equipped with iron plates) and defeated 600 ships of the Mōri navy with six armored warships (Battle of Kizugawaguchi). The navy of Nobunaga and his successorToyotomi Hideyoshi employed clever close-range tactics on land witharquebus rifles, but also relied upon close-range firing of muskets in grapple-and-board style naval engagements. When Nobunaga died in theHonnō-ji incident, Hideyoshi succeeded him and completed the unification of the whole country. In 1592, Hideyoshi ordered thedaimyōs to dispatch troops to Joseon Korea to conquer Ming China. The Japanese army which landed at Pusan on 12 April 1502 occupied Seoul within a month.[33] The Korean king escaped to the northern region of the Korean peninsula and Japan completed occupation ofPyongyang in June. The Korean navy then led by Admiral Yi Sun-sin defeated the Japanese navy in consecutive naval battles, namely Okpo, Sacheon, Tangpo and Tanghangpo.[34] TheBattle of Hansando on 14 August 1592 resulted in a decisive victory for Korea over the Japanese navy.[35] In this battle, 47 Japanese warships were sunk and 12 other ships were captured whilst no Korean warship was lost.[36] The defeats in the sea prevented the Japanese navy from providing their army with appropriate supply.[37]
Yi Sun-sin was later replaced with AdmiralWŏn Kyun, whose fleets faced a defeat.[38] The Japanese army, based nearBusan, overwhelmed the Korean navy in theBattle of Chilcheollyang on 28 August 1597 and began advancing toward China. This attempt was stopped when the reappointed Admiral Yi, won thebattle of Myeongnyang.[39]
TheWanli Emperor of Ming China sent military forces to the Korean peninsula. Yi Sun-sin and Chen Lin continued to successfully engage the Japanese navy with 500 Chinese warships and the strengthened Korean fleet.[40][41][42] In 1598, the planned conquest in China was canceled by the death ofToyotomi Hideyoshi, and the Japanese military retreated from the Korean Peninsula. On their way back to Japan, Yi Sun-sin and Chen Lin attacked the Japanese navy at theBattle of Noryang inflicting heavy damages, but the Chinese top officialDeng Zilong and the Korean commanderYi Sun-sin were killed in a Japanese army counterattack. The rest of the Japanese army returned to Japan by the end of December.[43] In 1609, theTokugawa shogunate ordered the abandonment of warships to thefeudal lord. The Japanese navy stagnated until theMeiji period.
In Korea, the greater range ofKorean cannons, along with the brilliant naval strategies of the Korean admiralYi Sun-sin, were the main factors in the ultimate Japanese defeat. Yi Sun-sin is credited for improving theGeobukseon (turtle ship), which were used mostly to spearhead attacks. They were best used in tight areas and around islands rather than on the open sea. Yi Sun-sin effectively cut off the possible Japanese supply line that would have run through theYellow Sea to China, and severely weakened the Japanese strength and fighting morale in several heated engagements (many regard the critical Japanese defeat to be theBattle of Hansan Island). The Japanese faced diminishing hopes of further supplies due to repeated losses in naval battles in the hands of Yi Sun-sin. As the Japanese army was about to return to Japan, Yi Sun-sin decisively defeated a Japanese navy at theBattle of Noryang.
Inancient China, the first known naval battles took place during theWarring States period (481–221 BC) whenvassal lords battled one another. Chinese naval warfare in this period featured grapple-and-hook, as well as ramming tactics with ships called "stomach strikers" and "colliding swoopers".[44] It was written in theHan dynasty that the people of the Warring States era had employedchuan ge ships (dagger-axe ships, orhalberd ships), thought to be a simple description of ships manned by marines carrying dagger-axe halberds as personal weapons.
The 3rd-century writer Zhang Yan asserted that the people of the Warring States period named the boats this way because halberd blades were actually fixed and attached to the hull of the ship in order to rip into the hull of another ship while ramming, to stab enemies in the water that had fallen overboard and were swimming, or simply to clear any possible dangerous marine animals in the path of the ship (since the ancient Chinese did believe in sea monsters; seeXu Fu for more info).
Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of theQin dynasty (221–207 BC), owed much of his success in unifying southern China to naval power, although an official navy was not yet established (see Medieval Asia section below). The people of theZhou dynasty were known to use temporarypontoon bridges for general means of transportation, but it was during the Qin and Han dynasties that large permanent pontoon bridges were assembled and used in warfare (first written account of a pontoon bridge in the West being the oversight of the GreekMandrocles of Samos in aiding a military campaign of Persian emperorDarius I over theBosporus).
