 The role of a historian extends beyond merely recounting or explaining the past; it involves demonstrating how present circumstances have been shaped over time. This book explores how a single institution - the British navy - crafted the modern global system, which continues to define our world, for better or worse. It began by challenging and dismantling the global order established by Spain and Portugal in the age of Columbus.
Later, during the 18th and 19th centuries, it reconfigured the world to serve the needs and ambitions of the British Empire. These needs -market access, free trade across borders, a stable international order that favors peace over conflict, and rapid communication and travel across oceans and skies - still underpin modern globalization today. Naturally, such a complex historical process involved many actors and factors beyond just the British navy.
However, removing it from the narrative makes the history of globalization appear more uncertain, more chaotic, and less inevitable. The existence of the British Empire - a foundation for half of today’s independent nations - would have been unimaginable without the navy’s influence. Moreover, without the Empire and its successor, the Commonwealth, the political map of the world would look quite different. While other nations could have forged a unified global structure, they likely would not have achieved it as swiftly, efficiently, gracefully, or humanely. Since the days of the Roman legions, no military force has had as profound an impact on both national and global history as the British navy.
Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, an American naval officer, famously argued that the history of Western civilization is largely the history of sea power - the ability of nations and empires to control the vast “common” of the oceans and deny that control to others. Through mastery of sea power, even smaller nations could dominate their rivals by controlling access to vital resources and shaping events, trends, and even the course of the globe itself. This demonstrates the core meaning of “ruling the waves.”
 Before 1375, ships rarely appeared on maps. By 1550, they had become prominent features, depicted across oceans, seas, estuaries, rivers, and lakes in various kinds of maps - ranging from the most extensive to the highly detailed. This dramatic shift can be attributed to broad changes in map-making techniques, an explosion of geographical knowledge, and evolving European perspectives about themselves and their place in the world during the Renaissance.
Understanding the subsequent disappearance of ships from maps in the 18th century involves examining similar underlying factors - shifts in artistic fashion, technological advancements, and new ideas about Europe and the physical universe. To truly grasp the reasons behind the rise and fall of decorative vessel illustrations on maps, one must explore the ideas, representation issues, and the social and economic structures that regulated map production. This inquiry is akin to a long voyage through an array of images - starting from simple, small sketches of the landscape around the mapmaker, to some of the most exquisite works of Renaissance art.
Such explanations highlight the cartographic revolution of the 15th and 16th centuries, reflecting changes in perceptions among thinkers, writers, and policymakers. They also reveal how the practical needs for new knowledge and user demands shaped both the art and function of maps. Maps always simplify a complex world.
They serve as external, physical representations of the earth’s surface—multifaceted, yet inherently limited. Since it is impossible to perfectly replicate the land’s reality, maps are essentially portrayals—likenesses and simplified models. The precise duplication of any geographical setting is unattainable; therefore, maps, like all forms of communication, intentionally fragment and streamline reality to convey understandable information.
 This study examines selected themes in the evolution of human civilizations through a maritime lens. It does not aspire to provide a comprehensive account of world history in chronological or geographical terms. Instead, it aims to highlight the significant role that seafaring has played in human achievements. While the contributions of seafarers and seafaring to the progress of civilization is a fascinating and diverse topic, it is important to acknowledge that there are many aspects of human activity that are not directly related to seafaring.
A central theme of the book is the development of maritime networks that have connected various societies and civilizations. These networks have served as vital channels for the exchange and distribution of goods, the projection of political and economic power, and the spread of ideologies and cultures. Broadly speaking, these networks can be categorized as either economic or political. Economic networks primarily involve trade, allowing states or organizations to extract, distribute, transform, and consume resources such as food, metals, and timber.
Political networks consist of maritime empires or confederacies where dominant groups direct the efforts of others to fulfill their needs. In practice, these two categories often overlap. The most successful seafaring civilizations can be identified as those that have adeptly leveraged both economic and political networks to accomplish their objectives.
 This is a truly brilliant publication and a real treasure for the people interested in the naval history, particularly in the destiny of the submarines belonging to United States fleet participating in the World War two. According to the hundreds of reviews submitted by the thankful readers, the title is a must-have one due to its content, where the author provided the detailed historical background and covered all relevant technical aspects in detail.
