Ideologies of Western Naval Power, c. 1500-1815
J D Davies; Alan James; Gijs Rommelse
New York : Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group, 2020

Abstract: "This ground-breaking book provides the first study of naval ideology, defined as the mass of cultural ideas and shared perspectives that, for early modern states and belief systems, justified the creation and use of naval forces. Sixteen scholars examine a wide range of themes over a wide time period and broad geographical range, embracing Britain, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Sweden, Russia, Venice and the United States, along with the "extra-national" polities of piracy, neutrality, and international Calvinism. This volume provides important and often provocative new insights into both the growth of western naval power and important elements of political, cultural and religious history."

Contents: Section 1. Navies and national identities -- Groom of the sea: Venetian sovereignty between power and myth / Luciano Pezzolo -- National flags as essential elements of Dutch naval ideology, 1570-1800 / Gijs Rommelse -- Towards a scientific navy: institutional identity and Spain's Eighteenth-Century Navy / Catherine Scheybeler -- The French Navy from Louis XV to Napoleon I: what role and by what means? / Patrick Villiers --

Section 2. Monarchical Projects -- Fleets and states in a composite Catholic monarchy: Spain c. 1500-1700 / Christopher Storrs -- "Great Neptunes of the main": myths, mangled histories, and "maritime monarchy" in the Stuart Navy, 1603-1714 / J.D. Davies -- Colbert and La Royale: dynastic ambitions and imperial ideals in France / Alan James

Section 3. Communities of violence -- Corsairs in Tunis from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries: a matter of religion and economics / Sadok Boubaker -- Transnational Calvinist cooperation and "mastery of the sea" in the late sixteenth century / D.J.B. Trim -- Shadow states and ungovernable ships: The ideology of early modern piracy / Claire Jowitt -- Greeks into privateers: law and language of commerce raiding under the Imperial Russian flag, 1760s-1790s / Julia Leikin --

Section 4. Constructing strategies -- Kingship, religion and history: Swedish naval ideology, 1500-1830 / Lars Ericson Wolke -- Neutrality at sea: Scandinavian responses to 'great power' maritime warfare, 1651-1713 / Steve Murdoch -- Naval ideology and its operational impact in eighteenth century Britain / Richard Harding -- Debating the purpose of a navy in a new republic: the United States of America, 1775-1815 / John B. Hattendorf -- Section 5. Afterword / Andrew Lambert