During theHan dynasty (202 BC–220 AD), the Chinese began using thestern-mounted steeringrudder, and they also designed a new ship type, thejunk. From the late Han dynasty to theThree Kingdoms period (220–280 AD), large naval battles such as theBattle of Red Cliffs marked the advancement of naval warfare in the East. In the latter engagement, the allied forces ofSun Quan andLiu Bei destroyed a large fleet commanded byCao Cao in a fire-based naval attack.
In terms of seafaring abroad, arguably one of the first Chinese to sail into theIndian Ocean and to reach Sri Lanka and India by sea was the Buddhist monkFaxian in the early 5th century, although diplomatic ties and land trade to Persia and India were established during the earlier Han dynasty. However, Chinese naval maritime influence would penetrate into the Indian Ocean until the medieval period.
The late Middle Ages saw the development of thecogs,caravels andcarracks ships capable of surviving the tough conditions of the open ocean, with enough backup systems and crew expertise to make long voyages routine.[1] In addition, they grew from 100 tons to 300 tons displacement, enough to carry cannon as armament and still have space for cargo. One of the largest ships of the time, theGreat Harry, displaced over 1,500 tons.
The voyages of discovery were fundamentally commercial rather than military in nature, although the line was sometimes blurry in that a country's ruler was not above funding exploration for personal profit, nor was it a problem to use military power to enhance that profit. Later the lines gradually separated, in that the ruler's motivation in using the navy was to protect private enterprise so that they could pay more taxes.
Like the Egyptian Shia-Fatimids and Mamluks, the Sunni-Islamic Ottoman Empire centered in modern-day Turkey dominated the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The Ottomans built a powerful navy, rivaling the Italian city-state of Venice during theOttoman–Venetian War (1499–1503).
Although they were sorely defeated in theBattle of Lepanto (1571) by theHoly League, the Ottomans soon rebuilt their naval strength, and afterwards successfully defended the island of Cyprus so that it would stay in Ottoman hands. However, with the concurrent Age of Discovery, Europe had far surpassed the Ottoman Empire, and successfully bypassed their reliance on land-trade by discovering maritime routes around Africa and towards the Americas.
The first naval action in defense of the new colonies was just ten years afterVasco da Gama's epochal landing in India. In March 1508, a combined Gujarati/Egyptian force surprised aPortuguese squadron at Chaul, and only two Portuguese ships escaped. The following February, the Portuguese viceroy destroyed the allied fleet atDiu, confirming Portuguese domination of the Indian Ocean.
In 1582, theBattle of Ponta Delgada in the Azores, in which aSpanish-Portuguese fleet defeated a combinedFrench and Portuguese force, with some English direct support, thus ending thePortuguese succession crisis, was the first battle fought inmid-Atlantic.
In 1588, Spanish King Philip II sent his Armada to subdue the English fleet ofElizabeth, but Admiral Sir Charles Howard defeated the Armada, marking the rise to prominence of the EnglishRoyal Navy. However it was unable to follow up with a decisive blow against the Spanish navy, which remained the most important for another half century. After the war's end in 1604 the English fleet went through a time of relative neglect and decline.
In the 16th century, theBarbary states of North Africa rose to power, becoming a dominant naval power in the Mediterranean Sea due to theBarbary pirates. The coastal villages and towns of Italy, Spain andMediterranean islands were frequently attacked, and long stretches of the Italian and Spanish coasts were almost completely abandoned by their inhabitants; after 1600 Barbary pirates occasionally entered the Atlantic and struck as far north asIceland.
