Naval warfare is combat in and on seas, oceans, or any other major bodies of water such as large lakes and wide rivers. War is an international relations Dispute, characterized by organized Violence between National Military units Military history is a Humanities discipline within the scope of general historical recording of armed conflict in the history of humanity Prehistoric warfare is War conducted in the era before Writing, and before the establishments of large social entities like States Historical warfare sets Ancient warfare is War as conducted from the beginnings of recorded History to the end of the ancient period Medieval Warfare is the warfare of the Middle Ages. In Europe technological cultural and social developments had forced a dramatic transformation in the character Early Modern warfare is associated with the start of the widespread use of Gunpowder and the development of suitable weapons to use the explosive Industrial warfare is a period in the History of warfare ranging roughly from the start of the Industrial Revolution to the beginning of the Information Age Modern warfare, although present in every Historical period of Military history, is generally used to refer to the concepts, methods and Battlespace is a unified strategy to integrate and combine Armed forces for the Military theatre of operations, including air, information Air power redirects here for electrical and mechanical energy supplied by air movement see Wind power Information warfare is the use and management of information in pursuit of a competitive advantage over an opponent Land warfare, sometimes also called ground combat is the term used to describe military operations eventuating in Combat that take place predominantly on the land surface of Space warfare is combat that takes place in Outer space, ie outside the Atmosphere. A weapon is a Tool used either in Hunting, or attack or defence in Combat for the purpose of subduing enemy personnel or to destroy enemy weapons Armoured warfare or tank warfare is the use of Armoured fighting vehicles in Modern warfare. Artillery (from French artillerie) is a military Combat Arm which employs any apparātus machine Biological warfare (BW — known as a germ warfare, biological weapons and bioweaponry — is the use of any Pathogen ( Bacterium The Cavalry (from French cavalerie) is the second oldest of the Combat Arms, and as Soldiers or Warriors who fought mounted on Chemical warfare involves using the toxic properties of Chemical substances to kill injure or incapacitate an enemy. Electronic warfare ( EW) is the use of the Electromagnetic spectrum to effectively deny the use of this medium by an adversary while optimizing its use by friendly The Infantry is the oldest and most numerous of the Combat Arms in the Armed forces, and consists A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from Nuclear reactions either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. The US Department of Defense defines psychological warfare ( PSYWAR) as" The planned use of Propaganda and other Psychological actions Military tactics ( Greek: Taktikē, the art of organizing an army are the techniques for using weapons or military units in combination for engaging and defeating This article is about the military strategy For the Israeli-Egyptian conflict see War of Attrition, for the game theoretical model see War of attrition (game Guerrilla warfare is the unconventional warfare and combat with which a small group of combatants use mobile tactics (ambushes raids etc Maneuver warfare, also spelled manoeuvre warfare, is the term used by military theorists for a concept of Warfare that advocates attempting to Total war is a conflict of unlimited scope in which a Belligerent engages in a total mobilization of all available resources at his disposal Trench warfare is a form of warfare where both combatants have fortified positions and fighting lines are static Military strategy is a National defence policy implemented by Military organisations to pursue desired strategic goals Derived from the Greek Economic warfare is the term for economic policies followed as a part of Military operations during Wartime The purpose of economic warfare is to capture Grand strategy is military Strategy at the level of movement and use of an entire Nation state or Empire 's resources A military organization is a way of structuring the armed forces of a State as a need to offer Military capability required by the National defence policy A military organization is a way of structuring the armed forces of a State as a need to offer Military capability required by the National defence policy Military rank is a system of hierarchical relationships in Armed forces or civil institutions organized along military lines A military organization is a way of structuring the armed forces of a State as a need to offer Military capability required by the National defence policy Military Logistics is the art and science of planning and carrying out the movement and maintenance of military forces This article lists military technology items devices and methods Materiel (from the French "matériel" for equipment or hardware related to the word Material) is a term used in English to refer to the Military supply chain management is a cross-functional approach to procuring, producing and delivering products and services The broad This is an index to articles listing Battles. List of battles (alphabetical gives a global list See also Military History Antiquity Albania Agron ( 250 BC - 230 BC) The first king to unite the Illyrian This is a list of missions operations and projects Missions in support of other missions are not listed independently A Siege is a prolonged Military Assault and Blockade on a City or Fortress with the intent of conquering by force or Attrition See also List of military writers. Friedrich von Bernhardi Ivan Bloch John Boyd, inventor of the OODA Loop This is a listing of lists of Wars, sorted by country date region and type of conflict This article lists and summarizes War crimes committed since the Hague Convention of 1907. There is a bewildering array of Weapons far more than would be useful in list form This is a list of military writers, alphabetical by last name The ComBat was an Aluminium Cricket bat and the subject of an incident that occurred at the WACA cricket ground in Perth in December 1979. This article is about the body of water For other uses see SEA and Seas. An ocean (from Greek, ''Okeanos'' (Oceanus) is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the Hydrosphere. A lake (from Latin lacus) is a Terrain feature (or Physical feature) a body of Liquid on the surface of a world that is localized to the "Riverine" redirects here For the use of that term in Maritime geography, see there

Modern naval tactics

Main article: Modern naval tactics

As with all other forms of battle modern naval tactics are reliant on fire and movement. The term modern naval tactics refers to tactical doctrines developed after World War II following the final obsolescence of the Battleship and the development of long-range The term modern naval tactics refers to tactical doctrines developed after World War II following the final obsolescence of the Battleship and the development of long-range The effective delivery of firepower results from scouting and assumption of good firing positions. Movement is a large component of modern combat; a naval fleet can travel hundreds of kilometers in a day.

In naval warfare, the key is to detect the enemy while avoiding detection. The term enemy combatant has historically referred to members of the armed forces of the state with which another state is at war Much time and effort is spent to deny the enemy the chance to detect your forces.

There is also the concept of battle space: a zone around a naval force within which a commander is confident of detecting, tracking, engaging and destroying threats before they pose a danger. This is why a navy prefers the open sea. The presence of land and the bottom topology of an area compress the battle space, limit the opportunities to maneuver, make it easier for an enemy to predict the location of the fleet and make the detection of enemy forces more difficult. In shallow waters, the detection of submarines and mines is especially problematic. A submarine is a Watercraft that can operate independently below water as distinct from a Submersible that has only limited underwater capability A naval mine is a self-contained Explosive device placed in water to destroy Ships or Submarines Unlike Depth charges mines are deposited

One scenario that was the focus of American naval planning during the Cold War was a conflict between two modern and well equipped fleets on the high seas, the clash of the United States and the Soviet Union. Cold War is the state of conflict tension and competition that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR and their respective allies from the The main consideration is for Carrier Battle Groups (CVBGs). A carrier battle group (CVBG consists of an Aircraft carrier (CV and its escorts

In modern naval combat there is the potential of a deadly strike being launched from up to 600 nautical miles (1,100 km) away. This is a huge area to scout. The double-edged answer to this is electronic warfare.

