The closing comparison explains durable sea power through competing demands on state resources. Britain could devote extraordinary sums to naval infrastructure because it did not require the same kind of standing continental army as several rivals. France, Spain, and the Dutch therefore faced a harder choice between land defence and catching the Royal Navy at sea. The United States is treated separately because its continental size and resources can support both an army and a navy while oceans form two of its strategic frontiers.
Notable Point · 57:53-59:26
Land borders constrained Britain's naval rivals
France, Spain, and the Dutch could not copy British naval investment without also meeting expensive land-security demands, while the continental-scale United States formed a different case.