Alfred Thayer Mahan

Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840–1914) was a United States Navy flag officer, geostrategist, and educator. His ideas on the importance of sea power influenced navies around the world, and helped prompt naval buildups before World War I.

Alfred Thayer Mahan in Southern Victory
Note: While the accomplishments of Mahan's presidency are known, the exact dates of his presidency are speculation.

Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840-1914) was a U.S. Naval officer, author, educator, and the 23rd President of the United States, serving from 1889 to 1897. Mahan's place in the pantheon of "great U.S. presidents" was assured when he forced the Confederate States to abandon its proposal to build a canal in Central America.

Commissioned as a Lieutenant in 1861, Mahan served the Union in the War of Secession as an officer on the ships Congress, Pocahontas, and James Adger. In 1865 he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander, and then to Commander (1872), and Captain (1885).

Despite his success in the Navy, his skills in actual command of a ship were not exemplary; and a number of vessels under his command were involved in collisions, with both moving and stationary objects.

Like many in the United States, Mahan was embittered by the Confederate victory during the War of Secession. When the C.S. defeated the U.S. again in the Second Mexican War, Mahan embraced the Remembrance Ideology that took hold in the country. Although he served in the Second Mexican War, he saw little direct conflict. However, he was able to observe the naval engagments that had taken place, and was keenly aware of the ease with which Britain had raided San Francisco. Mahan retired from the Navy to become president of the United States Naval College in 1886. He used this position to advocate for modernized Naval warfare and a bi-coastal U.S. Navy, publishing several books on the subject. Although the Navy was resistant to such ideas, the United States government had already begun its reorganization of its military, particularly its army, to model the system of its new ally, Germany. Mahan gained prestige, and soon found himself the Democratic Party's presidential nominee in 1888. Mahan won the election handily.

Mahan's first policy was to totally reorganize the Navy, replacing sailing vessels with steam (and later coal) ship. He also built a bi-coastal navy, insuring that the U.S. was sufficiently protected in both the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. Mahan also continued formal relations with Germany. Thus, when the Nicaragua Canal Crisis arose in Mahan's second term, the U.S. was more than prepared.

The idea of building a canal in Central America was not new. France had toyed with the idea as recently as 1880, but had opted not to in light of its commitments to the Empire of Mexico. In 1894, the CSA announced its intention to build a canal in Nicaragua in order to reach their Pacific port in Guaymas, Sonora, without having to travel around South America.

Although the U.S. had yet to defeat the C.S. in a war, President Mahan felt sufficently confident in the improvements made in the military (particularly the Navy) and in the alliance between the United States and Germany to issue an ulimatum: Any attempt to build such a canal would be considered an act of war. Despite having allies of its own, the C.S. was sufficiently lacking in military development that it agreed to abandon the issue. Thus, the United States won a political victory, although the incident was enough to spur the C.S. into modernizing its own military.

The remainder of Mahan's term was uneventful. He left office in 1897, and retired to continue writing and lecturing. He lived to see the first few months of the Great War, but died in December, 1914, when the outcome was still in doubt.

For a time, Mahan was considered the greatest U.S. president, until his friend Theodore Roosevelt won the Great War.