According to Robert Davis[45][46] as many as 1.25 million Europeans were captured by Barbary pirates andsold as slaves inNorth Africa and theOttoman Empire between the 16th and 19th centuries. These slaves were captured mainly from seaside villages in Italy, Spain and Portugal, and from farther places like France, England, the Netherlands, Ireland and even Iceland and North America. The Barbary pirates were also able to successfully defeat and capture many European ships, largely due to advances in sailing technology by the Barbary states. The earliestnaval trawler,xebec andwindward ships were employed by the Barbary pirates from the 16th century.[47]
From the middle of the 17th century competition between the expanding English and Dutch commercial fleets came to a head in theAnglo-Dutch Wars, the first wars to be conducted entirely at sea. Very few ships were sunk in naval combat during the Anglo-Dutch wars, as it was difficult to hit ships belowthe water level; the water surface deflected cannonballs, and the few holes produced could be patched quickly. Naval cannonades damaged men and sails more than they sunk ships. Three wars were fought between England and the Dutch Republic during the 17th century, though theGlorious Revolution put an end to further Anglo-Dutch conflicts for almost a century.[48][49]
The 18th century developed into a period of seemingly continuous international wars, each larger than the last. At sea, the British and French were bitter rivals; the French aided the fledgling United States in theAmerican Revolutionary War, but their strategic purpose was to capture territory in India and theWest Indies – which they did not achieve. In the Baltic Sea, the final attempt to revive the Swedish Empire led toGustav III's Russian War, with its grande finale at theSecond Battle of Svensksund. The battle, unrivaled in size until the 20th century, was a decisive Swedish tactical victory, but it resulted in little strategical result, due to poor army performance and previous lack of initiative from the Swedes, and the war ended with no territorial changes.
Even the change of government due to theFrench Revolution seemed to intensify rather than diminish the rivalry, and theNapoleonic Wars included a series of legendary naval battles, culminating in theBattle of Trafalgar in 1805, by which AdmiralHoratio Nelson broke the power of the French and Spanish fleets, but lost his own life in so doing.
Trafalgar ushered in thePax Britannica of the 19th century, marked by general peace in the world's oceans, under the ensigns of the Royal Navy. But the period was one of intensive experimentation with new technology;steam power for ships appeared in the 1810s, improvedmetallurgy and machining technique produced larger and deadlier guns, and the development of explosiveshells, capable of demolishing a wooden ship at a single blow, in turn required the addition of iron armour.
Although naval power during the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties established China as a major world seapower in the East, theQing dynasty lacked an official standing navy. They were more interested in pouring funds into military ventures closer to home (China proper), such as Mongolia, Tibet, and Central Asia (modernXinjiang). However, there were some considerable naval conflicts involving the Qing navy before theFirst Opium War (such as theBattle of Penghu, and the capture ofFormosa fromMing loyalists).
The Qing navy proved woefully undermatched during theFirst andSecond Opium Wars, leaving China open tode facto foreign domination; portions of the Chinese coastline were placed underWestern andJapanesespheres of influence. The Qing government responded to its defeat in theOpium Wars by attempting to modernize the Chinese navy; placing several contracts in European shipyards for modern warships. The result of these developments was theBeiyang Fleet, which was dealt a severe blow by theImperial Japanese Navy in theFirst Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895).
The battle betweenCSSVirginia andUSS Monitor in theAmerican Civil War was a duel ofironclads that symbolized the changing times. The first fleet action between ironclad ships was fought in 1866 at theBattle of Lissa between the navies of Austria and Italy. Because the decisive moment of the battle occurred when the AustrianflagshipSMS Erzherzog Ferdinand Max successfully sank the Italian flagshipRe d'Italia byramming, in subsequent decade every navy in the world largely focused on ramming as the main tactic. The last known use of ramming in a naval battle was in 1915, whenHMS Dreadnought rammed the (surfaced) German submarine,U-29. The last surface ship sunk by ramming happened in 1879 when the Peruvian shipHuáscar rammed the Chilean shipEsmeralda. The last known warship equipped with a ram was launched in 1908, the German light cruiserSMS Emden.
With the advent of thesteamship, it became possible to create massive gun platforms and to provide them with heavy armor resulting in the first modern battleships. The Battles ofSantiago de Cuba andTsushima demonstrated the power of these ships.
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In the early 20th century, the modernbattleship emerged: a steel-armored ship, entirely dependent on steam propulsion, with a main battery of uniform caliber guns mounted in turrets on the main deck. This type was pioneered in 1906 withHMS Dreadnought which mounted a main battery of ten 12-inch (300 mm) guns instead of the mixed caliber main battery of previous designs. Along with her main battery,Dreadnought and her successors retained a secondary battery for use against smaller ships like destroyers and torpedo boats and, later, aircraft.
