pon Serbia aroused Russia and precipitated
the World War.

Great Britain's foreign agreements, already noted, had as a primary
aim the concentration of her fleet in home waters. Naval predominance
in the Far East she turned over to Japan; in the western Atlantic,
to the United States (at least by acceptance of the Monroe Doctrine
and surrender of treaty rights to share in the construction of the
Panama Canal); and in the Mediterranean, to France, though England
still kept a strong cruiser force in this field. The old policy of
showing the flag all over the world was abandoned, 160 old ships
were sent to the scrap heap as unable "either to fight or to run
away," and 88% of the fleet was concentrated at home, so quietly
that it "was found out only by accident by Admiral Mahan."[1]

[Footnote 1: Admiral Fisher, MEMORIES, p. 185.]

These and other changes were carried out under the energetic regime
of Admiral Fisher, First Sea Lord from 1904 to 1910. The British
_Dreadnought_ of 1906, completed in 10 months, and the battle cruisers
of 1908--_Indefatigable, Invincible_ and _Indomitable_--came as
an unpleasant surprise to Germany, necessitating construction of
similar types and enlargement of the Kiel Canal. Reforms in naval
gunnery urged by Admiral Sir Percy Scott were taken up, and plans
were made for new bases in the Humber, in the Forth at Rosyth, and
in the Orkneys, necessitated by the shift of front from the Channel
to the North Sea. But against the technical skill, painstaking
organization, and definitely aggressive purpose of Germany, even more
radical measures were needed to put the tradition-ridden British
navy in readiness for war.

Naval preparedness was vital, for the conflict was fundamentally,
like the Napoleonic Wars, a struggle between land power predominant
on the Continent and naval power supreme on the seas. As compared
with France in the earlier struggle, Germany was more dependent
on foreign commerce, and in a long war would feel more keenly the
pressure of blockade. On the other hand, while the naval preponderance
of England and her allies was probably greater than 100 years before,
England had to throw larger armies into the field and more of her
shipping into naval service, and found her commerce not augmented
but cut down.

Indeed, Germany was not without advantage in the naval war. As
she fully expected, her direct sea trade was soon shut off, and
her shipping was driven to cover or destroyed