Submarines are the greatest threat to offensive CVBG operations due to the stealth of modern submarines (anechoic coatings, ultra-quiet Pump-jets etc. A pump-jet or water jet is a marine system that creates a jet of Water for propulsion. ), which is the submarine's sole advantage. The move towards shallow-water operations has greatly increased this threat. The cherry-on-top is that even the suspicion of a submarine threat forces a fleet to commit resources to removing it as the consequences of an undetected submarine are too great.

The key threat in modern naval combat is the missile. This can be delivered from surface, subsurface or air units. With missile speeds ranging up to Mach 4 the engagement time may be only seconds. The key to successful defence is thus to destroy the launching platform before it fires, thus removing a number of missile threats in one go. This is not always possible so the anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) resources need to be balanced between the outer and inner air battles. Anti-aircraft warfare, or air defense, is any method of engaging hostile military Aircraft in defence of ground objectives, ground or naval forces

History

Further information: Naval history

Mankind has fought battles on the sea for more than 3,000 years. Naval history is the area of Military history concerning War at Sea and the subject is also a sub-discipline of the broad field of Maritime history Land warfare would seem, initially, to be irrelevant and entirely removed from warfare on the open ocean, though this is not necessarily true. This is a listing of lists of Wars, sorted by country date region and type of conflict Land navigation, until the advent of extensive railroads was extremely dependent upon river systems and canals. The latter were crucial in the development of the modern world in the United Kingdom, the Low Countries and northern Germany, for they enabled the bulk movement of goods and raw materials without which the industrial revolution would not have occurred. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The Low Countries, the historical region of de Nederlanden, are the countries on low-lying land around the delta of the Rhine, Scheldt Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. The Industrial Revolution was a period in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when major changes in agriculture manufacturing and transportation had a profound effect on the Prior to 1750, things moved by barge or sea, or not much at all. So armies with their exorbitant needs for food, ammunition and fodder were tied to the river valleys throughout the ages.

The oceanic influences throughout pre-recorded history (Homeric Legends, e. g. Troy), and classical works like the Odyssey underscore the past influences. Troy ( Greek: grc Τροία Troia, also, Ilion; Latin: Trōia, Īlium, Hittite: Wilusa or The Odyssey ( Greek: Ὀδύσσεια or Odússeia) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. The Persian Empire — united and strong — couldn't prevail against the might of the Athenian fleet combined with that of lesser city states in several attempts to conquer the Greek City States. The Persian Empire was a series of Iranian empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland and beyond in Western Asia Athens (ˈæθənz Αθήνα Athina,) the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery as one of the world's Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία The Phoenecian's and Egypt's power, Carthage's and even Rome's depended in no mean way upon control of the seas. Phoenicia ( Phoenician: Phoenician nunsvg|12px|נ]]Phoenician nun This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics. Carthage (Καρχηδών Karkhēdōn, Carthago from the Phoenician קרת חדשת phn-Latn Qart-ḥadašt meaning new town) refers Rome ( Roma ˈroma Roma is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city with more than 2 So too did the Venetian Republic dominate Italy's city states, thwart the Ottoman Empire, and dominate commerce on the Silk road and the Mediterranean in general for centuries. The Most Serene Republic of Venice ((Serenìsima Repùblica Vèneta or Repùblica de Venesia Serenissima Repubblica Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest The Ottoman Empire (1299–1923 ( Old Ottoman Turkish: دولتْ علیّه عثمانیّه Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye, Late Ottoman and Modern Turkish The Silk Road, or Silk Routes, are an extensive interconnected network of Trade routes across the Asian continent connecting East South and Western Asia with the For three centuries, the Northmen commonly called the Vikings raided and pillaged and went where they willed, far into central Russia and the Ukraine, and even to far off Constantinople (both via the Black Sea tributaries and past the Strait of Gibraltar. A Viking is one of the Norse ( Scandinavian Explorers Warriors Merchants, and pirates who raided and colonized wide areas Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending Ukraine (Україна Ukrayina, /ukrɑˈjinɑ/ is a country in Eastern Europe. Constantinople (Κωνσταντινούπολις Konstantinoúpolis, or gr ἡ Πόλις hē Polis, Latin: la CONSTANTINOPOLIS The Black Sea is an inland Sea bounded by southeastern Europe, the Caucasus and the Anatolian peninsula ( Turkey The Strait of Gibraltar ( Arabic: مضيق جبل طارق Spanish: Estrecho de Gibraltar) is the Strait that connects the Atlantic

The many sea battles through history also provide a reliable source of shipwrecks for underwater archaeology. A shipwreck can refer to a wrecked ship or to the event that caused the wreck such as the striking of something that causes the ship to sink the stranding of the ship on rocks Underwater archaeology is the study of past Human life behaviours and cultures using the physical remains found in salt or Fresh water or buried beneath A major example, albeit not very commonly known, is the exploration of the wrecks of various battleships in the Pacific Ocean, namely Japanese warships that sank during the Battle of Midway. A battleship is a large heavily armored Warship with a main battery consisting of the largest Calibre of Guns Battleships were The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth 's Oceanic divisions For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. The Battle of Midway was a major Naval battle, widely regarded as the most important one of the Pacific Campaign of World War II.

Oars people of the Mediterranean Sea

An ancient Greek trireme vessel

The first dateable recorded sea battle occurred about 1210 BC: Suppiluliuma II, king of the Hittites, defeated a fleet from Cyprus, and burned their ships at sea. Trireme ( τριήρης sing τριήρεις pl triremis sing Suppiluliuma II, the son of Tudhaliya IV, was the last known king of the New Kingdom of the Hittite Empire, ruling ca The Hittites were an ancient Anatolian people who spoke a language of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family and established Cyprus (Κύπρος transliterated: Kýpros,; Kıbrıs officially the Republic of Cyprus (Κυπριακή Δημοκρατία Kypriakī́ Dīmokratía

Assyrian reliefs from the 700s BC show Phoenician fighting ships, with two levels of oars, fighting men on a sort of bridge or deck above the oarsmen, and some sort of ram protruding from the bow. Early history The most Neolithic site in Assyria is at Tell Hassuna, the center of the Hassuna culture Phoenicia ( Phoenician: Phoenician nunsvg|12px|נ]]Phoenician nun No written mention of strategy or tactics seems to have survived.

The Greeks of Homer just used their ships as transport for land armies, but in 664 BC there is a mention of a battle at sea between Corinth and its colony city Corcyra. Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία Homer ( Ancient Greek:, Homēros) is a legendary ancient Greek epic Poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the Corinth, or Korinth ( Greek Κόρινθος ( is a city in Greece. Corfu (Κέρκυρα Kérkyra, ˈkʲe̞ɾkʲiɾa Κέρκυρα or Κόρκυρα Corcyra Corfù is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea

The Persian Wars were the first to feature large-scale naval operations, not just sophisticated fleet engagements with dozens of triremes on each side, but combined land-sea operations. Trireme ( τριήρης sing τριήρεις pl triremis sing It seems unlikely that all this was the product of a single mind or even of a generation; most likely the period of evolution and experimentation was simply not recorded by history.