Dreadnought style battleships dominated fleets in the early 20th century. They would play major parts in both theRusso-Japanese War andWorld War I. The Russo-Japanese War saw the rise of theImperial Japanese Navy after their underdog victory against the waningImperial Russian Navy at theBattle of Tsushima; while WWI pitted the old Royal Navy against the newKaiserliche Marine ofImperial Germany, culminating in the 1916Battle of Jutland. The future was heralded when the seaplane carrierHMS Engadine and herShort 184 seaplanes joined the battle. In the Black Sea, Russian seaplanes flying from a fleet of converted carriers interdicted Turkish maritime supply routes,Allied air patrols began to counter GermanU-boat activity in Britain's coastal waters, and aBritish Short 184 carried out the first successful torpedo attack on a ship.
In 1918 the Royal Navy converted an Italian liner to create the firstaircraft carrier,HMS Argus, and shortly after the war the first purpose-built carrier,HMS Hermes was launched. Many nations agreed to theWashington Naval Treaty and scrapped many of their battleships and cruisers while still in the shipyards, but the growing tensions of the 1930s restarted the building programs, with even larger ships. TheYamato-class battleships, the largest ever, displaced 72,000 tons and mounted 18.1-inch (460 mm) guns.
The victory of theRoyal Navy at theBattle of Taranto was a pivotal point as this was the first true demonstration of naval air power. The importance of naval air power was further reinforced by theAttack on Pearl Harbor, which forced the United States to enterWorld War II. Nevertheless, in both Taranto and Pearl Harbor, the aircraft mainly attacked stationary battleships. Thesinking of the British battleshipsHMS Prince of Wales andHMS Repulse, which were in full combat manoeuvring at the time of the attack, finally marked the end of the battleship era.[50]Aircraft and their transportation, the aircraft carrier, came to the fore.
During thePacific War of World War II, battleships and cruisers spent most of their time escorting aircraft carriers and bombarding shore positions, while the carriers and their airplanes were the stars of theBattle of the Coral Sea,[51]Battle of Midway,[51]Battle of the Eastern Solomons,[52]Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands[52] andBattle of the Philippine Sea. The engagements between battleships and cruisers, such as theBattle of Savo Island and theNaval Battle of Guadalcanal, were limited to night-time actions in order to avoid exposure to air attacks.[53] Nevertheless, battleships played the key role again in theBattle of Leyte Gulf, even though it happened after the major carrier battles, mainly because the Japanese carrier fleet was by then essentially depleted. It was the last naval battle between battleships in history.[54] Air power remained key to navies throughout the 20th century, moving to jets launched from ever-larger carriers, and augmented by cruisers armed withguided missiles andcruise missiles.
Roughly parallel to the development ofnaval aviation was the development ofsubmarines to attack underneath the surface. At first, the ships were capable of only short dives, but they eventually developed the capability to spend weeks or months underwater powered bynuclear reactors. In both world wars, submarines (U-boats in Germany) primarily exerted their power by usingtorpedoes to sink merchant ships and other warships. In the 1950s, theCold War inspired the development ofballistic missile submarines, each loaded with dozens ofthermonuclear weapon-armedSLBMs and with orders to launch them from sea if the other nation attacked.
Against the backdrop of those developments, World War II had seen the United States become the world's dominant sea power. Throughout the rest of the 20th century, theUnited States Navy maintained a tonnage greater than that of the next 17 largest navies combined.[55]
The aftermath of World War II saw naval gunnery supplanted by ship to ship missiles as the primary weapon of surface combatants. Two major naval battles have taken place since World War II.
