Sea Power

Historically why have thalassocratic powers been superior to continental powers?

Is sea power the historical key to domination?

>Is sea power the historical key to domination?

The simple and correct answer is yes. Success on land is often dependent on the outcomes of battles that take place at sea.

>Is sea power the historical key to domination?

In almost all cases, yes. It's basically impossible to completely dominate your enemies if they can blockade your ports, cutting off your trade and stopping the transport of troops. Napoleon learnt this the hard way: he had the greatest army the world had ever seen, and outnumbered the British by hundreds of thousands of land troops, but because his navy was btfo he couldn't do shit to militarily harm them, even though they were just a couple of miles off his coast.

sea people

If you have the ability to control 3/4 or earth’s surface you’re pretty well off. Air power only slightly changed this but you can always just put airstrips on the ocean and be in a better position.

Short answer is yes

Throughout the vast majority of history, yes. Sea transport is simply cheaper and faster than overland transport until you have reliable and fast railroads. Even today, it's often a lot easier to send truly massive cargoes over the water than it is over the land, although that margin is rapidly shrinking.

Control of any amount of area is largely worth anything because either

A) You can do something on that area
B) You need to go through that area to get between two other points on the map.

While sea control hasn't generally been so much for factor A, it's vital for factor B. But it shoudln't be too grossly overstated. China's numerous stints as a major power of its day, and things like the USSR never relied on dominating the seas.

they relied on lakes tho

>Majority of history
>Historically why have thalassocratic powers been superior to continental powers?
Only with the development of the global sea trade and modern navies that can lock own an entire maritime area.

But not really. Carthage was a Thalassocracy. Look what fucking happened.

hi

who are they?

They were beaten by a power which took the control of the central mediterranean from them in a colossal fucking war at enormous cost? Were you so myopically and retardedly focused on Hannibal that you forgot the entire FIRST punic war? You know, the one Carthage had a chance in? Did you miss that Cape Ecnomus was by far the biggest battle in any of the punic wars.

>Beaten by a Continental power.
Rest my case, really.

BIG BOATS

I am really not convinced by the premise. Sea power has always been very important to trade so I can see an argument for sea powers generally having been more prosperous, but "superior"? I can think of several prominent cases of naval powers getting stomped by continental powers without stretching myself too hard. In fact, that's what happened in several of the most famous wars ever.

The Romans were no more a continental power than Carthage was, you idiot. They managed to get the upper hand precisely by outcompeting them on the water.

Defending some mountainous backwater is easymode, just instruct your goat herders to toss rocks at the invading army at chokepoints. It is a numbers game.

The waves however pit you against every other large polity on even terms. It requires intelligence, innovation, acumen, foresight, patience, industry, pragmatism and charisma just to earn the right to sail a few ships through foreign waters for trade. Dominating them is an even greater task, the world could outproduce you and send all their ships to your doorstep should your rising star begin to outshine them.

If you have the natural barriers from enemies and rivals, being a sea power is ideal and easy see: Japan, England, USA. But if you're surrounded by rivals and enemies you need to be a land power see: China, Russia, France, Germany.

this

>The Romans were no more a continental power than Carthage was
Ah yes, Carthage whose power base rested on their trading empire was the same as Rome, whose power rested on the control of the Italian peninsula. Clearly they wuz same.

Sarcasm aside, Rome isn't considered a Thalassocracy. Carthage is. We were talking about Thalassocracies yes?

...

At one point it might have mattered.

It doesn't anymore.

>tattoo "dead things are dead" and a squid on yourself
Why do people do this?

They havent really been that superior, especially those that werent islands and hence couldmt actually defend their blrders using their navy.

The main reason is that trade has essentially infinite potential for economic growth and expansion while ovelrand trade is limited by your relations with your immidiate neighbours and held terrotpry cam revolt which can be annoying.

The only ones to corcumvent this were the mogols by building an empire so vast more trade was happening within it than in the rest of the world combined