After some initial battles while subjugating the Greeks of the Ionian coast, the Persians determined to invade Greece proper. Geography Physical Ionia was of small extent not exceeding 90 geographical miles in length from north to south with a breadth varying from 40 to 55 miles but to this Themistocles of Athens estimated that the Greeks would be outnumbered by the Persians on land, but that Athens could protect itself by building a fleet (the famous "wooden walls"), using the profits of the silver mines at Laurium to finance them. Themistocles ( Greek:; c 524&ndash459 BC was an Athenian soldier and statesman Athens (ˈæθənz Αθήνα Athina,) the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery as one of the world's Silver (ˈsɪlvɚ is a Chemical element with the symbol " Ag " (argentum from the Ancient Greek: ἀργήντος - argēntos gen Laurion redirects here For the Moth Genus, see Laurion (moth.

The first Persian campaign, in 492 BC, was aborted because the fleet was lost in a storm, but the second, in 490 BC, captured islands in the Aegean Sea before landing on the mainland near Marathon. Etymology In ancient times there were various explanations for the name Aegean. The Battle of Marathon ( Greek: Μάχη τοῡ Μαραθῶνος Machē tou Marathōnos) during the Greco-Persian Wars took place in 490 Attacks by the Greek armies repulsed these.

The third Persian campaign, under Xerxes I of Persia ten years later (480 BC), followed the pattern of the first in marching the army via the Hellespont while the fleet paralleled them offshore. Xerxes I of Persia was a King of Persia (reigned 485–465 BC of the Achaemenid dynasty. See also Dardanelles Hellespont ( Turkish, Greek; ie "Sea of Helle" variously named in classical literature Hellespontium Pelagus Near Artemisium, in the narrow channel between the mainland and Euboea, the Greek fleet held off multiple assaults by the Persians, the Persians breaking through a first line, but then being flanked by the second line of ships. The naval Battle of Artemisium took place according to tradition on the same day as the Battle of Thermopylae on August 11 480 BC, though its exact date For the mythological figure see Euboea (mythology Euboea ( Modern Greek, Εύβοια - Évia &mdash But the defeat on land at Thermopylae forced a Greek withdrawal, and Athens evacuated its population to nearby Salamis Island. In the Battle of Thermopylae, which occurred in August 480 BC (and was detailed almost entirely by Herodotus) an alliance of Greek City-states fought Salamis ( Greek, Modern: Σαλαμίνα Salamína, Ancient / Katharevousa: Σαλαμίς Salamís) is the largest

The ensuing Battle of Salamis was one of the decisive engagements of history. The Battle of Salamis ( Ancient Greek:) was a decisive naval battle between the Greek City-states and Persia in September 480 BC in the Themistocles trapped the Persians in a channel too narrow for them to bring their greater numbers to bear, and attacked them vigorously, in the end causing the loss of 200 Persian ships vs 40 Greek. At the end, Xerxes still had a fleet stronger than the Greeks, but withdrew anyway, and after losing at Plataea in the following year, returns to Asia Minor, leaving the Greeks their freedom. The Battle of Plataea was the final major Battle of the Greco-Persian Wars in southern Greece. Anatolia (Anadolu Ανατολία Anatolía) or Asia minor, comprising most of modern Turkey, is the geographic region bounded by the Black Nevertheless, the Athenians and Spartans attacked and burned the laid-up Persian fleet at Mycale, and freed many of the Ionian towns. The Battle of Mycale, Ancient Greek, grc-Latn Mache tes Mycales, was one of the two major battles that ended the Persian invasion of Greece during the

During the next fifty years, the Greeks command the Aegean, but not harmoniously, and after several minor wars about which we know little, in 431 BC, tensions exploded into the Peloponnesian War between Athens' Delian League and the Spartan Peloponnese. The Delian League was an association of approximately 150 5th-century BC Greek City-states under the leadership of Athens, whose purpose was to continue The Peloponnese or Peloponnesus ( Greek: Πελοπόννησος Pelopónnisos; see also List of Greek place names) is a large Peninsula Naval strategy was critical; Athens walled itself off from the rest of Greece, leaving only the port at Piraeus open, and trusting in its navy to keep supplies flowing while the Spartan army besieged it. Piraeus (pɪˈræʊs Πειραιάς, piɾeˈas Πειραιεύς, piɾeˈefs is a city in the periphery of Attica, Greece, and a This strategy worked, although the close quarters likely contributed to the plague that killed many Athenians in 429.

There were a number of sea battles between galleys; at Rhium, Naupactus, Pylos, Syracuse, Cynossema, Cyzicus, Notium. Galleys redirects here For other uses see Galley (disambiguation. The Battle of Rhium (429 BC was a Naval battle in the Peloponnesian War between an Athenian fleet commanded by Phormio and a Peloponnesian The Battle of Naupactus was a naval battle in the Peloponnesian War. The naval Battle of Pylos took place in 425 BC during the Peloponnesian War at the peninsula of Pylos, on the Bay of Navarino in Messenia The Sicilian Expedition was an Athenian expedition to Sicily from 415 BC to 413 BC, during the Peloponnesian War. The naval Battle of Cynossema took place in 411 BC during the Peloponnesian War. The naval Battle of Cyzicus took place in 410 BC during the Peloponnesian War. The Battle of Notium (or Ephesus) in 406 BC, was a Spartan naval victory in the Peloponnesian War. But the end came for Athens in 405 at Aegospotami in the Hellespont, where the Athenians had drawn up their fleet on the beach, and were there surprised by the Spartan fleet, who landed and burned all the ships. The naval Battle of Aegospotami took place in 404 BC and was the last major battle of the Peloponnesian War. See also Dardanelles Hellespont ( Turkish, Greek; ie "Sea of Helle" variously named in classical literature Hellespontium Pelagus Athens surrendered to Sparta in the following year.

