Athalassocracy orthalattocracy,[1] sometimes alsomaritime empire, is a state with primarily maritime realms, anempire at sea, or a seaborne empire.[2] Traditional thalassocracies seldom dominate interiors, even in their home territories. Examples of this were thePhoenician states ofTyre,Sidon andCarthage; theItalianmaritime republics ofVenice andGenoa of theMediterranean; theOmani Empire ofArabia; and the empires ofSrivijaya andMajapahit inMaritime Southeast Asia. Thalassocracies can thus be distinguished from traditional empires, where a state's territories, though possibly linked principally or solely by thesea lanes, generally extend into mainland interiors[3][4] in atellurocracy ("land-based hegemony").[5]
The termthalassocracy can also simply refer tonaval supremacy, in either military or commercial senses. Theancient Greeks first used the wordthalassocracy to describe the government of theMinoan civilization, whose power depended on its navy.[6]Herodotus distinguished sea-power from land-power and spoke of the need to counter the Phoenician thalassocracy by developing a Greek "empire of the sea".[7]
Its realization and ideological construct is sometimes calledmaritimism (cf.Pluricontinentalism orAtlanticism), contrastingcontinentalism (cf.Eurasianism).
Thalassocracy was a resurrection of a word known from a very specific classical document, which British classical scholarJohn Linton Myres termed "the List of Thalassocracies".[8]: 87–88 The list was in theChronicon, a work ofuniversal history ofEusebius, an early 4th century bishop ofCaesarea Maritima. Eusebius categorized several historical polities in the Mediterranean as "sea-controlling", and listed them in a chronology.[9]
The list includes a successive series of "thalassocracies", begins from theLydians after the fall ofTroy, and ends withAegina, each controlled the sea for a number of years. The list therefore presents a series of the successive exclusive naval domains, as the total control of the seas changed hands between these thalassocracies.[10] Since it does not mention Aegina's final submission of its naval force to Athens, the original list was likely compiled before the consolidation of the Athenian-ledDelian League.[11]
Eusebius' list survived through fragments ofDiodorus Siculus' works, while also appeared in 4th-century theologian and historianJerome'sChronicon,[12] and Byzantine chroniclerGeorge Syncellus'Extract of Chronography. German classical scholarChristian Gottlob Heyne reconstructed the list through fragments in 1771.[13] The list was then further surveyed by John Myres in 1906-07 and extensively studied by Molly Miller in the 1970s.[14][page needed]
TheAustronesian peoples ofMaritime Southeast Asia developed theIndian Ocean's first true maritime trade network.[15] They established trade routes withSouthern India andSri Lanka as early as 1500 BC, ushering in an exchange of material culture (likecatamarans,outrigger boats,lashed-lug andsewn-plank boats, andpaan) andcultigens (likecoconuts,sandalwood,bananas, andsugarcane); as well as connecting the material cultures ofIndia andChina.Indonesians in particular traded in spices (mainlycinnamon andcassia) withEast Africa, usingcatamaran and outrigger boats and sailing with the help of theWesterlies in the Indian Ocean. This trade network expanded west toAfrica and theArabian Peninsula, resulting in the Austronesian colonization ofMadagascar by the first half of the first millennium AD. It continued into historic times, later becoming theMaritime Silk Road.[15][16][17][18][page needed][19]
The first thalassocracies in the Indo-Pacific region began to emerge around the 2nd century AD, through the rise ofemporia exploiting the prosperous trade routes betweenFunan andIndia through theMalacca Strait using advanced Austronesian sailing technologies. Numerous coastal city-states emerged, centered on trading ports built near or aroundriver mouths which allowed easy access to goods from inland for maritime trade. These city-states established commercial networks with other trading centers inSoutheast Asia and beyond. Their rulers also graduallyIndianized by adopting the social structures and religions of India to consolidate theirpower.[20]
The thalassocratic empire ofSrivijaya emerged by the 7th century through conquest and subjugation of neighboring thalassocracies. These includedMelayu,Kedah,Tarumanagara, andMataram, among others. These polities controlled the sea lanes in Southeast Asia and exploited the spice trade of theSpice Islands, as well as maritime trade-routes betweenIndia andChina.[20] Srivijaya was in turn subjugated bySinghasari around 1275, before finally being absorbed by the successor thalassocracy ofMajapahit (1293–1527).[21]
TheArakkal Ali Rajas ofKannur,Kerala are another example. Ali Moossa, the fifth ruler is said to have conquered some of the Maladweep (Maldives) islands in 1183-84 CE.
