American Naval History, 1607-1865: Overcoming the Colonial Legacy

7 Epilogue

During the Civil War the navy built or purchased some 600 ships, but once the war ended, most of them were demolished or sold; within half a dozen years only fifty or so were still in commission. The navy quickly reverted to its earlier limited function, that of protecting American trade. It was now reduced to a fraction of its former size.1 Weary of war and taxes, the United States soon lost interest in maintaining its navy. Money for defense was spent mostly on the army, which received from the public most of the credit for winning the war and which still had the Indian nations of the interior West to subdue. The navy meanwhile not only had a small budget and rapidly deteriorating ships, but it also lost interest in technological invention, preferring to build wooden ships that could spend most of their time under sail, thereby saving money. Between 1872 and 1883 it launched two screw frigates and thirteen screw sloops (three with iron hulls that were classi- fied as gunboats), but built nothing larger.2 As late as 1881 a navy advisory board recommended that the navy continue to concentrate on building unarmored ships propelled by sail as well as steam.3 In contrast, the British began building large Epilogue seven 124 epilogue turret ships without masts, the forerunners of the twentiethcentury battleship.4 Although the mighty navy of Welles and Fox, Ericsson and Eads, Isherwood and Dahlgren, and Farragut and Porter was little more than a memory, still the underpinnings were present for the United States to become a great naval power. The United States was becoming one of the world’s leading industrial powers, producing more steel by 1890 than any other country.5 The federal government was no longer paralyzed by the debate over slavery, and states had lost power compared to it. With the completion of the transcontinental railroad and the subjugation of the Sioux and other great Indian nations, the West began losing its hold over the national imagination. The rise of colonialism abroad became a substitute to attract American expansionism, and foreign markets increasingly interested American business. During the 1880s, interest in the navy revived. In 1883 the navy began construction of its first modern cruisers, the Atlanta, Boston, and Chicago, and in 1888, its first battleship, the Maine.6 By 1898 it was ready to fight its first European opponent since 1815, albeit a secondrate one, Spain. With a strong economy, an assertive government , a supportive public, and leaders and thinkers like Dewey , Mahan, Luce, Sampson, and Schley formed by the Civil War, the navy finally was ready to overcome the limitations imposed by its colonial legacy.7 The war with Spain also marked the beginning of a great reversal of American policy toward Europe. The eighty-year divorce of the United States from the European balance of power was coming to an end. Ahead lay America’s entrance into World Wars I and II and the establishment of NATO. The colonial legacy would be turned on its head as America would 125 epilogue attempt to lead Europe (sometimes successfully such as in the Bosnia crisis of the 1990s), instead of following Britain into wars that it did not consider its concern. The United States, however, is still coming to grips with its colonial legacy as it debates America’s place in the world, the role of the central government, and the applicability of European social, cultural, and political models. Some of the most admirable aspects of the American experiment, such as its tradition of self-government and its remarkable ethnic and religious diversity, began during the colonial period. There are other and more controversial survivals from the colonial past, however. Beliefs like isolationism and American exceptionalism as well as aspects of American culture like obsession with guns, distrust of government, and hatred of taxes have colonial origins. Even the navy, the world’s largest and most modern, faces new challenges from nimble and elusive enemies. For it, as for the United States as a whole, the biggest challenge may be to overcome a sentimental attachment to past ways of doing things in order to embrace change as the path of progress. ...