Navies next played a major role in the complicated wars of the successors of Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great ( or, Mégas Aléxandros; July 20 356 BC June 10 or June 11 323 BC also known as Alexander III of Macedon (el Ἀλέξανδρος Γ'

Rome was never much of a seafaring nation, but it had to learn, and learn fast, in the Punic Wars with Carthage, and developed the technique of grappling and boarding enemy ships with soldiers. Rome ( Roma ˈroma Roma is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city with more than 2 The Punic Wars were a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage between 264 and 146 BC and were probably the largest wars yet of the ancient Carthage (Καρχηδών Karkhēdōn, Carthago from the Phoenician קרת חדשת phn-Latn Qart-ḥadašt meaning new town) refers Boarding, in its simplest sense refers to the insertion onto a ship's deck of people The Roman Navy grew gradually as Rome found itself involved in more and more Mediterranean politics; by the time of the Roman Civil War and the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, hundreds of ships were involved, many of them quinqueremes mounting catapults and fighting towers. The Roman Navy ( Latin: Classis, lit "fleet" comprised the naval forces of the Roman state List of Civil wars involving Rome. There were several Roman civil wars, especially during the time of the late Republic. The Battle of Actium was the decisive engagement in the Final War of the Roman Republic between the forces of Octavian and the combined forces of Mark Antony A quinquereme (Latin or penteres (Greek is a type of ancient oar-propelled warship that was used by the Greeks of the Hellenistic period and later by the Carthaginians A catapult is any one of a number of non-handheld mechanical devices used to throw a Projectile a great distance without the aid of an explosive substance—particularly various The Roman Empire however had little use for navies beyond periodic piracy suppression. The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial

Ancient China

Main article: Naval history of China

In ancient China, the first known naval battles took place during the Warring States (481 BC - 221 BC), a period where regional warlords battled against one another while claiming loyalty to their Zhou Dynasty sovereign. The naval history of China dates back thousands of years with archives existing since the late Spring and Autumn Period ( 722 BC - 481 BC) about the Chinese civilization originated in various city-states along the Yellow River ( valley in the Neolithic era The Warring States Period ( also known as the Era of Warring States covers the period from some time in the 5th century BC to the unification of China by the The Zhou Dynasty ( POJ: Chiu Tiau 1122 BC to 256 BC was preceded by the Shang Dynasty and followed by the Qin Dynasty in China. Chinese naval warfare in this ancient period featured grapple-and-hook, as well as ramming tactics with ships called "stomach strikers" and "colliding swoopers" ^[1]. It was written in the subsequent Han Dynasty that the Warring States era Chinese had employed ge chuan ships (dagger-axe ships, or halberd ships), thought to have a simple description of a ship manned by marines carrying dagger-axe halberds as personal weapons. However, the later 3rd century Three Kingdoms era Chinese writer Zhang Yan asserted in his writing that the Warring States Chinese named the boats this way because halberd blades were actually fixed and attached to the hull of the ship in order to rip into the hull of another ship while ramming, to stab enemies in the water that had fallen overboard and were swimming, or simply to clear any possible dangerous marine animals in the path of the ship (since the ancient Chinese did believe in sea monsters, see Xu Fu for more info). Xu Fu ( Chinese: 徐福 or 徐 巿, not to be confused with another Chinese character 市, the pronunciation of which is Shi was born in 255 BC

Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty (221 BC - 207 BC), owed much of his success in unifying China (specifically southern China) to naval power, although an official navy was not yet established (see Medieval Asia section below). Qin Shi Huang ( (259 BC – September 10 210 BC personal name Yíng Zhèng, was king of the Chinese State of Qin from 247 BCE to 221 BCE (during the Not to be confused with the Qing Dynasty, the last dynasty of China China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National Zhou Dynasty era Chinese were known to use temporary pontoon bridges for general means of transportation, but it was during the Qin and later Han Dynasty that large permanent pontoon bridges were assembled, and used for purposes of warfare (first written account of a pontoon bridge in the West being the oversight of the Greek Mandrocles of Samos in aiding a military campaign of Persian Emperor Darius I over the Bosporus). A pontoon bridge or floating bridge is a Bridge that floats on water supported by barge-or-boat-like pontoons to support the bridge deck and its dynamic Darius I the Great (c 549 BC&ndash486 BC 𐎭𐎠𐎼𐎹𐎺𐎢𐏁 Dārayavahuš: "Possessing goodness" Having ascended to power amidst controversy and bloodshed The Bosporus or Bosphorus, also known as the Istanbul Strait, (İstanbul Boğazı (Βόσπορος is a Strait that forms the boundary between the

During the Han Dynasty (202 BC - 220 AD), the Chinese discovered the use of the stern-mounted steering rudder, as well as designed a new ship type, the junk. The Han Dynasty ( 206 BC–220 AD followed the Qin Dynasty and preceded the Three Kingdoms in China. The stern is the rear or aft part of a Ship or Boat, technically defined as the area built up over the Sternpost, extending upwards from the Counter A rudder is a device used to steer a Ship, Boat, Submarine, Hovercraft, or other conveyance that move through a fluid (generally air or -HK CityHall Seaview 51217 5png|thumb|300px|A modern junk in Hong Kong]]A junk is a Chinese sailing vessel. During the late Han Dynasty into the Three Kingdoms period, significantly large naval battles like the Battle of Chibi marked the advancement of naval warfare in the East. The Three Kingdoms period ( is a period in the History of China, part of an era of disunity called the Six Dynasties following immediately the loss of The Battle of Red Cliffs, otherwise known as the Battle of Chibi, ( was a decisive battle at the End of Han Dynasty, immediately prior to the period of the Three In the latter engagement, the Chinese military strategist Zhuge Liang from the Kingdom of Shu is well known for his fire attack upon the massive naval fleet of Prime Minister Cao Cao. Zhuge Liang (181–234 was Chancellor of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period of China Shu Han ( Traditional Chinese: 蜀漢 Pinyin: Shǔ Hàn sometimes known as the Kingdom of Shu (蜀 shǔ was one of the Three Kingdoms competing Cáo Cāo ( 曹[[wikt 操|操]] 155 &ndash March 15, 220) was a regional Warlord and the penultimate Chancellor of the

In terms of seafaring abroad, arguably one of the first Chinese to sail into the Indian Ocean and to reach Sri Lanka and India by sea was the Buddhist monk Fa Xian in the early 5th century (although diplomatic ties and land trade to Persia and India was established during the earlier Han Dynasty). The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's Oceanic divisions covering about 20% of the water on the Earth 's surface Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka ( Sinhalese:, இலங்கை known as Ceylon before 1972 is an Island India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices MONK is a Monte Carlo software package for simulating nuclear processes particularly for the purpose of determining the neutron multiplication factor or k-effective Faxian ( Traditional Chinese:法顯 Simplified Chinese:法显 Pinyin ：Fǎxiǎn also romanized as Fa-Hien or Fa-hsien) (ca However, Chinese naval maritime influence would not present itself in the Indian Ocean until the medieval period.