The connection with the Maldives andLakshadweep (Laccadives) was well-known to the Portuguese and other Europeans, with the 9° channel separating Minicoy from the Laccadive group being referred to as the 'Mammali’s Channel' after the Arakkal kings. Even during the beginning of the 16th century, the king of Maldives was a tributary of this House. The Jagir of Laccadive islands, received by the Ali Rajas fromKolathiris in the 16th century, enhanced the status of the House.[22] Kannur (Cannanore) could effectively be characterised as a Muslim thalassocracy, acknowledging that the religious identity of the Ali Rajas had a significant role in their political prominence. A link can be made of the income from importing horses from West Asia to the political power of the Ali Rajas throughout the sixteenth century.[23][full citation needed]
One of the earliest known thalassocracies appears to have been that ofMinoan Crete. Writing in the 5th-centuryThucydides records thatMinos "according to tradition" created a navy to dominate the islands of theCyclades and theAegean Sea. Whether this force was for the purpose of direct colonial occupation, elimination of pirate raiding or simple trading facilitation remains uncertain.[24]
Later ancient maritime-centered or seaborne powers in the Mediterranean includePhoenicians,Athens (Delian League),Carthage,Liburnians and to a lesser degreeAegina andRhodes.[25]
TheMiddle Ages saw multiple thalassocracies, often land-based empires which controlled areas of the sea, the best known of them were theRepublic of Venice, theRepublic of Genoa and theRepublic of Pisa; the others were: theDuchy of Amalfi, theRepublic of Ancona, theRepublic of Ragusa, theDuchy of Gaeta and theRepublic of Noli. They were known asmaritime republics, controlling trade and territories in the Mediterranean Sea for centuries. These contacts were not only commercial, but also cultural and artistic. They also had an essential role in theCrusades.[26][27][28]
The Venetian republic was conventionally divided in the fifteenth century into theDogado of Venice and the Lagoon, theStato di Terraferma of Venetian holdings in northern Italy, and theStato da Màr of the Venetian outlands bound by the sea. According to the French historianFernand Braudel, Venice was a scattered empire, a trading-post empire forming a longcapitalist antenna.[29]
From the 12th to the 15th century the Genoese Republic had the monopoly on theWestern Mediterranean trade, establishing colonies and trading posts in numerous countries, and eventually came to control regions in the Black Sea as well. It was also one of the largest naval powers of Europe during theLate Middle Ages.[26][30]
TheEarly Middle Ages (c. 500–1000 AD) saw many of the coastal cities ofSouthern Italy develop into minor thalassocracies whose chief powers lay in their ports and in their ability to sail navies to defend friendly coasts and to ravage enemy ones. These include the duchies ofGaeta andAmalfi.[31][32]
InNorthern Europe, theKingdom of the Isles lasted from the 9th to 13th centuries AD, and comprised theIsle of Man, theHebrides and other islands off the coast ofGreat Britain.
During the 14th and 15th centuries, theCrown of Aragon was also a thalassocracy controlling a large portion of present-day easternSpain, parts of what is nowsouthern France and other territories in the Mediterranean. The extent of theCatalan language is a result of this; it is spoken inAlghero on Sardinia.[33]
With the modern age, theAge of Exploration saw some transcontinental thalassocracies emerge. Anchored in their European territories, several nations established colonial empires held together by naval supremacy. First among them chronologically was thePortuguese Empire, followed soon by theSpanish Empire, which was challenged by theDutch Empire, itself replaced on the high seas by theBritish Empire, which had large landed possessions held together by the Royal Navy. With naval arms-races (especially betweenGermany andBritain), the end of colonialism, and the winning of independence by many colonies, European thalassocracies, which had controlled the world's oceans for centuries, diminished—though Britain's power-projection in theFalklands War of 1982 demonstrated continuing thalassocratic clout.[34][35]
TheOttoman Empire expanded from a land-based region to dominate theEastern Mediterranean and to expandinto the Indian Ocean as a thalassocracy from the 15th century AD.[36]
Portugal's was in every sense a seaborne empire or thalassocracy.
The rise of an Ottoman thalassocracy over the eastern half of the Mediterranean [...].
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