TheIndo-Pakistani Naval War of 1971 was the first major naval war post World War II. It saw the dispatch of an Indian aircraft carrier group, heavy utilisation ofmissile boats in naval operations, total naval blockade of Pakistan by theIndian Navy and the annihilation of almost half ofPakistan's Navy.[56] By the end of the war, the damage inflicted by the Indian Navy andAir Forces on Pakistan's Navy stood at two destroyers, one submarine, one minesweeper, threepatrol vessels, sevengunboats, eighteencargo, supply and communication vessels, as well as large-scale damage inflicted on the naval base and docks located in the major port city of Karachi.[57] Three merchant navy ships,Anwar Baksh,Pasni, andMadhumathi,[58] and ten smaller vessels were captured.[59] Around 1,900 personnel were lost, while 1,413 servicemen (mostly officers) were captured byIndian forces inDhaka.[60] The Indian Navy lost 18 officers and 194 sailors[citation needed] and a frigate, while another frigate was badly damaged and aBreguet Alizé naval aircraft was shot down by thePakistan Air Force.[61]
In the 1982Falklands War between Argentina and the United Kingdom, a Royal Navy task force of approximately 100 ships was dispatched over 7,000 miles (11,000 km) from the British mainland to theSouth Atlantic. The British were outnumbered in theatre airpower with only 36Harriers from their two aircraft carriers and a few helicopters, compared with at least 200 aircraft of theFuerza Aérea Argentina, although London dispatched Vulcan bombers ina display of long-distance strategic capacity. Most of the land-based aircraft of theRoyal Air Force were not available due to the distance from air bases. This reliance on aircraft at sea showed the importance of the aircraft carrier. The Falklands War showed the vulnerability of modern ships tosea-skimmingmissiles like theExocet. One hit from an Exocet sankHMS Sheffield, a modern anti-air warfare destroyer. Over half of Argentine deaths in the war occurred when the nuclear submarineConqueror torpedoed and sank the light cruiserARA General Belgrano with the loss of 323 lives. Important lessons about ship design,damage control and ship construction materials were learnt from the conflict.
_under_air_attack_during_the_Battle_of_the_Coral_Sea%2c_8_May_1942_(NH_95579).jpg)
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_under_fire_during_the_Battle_of_Savo_Island_on_9_August_1942_(NH_50346).jpg)
Large naval wars are now seldom-seen affairs since nations with substantial navies rarely fight one another, and most wars arecivil wars or some form ofasymmetrical warfare, fought on land, sometimes with the involvement ofmilitary aircraft. The main function of the modern navy is to exploit its control of the seaways to project power ashore.Power projection has been the primary naval feature of most conflicts since the late 20th century, including theKorean War, theVietnam War, thePersian Gulf War, theWar in Afghanistan, and theIraq War. A major exception to that trend was theSri Lankan Civil War, which saw a large number of surface engagements between the belligerents involving fast attack craft and otherlittoral warfare units.[62][63]
The lack of large fleet-on-fleet actions does not, however, mean that naval warfare has ceased to feature in modern conflicts. Thebombing of the USSCole, on October 12, 2000, claimed the lives of 17 sailors, wounded an additional thirty-seven, and cost theCole 14 months of repairs.[64][65] The attack did not eliminate the US control of the local seas, but in the short term, it prompted the US Navy to reduce its visits to far-flung ports, as military planners struggled to ensure their security.[66] This reduced US Naval presence was ultimately reversed in the wake of theSeptember 11 attacks, as part of theGlobal War on Terrorism.[67]
Even in the absence of major wars, warships from opposing navies clash periodically at sea, sometimes with fatal results. For example, 46 sailors drowned in the2010 sinking of the ROKSCheonan, which South Korea and the United States blamed on a North Korean torpedo attack.[68] North Korea, in turn, denied all responsibility, accused South Korea of violating North Korean territorial waters, and offered to send its own team of investigators to "examine the evidence."[69]
Since the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the armed forces of both Russia and Ukraine have openly targeted and destroyed each other's ships. Though many of these are supporting vessels, such as landing ships, tugs, and patrol boats,[70][71] several larger warships have also been destroyed. Notably, theUkrainian Navy scuttled its flagship, the frigateHetman Sahaidachny, to prevent its capture,[72] while the patrol shipSloviansk was sunken by Russian air attack.[73] TheRussian Navy lost the flagship of its Black Sea Fleet, theMoskva, in what the Ukrainian Navy has claimed as a successfulNeptune anti-ship missile strike.[74] The Russian Navy, while not admitting to the Ukrainian claims of a missile attack, has confirmed thesinking of the Moskva.[75] As of May 2022, the naval war between Russia and Ukraine is ongoing, as the Russian Navy attempts to dominate Black Sea trade routes, and the Ukrainian Military attempts to erode Russian naval control.[76]Since October 2023, the ongoingRed Sea crisis has the YemeniHouthis facing against the US, Israel, the UK and a coalition of other nations. US AdmiralBrad Cooper said that the fight against the Houthis in the Red Sea is the largest battle that the US Navy has fought since World War II with about 7,000 sailors committed to the Red Sea.[77][78]
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{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)Winning the Race: A Naval Fleet Platform Architecture for Enduring Maritime Supremacy Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments Online. Retrieved 8 April 2006In a two-week war, Pakistan lost half its navy.
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