Dark and Middle Ages

The barbarian invasions of the 4th century and later mostly occurred by land, but there are mentions of a Vandal fleet fighting with the Romans, and a defeat of an Ostrogothic fleet at Sena Gallica in the Adriatic Sea. The Ostrogoths (Ostrogothi or Austrogothi were a branch of the Goths, an East Germanic tribe that played a major role in the political events of the late Senigallia or Sinigaglia is a Comune and port town on Italy 's Adriatic coast 25 km by rail north of Ancona in the Marche region

In the 7th century Arab fleets begin to make an appearance, raiding Sicily in 652, and defeating the Byzantine Navy in 655. The araB gene Promoter is a bacterial promoter activated by e L-arabinose binding Sicily ( Italian and Sicilian: Sicilia) is an autonomous region of Italy. The Byzantine navy comprised the naval forces of the Byzantine Empire. Constantinople is saved at the Battle of Syllaeum in 678 by the invention of Greek fire, an early form of flamethrower that is devastating to the ships in the besieging fleet. Constantinople (Κωνσταντινούπολις Konstantinoúpolis, or gr ἡ Πόλις hē Polis, Latin: la CONSTANTINOPOLIS The naval Battle of Syllaeum took place in 677 near Syllaeum and was fought between the Arabs and the Byzantine Empire in coordination with a series Greek fire was a burning-liquid weapon used by the Byzantine Empire. A flamethrower is a mechanical device designed to project a long controllable stream of Fire. This was just the first of many encounters.

In the 8th century the Norse Vikings begin to make an appearance, although their usual style is to appear quickly, plunder, and disappear, preferably undefended locations. Norsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who speak one of the North Germanic languages as their native language A Viking is one of the Norse ( Scandinavian Explorers Warriors Merchants, and pirates who raided and colonized wide areas King Alfred the Great of England built a fleet and was able to stay the Viking incursions, establishing the boundaries of Danelaw in a 884 treaty. Alfred the Great (also Ælfred from the Old English Ælfrēd ˈælfreːd (c England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland The Danelaw, as recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (also known as the Danelagh; Old English: Dena lagu; Danish: Events By Place Europe March 1 — Diego Rodríguez Porcelos founds and repopulates Burgos.

The Norse also fought several sea battles among themselves. This was normally done by binding the ships on each side together, thus essentially fighting a land battle on the sea. However the fact that the losing side could not easily escape meant that battles tended to be hard and bloody. The Battle of Svolder is perhaps the most famous of these battles. The naval Battle of Svolder ( Svold, Swold) was fought in September 999 or 1000 somewhere in the western Baltic between King Olaf Tryggvason

As Arab power in the Mediterranean began to wane, the Italian trading towns of Genoa, Pisa, and Venice stepped in to seize the opportunity, setting up commercial networks and building navies to protect them. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Genoa ( Genova, ˈdʒɛːnova in Italian; Zena in Genoese and Ligurian; Genua in Latin and archaically in English Pisa is a city in Tuscany, central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the Arno River on the Ligurian Sea. Venice ( Italian: Venezia, Venetian: Venesia or Venexia) is a city in Northern Italy, the capital of the At first the navies fought with the Arabs (off Bari in 1004, at Messina in 1005), but then they found themselves contending with Normans moving into Sicily, and finally with each other. Bari ( Barium in Latin, Bàrion or Vàrion in Greek, Bare in Neapolitan The Normans were the people who gave their names to Normandy, a region in northern France. The Genoese and Venetians fought four naval wars, in 1253–1284, 1293–1299, 1350–1355, and 1378–1381. The last ended with a decisive victory for Venice, which gave them almost a century to enjoy Mediterranean trade domination before other European countries started exploring to the south and west.

In the north of Europe, the near-continuous conflict between England and France rarely entails naval activity more sophisticated than carrying knights across the English Channel, and perhaps trying to attack the transports. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. The Battle of Dover in 1217, between a French fleet of 80 ships under Eustace the Monk and an English fleet of 40 under Hubert de Burgh, is notable is the first recorded battle using sailing ship tactics. The battle of Dover was a Naval battle fought in early 1217 between an English fleet of 30-40 ships under Hubert de Burgh and a French This page is on Eustace the Black Monk For another Eustace the Monk also known as Eustace of Luxeuil see Eustace of Luxeuil.

Medieval Asia (China, India, Japan, and Korea)

A Chinese Song Dynasty naval river ship with a Xuanfeng traction-trebuchet catapult on its top deck, taken from an illustration of the Wujing Zongyao (1044 AD)

The Sui Dynasty (581 - 618 AD) and Tang Dynasty (618 - 907 AD) of China were involved in several naval affairs over the triple-set of polities ruling medieval Korea (Three Kingdoms of Korea), along with engaging naval bombardments on the peninsula from Asuka period Yamato Kingdom (Japan). The Song Dynasty ( Wade-Giles: Sung Ch'ao was a ruling dynasty in China between 960&ndash1279 CE it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms A trebuchet or trebucket is a Siege engine that was employed in the Middle Ages either to smash Masonry Walls or to throw A catapult is any one of a number of non-handheld mechanical devices used to throw a Projectile a great distance without the aid of an explosive substance—particularly various The Wujing Zongyao ( was a Chinese military compendium written in 1044 AD during the Northern Song Dynasty. The Sui Dynasty ( 581 - 618 AD and in the undertaking of other construction projects including the reconstruction of the Great Wall. The Tang Dynasty ( Middle Chinese: dhɑng (June 18 618&ndashJune 4 907 was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by Korea is a geographic area composed of two sovereign countries a civilization and a former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia. The Three Kingdoms of Korea ( refer to the ancient Korean kingdoms of Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla, which dominated the Korean peninsula The, was a period in the History of Japan lasting from 538 to 710 (or 592-645 although its beginning could be said to overlap with the preceding Kofun period. This is summary of two more detailed articles Kofun period and Asuka period. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. A prominent factor in the sudden decline and collapse of the Sui Dynasty was its pouring of state funds into the Goguryeo-Sui Wars, where the Chinese assembled an enormous naval fleet that in the end was unsuccessful. The succeeding Tang Dynasty of China took on a different foreign policy, aiding the Silla Dynasty (see also Unified Silla) in expelling the armies and naval forces of the Japanese (see Battle of Baekgang) and conquering Silla's other Korean rivals, Baekje and Goguryeo by 668 AD. The Tang Dynasty ( Middle Chinese: dhɑng (June 18 618&ndashJune 4 907 was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by Silla (57 BC – 935 AD was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea. Unified Silla ( 668 CE - 935 CE or Later Silla is the name often applied to the kingdom of Silla, one of the Three Kingdoms of The Battle of Baekgang, also known as Battle of Baekgang-gu or by the Japanese name Battle of Hakusukinoe (白村江の戦い Hakusuki-no-e no Baekje (18 BCE – 660 CE or Paekche, was a kingdom located in southwest Korea Goguryeo or Koguryo was an ancient Korean kingdom located in the northern and central parts of the Korean peninsula, southern Manchuria, and In addition, the Chinese Tang Dynasty had maritime trading, tributary, and diplomatic ties as far as modern-day Sri Lanka, India, Islamic Iran and Arabia, as well as Somalia in East Africa. Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka ( Sinhalese:, இலங்கை known as Ceylon before 1972 is an Island India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country For other meanings including people named 'Islam' see Islam (disambiguation. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iran topics. The Arabian Peninsula (in Arabic: شبه الجزيرة العربية šibh al-jazīra al-ʻarabīya or جزيرة العرب jazīrat al-ʻarab) Somalia ( Soomaaliya; الصومال) officially the Somali Republic ( Jamhuuriyadda Soomaaliya, جمهورية الصومال) and formerly known East Africa is the Easternmost Region of the African Continent. From the Axumite Kingdom in modern-day Ethiopia, the Arab traveller Sa'd ibn Abi-Waqqas sailed from there to Tang China during the reign of Emperor Gaozong. The Aksumite Empire or Axumite Empire (sometimes called the Kingdom of Aksum or Axum ( Ge'ez: አክሱም was an important trading NOTE This intro is the result of careful NPOV work Please do not make potentially controversial edits to it without first discussing on the talk page The araB gene Promoter is a bacterial promoter activated by e L-arabinose binding Sa`ad ibn Abī Waqqās ( was an early convert to Islam and one of the important companions of Muhammad. Two decades later, he returned with a copy of the Quran, establishing the first Islamic mosque in China, the Mosque of Remembrance in Guangzhou. The Qur’an ( القرآن, literally "the recitation" also sometimes transliterated as Qur’ān, Koran, Alcoran A "mosque" in English refers to all types of buildings dedicated for Islamic worship although there is a distinction in Arabic between the smaller privately owned mosque and the larger Guangzhou ( Jyutping: Gwong²zau¹; Yale: Gwóngjàu) is the Capital and a Sub-provincial city What followed was a rising rivalry between Arab and Chinese for dominant control of sea lanes of trade in the Indian Ocean. In his book Cultural Flow Between China and the Outside World, Shen Fuwei notes that maritime Chinese merchants in the 9th century were landing regularly at Sufala in East Africa to cut out Arab middle-men traders. ^[2]

