Mahan, Alfred Thayer (1840–1914)

US naval officer and military historian. In The Influence of Sea Power upon History 1890–92, he propounded a global strategy based on the importance of sea power. It deeply influenced President Theodore Roosevelt and Wilhelm II of Germany to expand their respective nations' fleets.

Born in Quogue, New York, Mahan graduated from the US Naval Academy 1859. Serving in the blockade of the South during the Civil War, he published a history of the naval operations, The Gulf and Inland Waters 1883. In 1885 Mahan was promoted to captain and joined the faculty of the Naval War College. His lectures were published as The Influence of Sea Power upon History and his memoirs as From Sail to Steam 1907.