In addition to the attacks of the midget underwater boats of the Japanese fleet on Hawaii, the author also deals with the similar operations that took place in the other places, such as the Australia and Madagaskar. The style of presenting the material is excellent, making the reading fascinating, the text is informative and the coverage leaves no grey areas.
In fact, this is one of the best studies of the Japanese program of mini-submarines, with the main emphasis places on those six boats involved in the attack. We would encourage all fans of that war and actually all fans of the underwater vehicles to read this book carefully as it contains wealth of information not provided in any other books of its kind, and presents it in a nice reader-friendly way.
 The team of professionals, who prepared the subject publication, presents one of the most comprehensive works dedicated to the American maritime history of all those available today. The timeframe covered by the authors spans from the pre-Columbus times and includes all the periods up to now.
The text of the volume tells a story of the United States, affecting all of us in so many interesting and sometimes even surprising ways, and providing so many good explanations of the American people and nation as a whole. The work was thoroughly reviewed by the most prominent experts in the field, who have all appreciated the amount of the useful and perfectly structures information it contains, as well as the reader friendliness.
The authors presented a tale of the earliest fishermen and navy sailors, traders and explorers who together made the maritime history of America. The text is written beautifully and fascinating. In fact, the volume is considered essential publication fort any library. You will also like the numerous photographs and colored maps included to make the process of reading even more interesting. Make sure that you have a copy and go through if you are really interested in the history.
 The Ancient Mariners book was written by the famous authority of seafaring and ancient ships Lionel Casson; it is addressed foremost to the general reader and has served the needs of all people interested in the sea. Though there are so many books covering this field, Casson has tried to make this book useful for scholars and straddle the fence between them and professional seafarers.
The author of the present publication managed to put in a single volume the whole story of all that the ancient people accomplished on the sea - from the earliest times to the end of the Roman Empire - and explains how they perfected trading vessels from mere rowboats into really huge freighters that were able to carry over a thousand tons of cargo, and how they transformed their warships from quite simple oared transports into very complex rowing machines able to take hundreds of marines and even heavy artillery on board.
Every single person interested with history will find this volume to be a greatly valuable resource for getting a good understanding of the origins and evolution of the seafaring in the time period covered. In fact, people know so little about the seamanship activities of the ancient world and that is the reason why the publication providing such wealth of information are so popular.
 The maritime industry is a very tough one, and the profession of mariner traditionally required courage. As we all know, the sad truth is that there are more than thousand maritime disasters occurring every year only in the British waters. So, you can imagine the scale of the problem and understand that something shall be done to improve the situation and reduce the human losses to the absolute minimum.
Nicholas faith, who is the author of this nice title, has explored the maritime safety in the twentieth century trying to find out the real causes of the two disasters, that are on the list of the most tragic maritime disasters of the century, namely the sinking of the “Estonia” ferry in 1994, and the loss of the “Herald of Free Enterprise” which occurred eight years earlier. What happened that caused these tragedies and how could they be prevented?
Why the number of the human losses was so incredibly high in both cases? What were the main lessons learned? In his publication, Nicholas Faith made a good attempt to perform the thorough examination and analysis of the numerous evidences provided by the marine engineers, ship designers, rescuers, doctors, as well and other experts in order to understand the real causes of these accidents.
 This excellent historical book by the well-known Captain Joshua Slocum is devoted to the voyage of the world famous Liberdade ship. The author tells you a really impressive story of the adventure. The volume will be of great use and interest to all history enthusiasts. Moreover, any person who loves sea and adventures will benefit from the content of this title.
The text is remarkably easy to read and the way the story is told is truly fascinating, making the reading breathtaking. The author has made the voyage together with his family, on the boat constructed using the wrecks of the previous one. This is definitely something deserving your attention! The Captain managed to sail on the boat all the way across the Caribbean Sea, navigating up to America.
And, in fact, this adventure began when his vessel got trapped and destructed somewhere in Brazil. This is a story of a truly brave man and professional. The volume is presented in both pdf and epub formats so you can choose whichever suits your needs. We do recommend the title to you if you are really interested in the sea and people who made the history – as you can see, they are remembered and highly respected even after more than hundred year.
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