Militarism in a Global Age

Dirk Bonker

Description

At the turn of the twentieth century, the United States and Germany emerged as the two most rapidly developing industrial nation-states of the Atlantic world. The elites and intelligentsias of both countries staked out claims to dominance in the twentieth century. In Militarism in a Global Age, Dirk Bonker explores the far-reaching ambitions of naval officers before World War I as they advanced navalism, a particular brand of modern militarism that stressed the paramount importance of sea power as a historical determinant. Aspiring to make their own countries into self-reliant world powers in an age of global empire and commerce, officers viewed the causes of the industrial nation, global influence, elite rule, and naval power as inseparable. Characterized by both transnational exchanges and national competition, the new maritime militarism was technocratic in its impulses; its makers cast themselves as members of a professional elite that served the nation with its expert knowledge of maritime and global affairs. American and German navalist projects differed less in their principal features than in their eventual trajectories. Over time, the pursuits of these projects channeled the two naval elites in different directions as they developed contrasting outlooks on their bids for world power and maritime force. Combining comparative history with transnational and global history, Militarism in a Global Age challenges traditional, exceptionalist assumptions about militarism and national identity in Germany and the United States in its exploration of empire and geopolitics, warfare and military-operational imaginations, state formation and national governance, and expertise and professionalism.

Sujets

• Histoire
• USA
• United States of America
• Military history
• World War I
• 20th century
• History of the Americas
• États-Unis
• Germany

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 15 mars 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780801463884
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

MilitarisM in a Global aGe

A volume in the series

The United States in the World Edited by Mark Philip Bradley, David C. Engerman, and Paul A. Kramer

A list of titles in this series is available at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

MilitarisM in a Global aGe

Naval Ambitions in Germany and the United States before World War I

DIRk böNkER

Cornell University Press Ithaca and London

Copyright © 2012 by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, NewYork 14850.

First published 2012 by Cornell University Press Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Bönker, Dirk.  Militarism in a global age : naval ambitions in Germany and the United States before World War I / Dirk Bönker.  p. cm. — (The United States in the world)  Includes bibliographical references and index.  ISBN 9780801450402 (cloth : alk. paper)  1. Seapower—Germany—History—19th century. 2. Seapower— Germany—History—20th century. 3. Seapower—United States— History—19th century. 4. Seapower—United States—History— 20th century. 5. Militarism—Germany—History—19th century. 6. Militarism—Germany—History—20th century. 7. Militarism— United States—History—19th century. 8. Militarism—United States—History—20th century. 9. Germany—History, Naval— 19th century. 10. Germany—History, Naval—20th century. 11. United States—History, Naval—19th century. 12. United States— History, Naval—20th century. I. Title. II. Series: The United States in the world.  VA513.B63 2012  359'.03094309034—dc23 2011034818

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations

Introduction: Maritime Militarism in Two Modern NationStates

Part I.Military Force, National Industry, and Global Politics: Naval Strategies of World Power 1. World Power in a Global Age 2. BigPower Confrontations over Empire 3. Maritime Force,Threat, and War

Part II.ApproachesThe Cult of the Battle: to Maritime Warfare 4. War of Battle Fleets 5. Planning for Victory 6. Commerce, Law, and the Limitation of War

vii ix

1

23 47 73

101 125 149

vi

Contents

Part III.Governance,The Navy, The Quest for Power: and the Nation  7. Naval Elites and the State  8. Manufacturing Consent  9. A Politics of Social Imperialism

Part IV.A Militarism of Experts: Naval Professionalism and the Making of Navalism 10. Of Sciences, Sea Power, and Strategy 11. Between Leadership and Intraservice Conflict

