“The United States Looking Outwards”

Introduction: “The United States Looking Outwards,” is an article by Alfred Thayer Mahan, 1890 that was published in the Atlantic Monthly.
Alfred Thayer Mahan was a U.S. Navy o cer and military historian who believed that national security, trade and prosperity depended on a
strong navy. Basically, the United States needed colonies and strategic bases, to project its naval power around the world. Mahan's writings
about the importance of seapower influenced many world leaders (including Theodore Roosevelt and the German Kaiser, William II). Rising sea
powers such as the U.S., Germany and Japan would use Mahan’s writings as models for modernizing their navies.

Instructions: Read the Following excerpts and take notes on what Mahan is talking about on the right. Answer any questions in order to
observe and break it down.

Observing the Document

What kind of primary source is this?

(ie. Letter, Speech, Newspaper etc…)

Who wrote it?

Who read/ heard it?

When was it written/given?

What was going on at the time this

source was written?

Making sense of the primary source.

Excerpt 1 What is he talking about?

To turn now to the influence of the government upon its people’s success at
sea. First, in peace: Government policy can favor or hinder the natural growth of
a people's industries and their tendencies to seek adventure and gain through
seafaring even if they do not naturally exist. The influence of the government
will be felt in the making or marring of the nation’s peaceful commerce upon
which a thoroughly strong navy can be based.

Secondly, for war: The influence of the government will be felt in it’s
maintaining an armed navy, of a size commensurate with the growth of its
shipping and the importance of the interests connected with it. More important
even than the size of the navy are its institutions, allowing for rapid
development in time of war, by providing an adequate reserve of men and of
ships and by increasing the general reserve power when considering the
seafaring character and pursuits of the people.
Write a two sentence summary
explaining what Mahan thinks the US
Government should do and why?

Excerpt 2 What is he talking about?

Undoubtedly under this second head of warlike preparation must come the
maintenance of suitable naval stations, in those distant parts of the world to
which the armed shipping must follow the peaceful vessels of commerce. The
protection of such stations must depend either upon direct military force, as do
Gibraltar and Malta, or upon a surrounding friendly population, such as the
American colonists once were to England, and, it may be presumed, the
Australian colonists now are.

Such friendly surroundings and backing, joined to a reasonable military

provision, are the best of defences, and when combined with decided
preponderance at sea, make a scattered and extensive empire, like that of
England, secure. History has su ciently proved this.

Write a two sentence

summary explaining
excerpt 2.

Excerpt 3 What is he talking about?

Colonies attached to the mother-country are the surest means of supporting the
sea power of a country abroad… The United States does not have colonies and is
not likely to have them… Having therefore no foreign bases, either colonial or
military, the ships of war of the United States, in war, will be like land birds,
unable to fly far from their own shores. One of the first duties of a government
proposing to itself the development of the power of the nation at sea is to
provide resting-places where warships can coal and repair.

The eyes of the country have for a quarter of a century been turned from the sea
and the results of such a policy can be seen and, in its opposite, in the instance
of France and of England. It may safely be said that it is essential to the welfare
of the whole country that the conditions of trade and commerce should remain,
as far as possible, una ected by an external war. In order to do this, the enemy
must be kept not only out of our ports, but far away from our coasts.

Write a one sentence

summary explaining
excerpt 3.
 Putting all it together

INTERACT WITH THE TEXT: Give three pieces of evidence that explain Mahan’s argument. (You can also directly
highlight 1-2 sentences that best show his argument for each excerpt)

Make a list of all of the reasons

Alfred Thayer Mahan supports U.S.
imperialism.

What is the counter argument that

someone who is anti-imperialism
might make?