The Chola Dynasty of medieval India was a dominant seapower in the Indian Ocean, an avid maritime trader and diplomatic entity with Song China. India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's Oceanic divisions covering about 20% of the water on the Earth 's surface Rajaraja Chola I (reigned 985 to 1014) and his son Rajendra Chola I (reigned 1014-42), who were from the Dravidian kingdom in southern India, sent out a great naval expedition that occupied parts of Myanmar, Malaya, and Sumatra. Dravidian peoples refers to the peoples that natively speak languages belonging to the Dravidian language family. A monarchy is a Form of government in which supreme power is actually or nominally lodged in an individual who is the Head of state, often for life or Burma, officially the Union of Myanmar ( pjìdàunzṵ mjàmmà nàinŋàndɔ̀ is the largest country by geographical area in mainland Southeast Asia. The Malay Peninsula or Thai-Malay Peninsula (Semenanjung Tanah Melayu (คาบสมุทรมลายู is a major Peninsula located in Southeast Sumatra (also spelled Sumatera) is the sixth largest island in the world (approximately 470000 km² and is the largest island entirely in Indonesia (two While many believe the Cholas were the first rulers noted to have a naval fleet in the Indian subcontinent, there are at least two evidences to cite use of navies. Narasimhavarman Pallava I transported his troops to Sri Lanka to help Manavarman to reclaim the throne. Origins See also Origin of Pallava The exact origin of the Pallavas is shrouded in mystery Shatavahanahas were known to possess a navy that was widely deployed to influence South East Asia. What is not known is the extent of use. Some argue that there is no evidence to support naval warfare in a contemporary sense. Others say that ships routinely carried bands of archers to keep pirates at bay. However, since the Arabs were known to use catapults, naptha, and devices attached to ships to prevent boarding parties, one can resoanably conclude that Chola navies not only transported troops but also provided support, protection, and attack capabilities against enemy targets. Boarding, in its simplest sense refers to the insertion onto a ship's deck of people

A Chinese paddle-wheel driven ship from a Qing Dynasty encyclopedia published in 1726

In the 12th century, China's first permanent standing navy was established by the Southern Song Dynasty, the headquarters of the Admiralty stationed at Ding-hai. A paddle steamer is a ship or boat driven by a Steam engine that uses one or more Paddle wheels to develop thrust for propulsion. Not to be confused with Qin Dynasty, the first dynasty of Imperial China An encyclopedia (or '''encyclopædia''') is a comprehensive written Compendium that contains Information on either all branches of Knowledge The Song Dynasty ( Wade-Giles: Sung Ch'ao was a ruling dynasty in China between 960&ndash1279 CE it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms This came about after the conquest of northern China by the Jurchen people (see Jin Dynasty) in 1127, while the Chinese court fled south from Kaifeng to Hangzhou. The Jurchens ( were a Tungus people who inhabited the region of Manchuria ( Northeast China) until the 17th century when they adopted the name Manchu This is an article for the Jurchen Jin Dynasty (1115–1234 For other Chinese dynasties whose names are also rendered "Jin" in Pinyin, see Jin Dynasty Kaifeng ( formerly known as Bianliang ( Bianjing ( Daliang ( or simply Liang ( is a Prefecture-level city in eastern ( Postal map spelling: Hangchow) is a Sub-provincial city located in the Yangtze River Delta in the People's Republic of China, Equipped with the magnetic compass and knowledge of Shen Kuo's famous treatise (on the concept of true north), the Chinese became proficient experts of navigation in their day. A compass, magnetic compass or mariner's compass is a navigational instrument for determining direction relative to the earth's Magnetic poles It consists Shen Kuo or Shen Kua ( (1031&ndash1095 style name Cunzhong and pseudonym Mengqi Weng, was a Polymathic Chinese noted by the Chinese Polymath Shen Kuo in the 11th century and possibly the egyptians over 6 millenia ago They raised their naval strength from a mere 11 squadrons of 3,000 marines to 20 squadrons of 52,000 marines in a century's time. Employing paddle wheel crafts and trebuchet's throwing gunpowder bombs from the decks of their ships, the Chinese became a formidable foe to the Jin Dynasty during the 12th-13th centuries (see also Battle of Caishi and Battle of Tangdao). A paddle wheel (also called side wheel or stern wheel) is a large wheel fitted with Paddles which is used to propel a Boat. A trebuchet or trebucket is a Siege engine that was employed in the Middle Ages either to smash Masonry Walls or to throw Gunpowder is a an explosive mixture of Sulfur, Charcoal and Potassium nitrate (also known as saltpetre/saltpeter that burns rapidly producing volumes The naval Battle of Caishi (采石之战 took place in 1161 and was the result of an attempt by forces of the Jurchen Jin to cross the Yangtze The naval Battle of Tangdao (唐岛之战 took place in 1161 between the Jurchen Jin and the Southern Song Dynasty of China With a powerful navy, China dominated maritime trade throughout South East Asia as well. Until 1279, the Chinese were able to use their naval power to defend against the Jin to the north, until the Mongols finally conquered all of China. After the Song Dynasty, the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty of China was a powerful maritime force in the Indian Ocean. The Yuan Dynasty ( Pinyin: Yuáncháo Dai Ön Ulus (Дай Юан Улс was a ruling Dynasty founded by the Mongol leader Kublai The Yuan Emperor Kublai Khan attempted to invade Japan twice with enormous fleets (comprised of both Mongols and Chinese), in 1274 and again in 1281, both attempts being unsuccessful (see Mongol invasions of Japan). Early years Kublai Khan studied Chinese culture and became enamoured of it The of 1274 and 1281 were major Military operations undertaken by Kublai Khan to invade the Japanese Islands after conquering Korea Building upon the technological achievements of the earlier Chinese Song Dynasty, the Mongols also employed early cannons upon the decks of their ships. | NOTE Throughout this article "cannon" is used as BOTH the || singular and plural