Conclusion: Navalism and Its Trajectories

Notes Bibliography Index

175 200 224

251 275

301

311 377 413

ackNOwLEdgmENTS

I have accrued a great many debts during the writing of this book. Its completion offers a welcome opportunity to express my gratitude to those who have provided assistance throughout the process. I thank first and foremost the Department of History at Johns Hopkins University, where I began my research for this book; the Center for Euro pean Studies at Harvard University, where I spent a valuable year as a James Bryant Conant postdoctoral fellow; and the History Department at Duke University, where I have been fortunate to teach in the past few years. I am also grateful to the Institute of European History in Mainz, the Fazit Stiftung, and the GermanAmerican Academic Council for providing me with fellowships and grants. My research has been immensely facilitated by the superb assistance offered by the staff of the archives I have visited in Germany and the United States. I deeply appreciate the many opportunities I have had to present my work at conferences and seminars. Among them were annual conferences of the American Historical Association, the German Studies Association, the Or ganization of American Historians, the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, and the Society of Military History; colloquia at Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Duke, and Boston Universities, the University of Iowa, the

viii

Acknowledgments

Universität Bielefeld, the Freie Universität Berlin, and the Institute of Euro pean History in Mainz; various other conferences in Annapolis, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Cambridge, Mass., Berlin, Cologne, and Hamburg; and a number of North Carolina Triangle–area venues, including the New Faces conference and speaker series of the Triangle Institute for Security Studies, the Triangle German Studies Workshop Series, and the Triangle Intellectual History Seminar. I thank the cofounders and fellow members of the Triangle Research Seminar in the History of the Military, War, and Society, which has been an important site of intellectual exchange for me. Over the years, I have profited enormously from professional interactions and personal conversations with numerous individuals. Principal among them are Volker R. Berghahn, Frank Biess, David Blackbourn, Florian Buch, Andreas Daum, Kathleen Duval, Andreas Etges, Michael Geyer, Mala chi Hacohen, Karen Hagemann, Bruce Hall, Andreas Helle, Rolf Hobson, Christine Johnson, Peter Karsten, Anna Krylova, Christian Lentz, Adriane LentzSmith, Gela Lingelbach, Lars Maischak, Nancy Mitchell, Sven Oli ver Müller, Bradley Naranch, Jolie Olcott, Alex Roland, Peter Sigal, Philip Stelzel, Phil Stern, Cornelius Torp, Martin Vogt, HansUlrich Wehler, and Thomas Welskopp. Michael Epkenhans has generously provided me with research materials. The following historians read the entire manuscript and I am grateful for their time, support of my work, and incisive comments: Claudia Koonz, Paul Kramer, and Katharine D. Moran, as well as Geoff Eley and Michael Sherry. I am indebted to Vernon Lidtke for his guidance and intellectual engagement during the early stages of this project. Publishing with Cornell University Press has been a rewarding expe rience, especially working with Michael McGandy and Susan Specter. I am grateful to the series editors for including my book in their list. I am delighted to thank the Duke History Department and its chair, Bill Reddy, for a generous subvention from the Military History Endowment, which has aided in the publication of this book. I also offer special thanks to a select few: Paul Kramer has been invalu able, as an intellectual interlocutor, expert critic, and good friend. I like to think that his influence is written all over this book. Nikolas Matthes has given me his extraordinary friendship for so many years. My parents, Elke and Gerhard Bönker, put me in a position to further my education and to write this book, and they have provided key support along the way. And finally, Kate Moran has endured my working on this book and has always been there for me in more ways than I can enumerate.

aBBREvIàTIONS

BA BAMA CR GB GP

GSAPK HSA JB LC MD N NA NAR NWB NWC NWCA ONI PUSNI Q

Bundesarchiv BundesarchivMilitärarchiv Committee Report General Board Die Große Politik der Europäischen Kabinette, 1871–1914, 40 volumes, ed. Johannes Lepsius et al. (Berlin, 1922–27) Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz Hauptstaatsarchiv Joint Army and Navy Board Library of Congress Manuscript Division Nachlass National Archives North American Review Naval War Board Naval War College Naval War College Archives Office of Naval Intelligence Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute Question