German fleet building reshapes international alignments

Mahan begins with German commercial growth and the naval program intended to protect and extend it. Russia's defeat by Japan and internal disruption temporarily left France isolated, giving Germany more freedom to spend on its fleet. That program changes Britain's threat perception and helps move London away from isolation toward understandings with France and Russia. The resulting alignment also alters British behavior toward the United States over the Monroe Doctrine and raises questions about the Anglo-Japanese alliance. Mahan was already treating possible American-Japanese conflict as a naval-strategy problem before World War I, challenging claims that such distrust began only in the late 1930s. He then warns that a German victory over Britain would combine a predominant fleet with a predominant army and create new options for bases, markets, migration, and overseas resources. A fleet remains a political factor whose uses extend beyond the contingency cited to justify its construction.