While the Chinese Song Dynasty built its naval strength, the Japanese also had considerable naval prowess. The strength of Japanese naval forces could be seen in the Genpei War, in the large-scale Battle of Dan-no-ura on April 25, 1185 AD. The ( 1180 &ndash 1185) were a Conflict between the Taira and Minamoto clans and in late- Heian period Japan. The was a major sea battle of the Genpei War, occurring at Dan-no-ura, in the Shimonoseki Strait off the southern tip of Honshū. Events 1607 - Eighty Years' War: The Dutch fleet destroys the anchored Spanish fleet at Gibraltar. The forces of Minamoto no Yoshitsune were 850 ships strong, while Taira no Munemori had 500 ships under his command. Yoshitsune_with_benkeijpg|thumb|"Yoshitsune and Benkei Viewing Cherry Blossoms" by Yoshitoshi Tsukioka]] Minamoto no Yoshitsune (ja 源 義経 (1159 &ndash (1147-1185 was heir to Taira no Kiyomori, and one of the Taira clan's chief commanders in the Genpei War.

In the mid 14th century, the rebel leader Zhu Yuanzhang (1328-1398 AD) seized power in the south amongst many other rebel groups. Early life Zhu Yuanzhang was born in 1328 in Pei County Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province as the youngest of four sons His early success was owed to the aid of capable officials such as Liu Ji and Jiao Yu, and their gunpowder weapons (see Huolongjing). Liu Ji ( July 1 1311 — 16 May 1375) Courtesy name Bowen (伯温 Posthumous name Wencheng (文成 Jiao Yu ( Traditional and Simplified Chinese: 焦玉 Wade-Giles: Chiao Yü, Hanyu Pinyin: Jiāo Yù) was a Chinese The Huolongjing ( Wade-Giles: Huo Lung Ching; Traditional Chinese: 火龍經 rendered by its translator into English as Yet the decisive battle that cemented his success and his founding of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD) was the Battle of Lake Poyang, considered one of the largest naval battles in history. The Ming Dynasty ( or Empire of the Great Ming ( was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol -led The naval battle of Lake Poyang (鄱陽湖之戰 took place 30 August - 4 October 1363 and was one of the final battles fought in the fall of The title of "largest Naval battle in history" may be conferred according to criteria which might include the numbers of personnel and/or vessels involved in the battle In the 15th century, the Chinese Ming Dynasty Admiral Zheng He was assigned to assemble a massive fleet for several tributary missions abroad, sailing throughout the waters of the South East Pacific and the Indian Ocean. Zheng He ( Birth name 馬三寶 / 马三宝; Arabic / Persian name حجّي محمود شمس Hajji Mahmud Shams) (1371&ndash1433 was a Hui The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth 's Oceanic divisions During his maritime missions, on several occasions Zheng's fleet came into conflict with pirates. Piracy is Robbery committed at sea or sometimes on shore without a commission from a sovereign Nation (as distinct from Privateering Zheng's fleet also became involved in a conflict in Sri Lanka, where the King of Ceylon traveled back to Ming China afterwards to make a formal apology to the Emperor.

A turtle ship (pre-industrial armoured ship) at the War Memorial in Seoul

In the late 16th century, Toyotomi Hideyoshi of Momoyama-era Japan gathered an enormous fleet to assault the Joseon Dynasty of Korea when the Korean King Seonjo refused to allow Japanese armies to invade Ming Dynasty China via the Korean Peninsula as a staging ground. Armoured warships were wooden Ships or ships of composite construction (wooden planking on iron frames Armoured with thick Metal plates Opened in 1994 the largely museum-like War Memorial of Korea in Yongsan-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, South Korea offers visitors an educational The came at the end of the Warring States Period in Japan, when the political unification that preceded the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate took place King Seonjo ruled in Korea between 1567 and 1608. He was the fourteenth king of the Joseon Dynasty. During the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592-1598), the Japanese employed clever close-range tactics on land with arquebus rifles, but also relied upon close-range firing of muskets in grapple-and-board style naval engagements. Two Japanese invasions of Korea and subsequent battles on the Korean peninsula took place during the years 1592-1598 The Arquebus (sometimes spelled harquebus, harkbus or hackbut; from Dutch haakbus, meaning "hook gun" is The Japanese were successful in first capturing the Korean port at Busan, the capital at Hanseong (In modern-day Seoul) fell to their forces, and then proceeded to move far north into the Korean peninsula. Seoul ( soʊl is the Capital and largest City of South Korea. Seoul ( soʊl is the Capital and largest City of South Korea. Military aid sent by Chinese Wanli Emperor of Ming assisted the Koreans somewhat, but the farther firing range of Korean cannons, along with the brilliant naval strategies of the Korean Admiral Yi Sun-sin, were the main detrimental factors in ultimate Japanese defeats. Wanli Emperor ( September 4, 1563 - August 18, 1620) was Emperor of China ( Ming dynasty) between 1572 and 1620 Yi Sun-sin (April 28 1545 – December 16 1598 also commonly transliterated Yi Soon-shin or Lee Sun-shin, Korean:이순신 was a Korean Admiral Yi is credited Turtle ship (Geobukseon). Construction According to the Nanjung Ilgi, Yi's wartime diary Yi decided to resurrect the turtle ship in 1591 from pre-existing designs after discussing Turtle Ships were used mostly to spearhead attacks. They were best used in tight areas and around islands rather than the open sea. Admiral Yi effectively cut off the possible Japanese supply line that would have run through the Yellow Sea to China, as well as severely weakened the Japanese strength and fighting morale in several heated engagements (where many regard the most critical Japanese defeat to be the Battle of Hansan Island). The Yellow Sea is the name given to the northern part of the East China Sea, which is a Marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean. The naval Battle of Hansan Island, also known as the Battle of Hansan-do, took place on August 14 1592 near the Korean island of Hansan, and

