Article Outline
Navy, organized maritime military force of a nation. It includes not only ships and personnel but also air and missile forces, and shipyards and shore bases for the building and maintenance of fleets. Unlike the merchant marine, which is engaged in seaborne commerce, navies are used primarily for conquest and defense. In peace, they have diplomatic functions, such as showing the national flag, and they have often played a valuable role in exploration. In war, modern navies operate under and over the sea as well as on its surface. They protect a nation's coast and merchant shipping; launch attacks against enemy coasts and commerce; reinforce allies; land amphibious forces on hostile shores; and, through the use of aircraft and missiles, project their power into the interior of an enemy nation.
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Historical Development
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Sea power has helped shape history since ancient times. Organized naval forces first made an appearance in the Mediterranean, where over the course of centuries Egypt, Phoenicia, Persia, Greece, and Carthage maintained navies. Although basically a land power, Rome built a fleet during the Punic Wars (264-146 bc), and Roman sea power helped bring about the ultimate destruction of Carthage. Their earliest warships were galleys, vessels propelled by banks of oars supplemented by sail (see Galley). The principal weapon with which they were equipped was a pointed beak, or ram, used to pierce the side of an enemy vessel. This was supplemented by archers and swordsmen who attempted to capture an enemy vessel by boarding it. In the 7th century ad, the Byzantines developed Greek fire, a flaming substance that was catapulted at enemy ships to set them ablaze. Although the galley was usually confined to protected waters, the Vikings (Norsemen) used oared longships to swoop down on unwary targets along the Atlantic coast of Europe.
The age of exploration and nationalism that began in the 15th century coincided with the development of larger and handier sailing ships, as well as with the invention of gunpowder and navigational instruments that enabled sailors to venture out of sight of land. The discovery of sea routes to India, China, and the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries led to a growing volume of trade, and national rivalries for control of these routes created the need for navies. Until the end of the 18th century, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, France, and Great Britain were almost permanently engaged in maritime wars to win mastery of the seas and control of the vital trade routes that linked their overseas colonies to the parent country. Great Britain emerged victorious from this struggle and, following the defeat of the combined fleets of France and Spain off Cape Trafalgar in 1805, during the Napoleonic Wars, remained unchallenged for more than a century.
Throughout the great maritime wars, into the second half of the 19th century, wooden fighting ships became larger and more heavily armed, some carrying as many as 120 guns. An established ranking of professional naval officers from midshipman to admiral was created. Regular government agencies such as admiralties and navy departments were also organized to administer the increasingly complex affairs of these navies.
The Industrial Revolution of the 19th century completely changed the fighting ship. Steam replaced sail as the means of propulsion; iron and later steel replaced the wooden hull; and long-range, breech-loading rifled cannon replaced the muzzle-loading smoothbore gun. The invention of the mine, the torpedo, and the submarine also revolutionized warfare at sea. The first battle between armored ships occurred during the American Civil War, when on March 9, 1862, the Union ironclad and the Confederate Virginia fought an inconclusive battle off Hampton Roads, Virginia.
Germany's decision to challenge Britain's control of the sea was one of the major causes of World War I (1914-1918). Several naval battles were fought, and submarines were used extensively by the Germans to attack British trade. In World War II (1939-1945), the aircraft carrier and airplane became the dominant weapons of sea warfare. Battles were fought without the opposing fleets coming in sight of each other, as bombers and torpedo planes inflicted heavy losses on surface ships. As in World War I, German submarines were a threat to the Allied lifeline across the Atlantic, but aircraft proved effective in combating them. In the Pacific, the United States Navy's submarines took a heavy toll on Japanese shipping, cutting Japan off from the source of needed raw materials. Radar and other advancements in electronic surveillance and communications, also introduced during the war, have since been improved.
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