Differing Views On Imperialism

Mahan wrote that influence in world affairs requires underlying military readiness, like the proverbial iron hand under the velvet glove. To provide this, three things are needful: First, protection of the [nation’s] chief harbors by fortifications and coast-defence ships, which gives defensive strength . . . Secondly, naval force, the arm of offensive power, which alone enables a country to extend its influence outward. Thirdly, it should be an inviolable [unbreakable] resolution of our national policy, that no foreign state should henceforth acquire a coaling position [station] within three thousand miles of San Francisco . . . For fuel is the life of modern naval war; it is the food of the ship; without it the modern monsters of the deep die.

—Alfred Thayer Mahan, “The United States Looking Outward,” Atlantic Monthly, 1890