orce of arms would be a very formidable undertaking.

Such are the tremendous effects of an adverse command of the sea on an
insular kingdom and an oceanic empire, which carries on--not by virtue
of any artificial monopoly, but solely by virtue of its hardly won
ascendency in the economic struggle for existence--half the maritime
commerce of the world. On the other hand, its effects on any nation
which does not depend on the sea for its existence can never be so
overwhelming and may even be insignificant. Germany was very little
affected by the command of the sea enjoyed by France in the War of 1870.
But in view of the enormous growth of German maritime commerce in recent
years, a superiority of France at sea equal to that which she enjoyed in
1870 would now be a much more serious menace to Germany. In all such
cases the issue must be decided by military operations suitable to the
circumstances and the occasion--operations in which naval force may take
an indispensable part even though it may not directly decide the issue.
It was, for example, the United States army that captured Santiago and
secured the deliverance of Cuba; but it was the United States Navy alone
that enabled the troops to be in Cuba at all and to do what they did
there. Again, in the war between Russia and Japan it was the capture of
Port Arthur and the final overthrow at Tsu-Shima of all that remained of
Russia's effective naval forces that induced Russia to entertain
overtures for peace. But the reduction of Port Arthur was mainly the
work of the military arm and the continued successes of the Japanese
armies in Manchuria must have contributed largely to Russia's surrender.
These successes were, it is true, rendered possible by the Japanese Navy
alone. It cannot be said that the Japanese ever held the undisputed
command of the sea until after Tsu-Shima had been fought and won. But at
the very outset of the war they established such an ascendency over the
Russian naval forces in Far Eastern waters that the latter were in the
end reduced to something less than even a "fortress fleet." At Port
Arthur, writes Admiral Mahan, the fleet was "neither a fortress fleet,
for except the guns mounted from it, the fleet contributed nothing to
the defence of the place; nor yet a fleet in being, for it was never
used as such." Its _animus pugnandi_ was fatally depressed on the first
night of the war, and finally extinguished after the action of August
10.

The tru