In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Foreword Water is unquestionably the most important natural feature on earth. By volume, the world’s oceans compose 99 percent of the planet’s living space; in fact, the surface of the Pacific Ocean alone is larger than the combined surface area of all land bodies. So vital to life is water that NASA looks for signs of water as carefully as it does for air when testing for whether the moon or planets can sustain life. The story of human development is inextricably linked to the oceans, seas, lakes, and rivers that dominate the earth’s surface. The University Press of Florida’s New Perspectives on Maritime History and Nautical Archaeology series is devoted to exploring the significance of the earth’s water while providing lively and important books that cover the spectrum of maritime history and nautical archaeology broadly defined. The series includes works that focus on the role of canals, rivers, lakes, and oceans in history; on the economic, military, and political use of those waters; and upon the people, communities, and industries that support maritime endeavors. Limited by neither geography nor time, volumes in the series contribute to the overall understanding of maritime history and can be read with profit by both general readers and specialists. Since the dawn of the modern era, nation-states have contested for control of seas and oceans; empires have risen and fallen as a result of such struggles. This is particularly true for the nations of western Europe and North America. Since the founding of the United States, the right to freely navigate the North Atlantic Ocean has been a vital national interest. Defending that right was the primary cause of the Quasi War with France and the War of 1812 with Great Britain. The ability to use the oceans and deny their use to opponents played a crucial role in victories won in the Mexican War, the Civil War, and the Spanish-American War during the nineteenth century and the Second World War, Korean War, and Gulf War during the twentieth century. Both of these factors played a critical role in the First World War, i.e., the right and ability of the United States to use the oceans—what President Woodrow Wilson called the principle of the freedom of the seas—caused xii / Foreword both the American entry into the war on the side of the Allies and the defeat of the Central powers. President Woodrow Wilson made the institutionalization of “freedom of the seas” an American goal when he submitted a list of Fourteen Points to Congress on January 8, 1918, enumerating the principles upon which peace should be negotiated with the Central powers: Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial waters , alike in peace and in war, except as the seas may be closed in whole or in part by international action for the enforcement of international covenants. The importance Wilson placed on this principle was reflected by its standing second on the list behind his call for “Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at . . . in the public view.” At the outbreak of war in 1914, leaders of both the Central powers and the Allies believed that the conflict would be won quickly, like the FrancoPrussian War of 1870, rather than become a prolonged war of attrition like the Wars of the French Revolution and Empire, but such was not to be. Instead of a war of weeks, or months at most, World War I lasted more than four years. The conflict soon descended into a destructive bloodletting in which the ability to use the sea to transport the resources of the rest of the world to the battlefields of Europe brought victory to the Allies. Yet this advantage by itself did not bring victory to the Allies. Given the balance of resources between the two opposing sides, the Allies could not prevail on the battlefield until the United States entered the war in 1917. The decision of the United States to join the fray became a, if not the key, determinant in the war. For nearly a century, historians have debated the reasons for American entry, almost all of them focusing on long-term causes. In the final analysis, the date of American entry was crucial and the key to understanding that timing lies with Woodrow Wilson and his request for Congress to declare war on Germany. When the war began in August 1914, Wilson hoped it would be brief, and even when...

Share