Teaching Americans to think as a global power

The Great White Fleet was aimed inward as well as outward. American commerce and investments already reached around the world, but many Americans did not yet believe the country could or should act there. The voyage proved that the United States could move a large naval force globally and encouraged a society still focused on continental development to imagine an active international role. Journalists, returning personnel, and accounts of foreign ports introduced the world to American readers. The cruise built a domestic constituency for sea power by showing what existed beyond American borders and what the fleet could do there.