Sails and empires

Main article: Age of sail

The early 17th century galleon Vasa. on display at the Vasa Museum in Stockholm. The Age of Sail was the period in which International trade and Naval warfare were dominated by Sailing Ships lasting from the 16th to the mid A galleon was a large multi-decked Sailing ship used primarily by the nations of Europe from the 16th to 18th centuries History During the 17th century Sweden went from being a small poor and peripheral northern European kingdom of little influence to one of the major players in continental politics Vasa Museum interior1jpg|thumb|200px|right|The main hall of the museum with a model of Vasa to the left and the ship itself to the right Vasa, with its high stern castle and double battery decks, was a transitional design between the preferences for boarding tactics and the line of battle. Boarding, in its simplest sense refers to the insertion onto a ship's deck of people In Naval warfare, the line of battle is a tactic in which the ships of the fleet form a line end-to-end

The late Middle Ages was important as the time of the development of the cogs, caravels and carracks ships capable of surviving the tough conditions of the open ocean, with enough backup systems and crew expertise to make long voyages routine. Cogs (or cog-built vessels are ships that first appeared in the 10th century, and were widely used from around the 12th century on This article is about the Caravel boat type For the carvel type of boat building see Carvel (boat building. A carrack or nau was a three- or four- masted Sailing ship developed in the Atlantic Ocean in the 15th century by the Portuguese In addition, they grew from 100 tons to 300 tons displacement, enough to carry cannons as armament and still have space left over for profitable cargo. One of the largest ships of the time, the Great Harry displaced over 1,500 tons. For other meanings of "Grace-Dieu" see Grace Dieu (disambiguation.

The voyages of discovery were fundamentally commercial rather than military in nature, although the line was sometimes blurry in that a country's ruler was not above funding exploration for personal profit, nor was it a problem to use military power to enhance that profit. Later the lines gradually separated, in that the ruler's motivation in using the navy was to protect private enterprise so that they could pay more taxes.

Like the Egyptian Shia-Fatimids and Mamluks, the Sunni-Islamic Ottoman Empire centered in modern-day Turkey dominated the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Sunni Islam is the largest denomination of Islam. Sunni Islam is also referred to as Ahl as-Sunnah wa’l-Jamā‘h (Arabic The Ottoman Empire (1299–1923 ( Old Ottoman Turkish: دولتْ علیّه عثمانیّه Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye, Late Ottoman and Modern Turkish Turkey (Türkiye known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( is a Eurasian Country that stretches The Ottomans built a powerful navy, rivaling the Italian city-state of Venice during the Ottoman-Venetian Wars (1499-1503). Venice ( Italian: Venezia, Venetian: Venesia or Venexia) is a city in Northern Italy, the capital of the The Turkish–Venetian War of 1499–1503 refers to the naval battles between the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Venice for the control of lands that were contested Although they were sorely defeated in the Battle of Lepanto (1571) by the Holy League, the Ottomans quickly rebuilt their naval strength, and afterwards successfully defended the island of Cyprus so that it would stay in Ottoman hands. The Battle of Lepanto ( Greek: Ναύπακτος Naupaktos, pron The Holy League of 1571 was arranged by Pope Pius V and included almost all the major Catholic maritime states in the Mediterranean. Cyprus (Κύπρος transliterated: Kýpros,; Kıbrıs officially the Republic of Cyprus (Κυπριακή Δημοκρατία Kypriakī́ Dīmokratía However, with the concurrent Age of Discovery, Europe had far surpassed the Ottoman Empire, and successfully bypassed their reliance on land-trade by discovering maritime routes around Africa and towards the Americas. The Age of Discovery or Age of Exploration was a period from the early 15th century and continuing into the early 17th century during which Europeans explored

The first naval action in defense of the new colonies was just ten years after Vasco da Gama's epochal landing in India. Dom Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira ('vaʃku dɐ 'gɐmɐ ( Sines or Vidigueira, Alentejo, Portugal, ca India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country In March 1508, a combined Gujarati/Egyptian force surprised a Portuguese squadron at Dabul, and only two Portuguese ships escaped. Gujarat (ગુજરાત Gujǎrāt, pronounced) is a state in western India. This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics. Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic (República Portuguesa is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. The following February, the Portuguese viceroy destroyed the allied fleet at Diu, thus confirming Portuguese domination of the Indian Ocean. WikipediaWikiProject Indian cities for details --> Diu is a city in Diu district in the union territory of Daman and Diu, India. The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's Oceanic divisions covering about 20% of the water on the Earth 's surface

In 1582, the Battle of Punta Delgada in the Azores, in which a Spanish fleet defeated a combined Portuguese, French, English and Dutch force, thus suppressing a revolt in the islands, was the first battle fought in mid-Atlantic. The naval Battle of Ponta Delgada, also called the Battle of Terceira, took place on July 26 1582, in the sea of the Azores near Terceira Island The Azores ( Açores ɐˈsoɾɨʃ or) is a Portuguese Archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, about 1500 km (950  mi) from Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic (República Portuguesa is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands

In 1588, Philip II of Spain sent his Spanish Armada to subdue Elizabeth I of England, but Admiral Sir Charles Howard forced its retreat, beginning the rise to prominence of the Royal Navy. Philip II (Felipe II de España Filipe I ( May 21, 1527 &ndash September 13 1598) was King of Spain from 1556 until 1598 The Spanish Armada ( Spanish: Grande y Felicísima Armada, "Great and Most Fortunate Navy" or Armada Invencible, "Invincible Charles Howard may refer to Earls Charles Howard 1st Earl of Nottingham (1536&ndash1624 English statesman and admiral Charles The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of the British armed services (and is therefore known as the Senior Service) However it was unable to follow up with a decisive blow against the Spanish navy, which remained the most important for another half century. After the war's end in 1604 the English fleet went through a time of relative neglect and decline.

From the middle of the 17th century competition between the expanding English and Dutch commercial fleets came to a head in the Anglo-Dutch Wars, the first wars to be conducted entirely at sea. The Anglo-Dutch Wars ( Dutch: Engels-Nederlandse Oorlogen or Engelse Zeeoorlogen) were fought in the 17th and 18th centuries between England Most memorable of these battles was the raid on the Medway, in which the Dutch admiral Michiel de Ruyter sailed up the river Thames, and destroyed most of the British fleet. The Raid on the Medway, sometimes called the Battle of Medway or the Battle of Chatham, was a successful Dutch attack on the largest English Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks of the highest Naval officers Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter ( 24 March 1607 – 29 April 1676) is one of the most famous Admirals in Dutch history The Thames ( is a major River flowing through southern England. This remains to date the greatest naval defeat of England and her consecutive countries, and established Dutch supremacy at sea for over half a century. The English and Dutch wars were also known for very few ships being sunk, as it was very difficult to hit ships below the water level; the water surface deflected cannon balls, and the few holes produced could be patched quickly. Naval forces were severely weakened by casualties to the men and damage to the sails more than by loss of ships.

The 18th century developed into a period of seemingly continuous world wars, each larger than the last. At sea the British and French were bitter rivals; the French aided the fledgling United States in the American Revolutionary War, but their strategic purpose was to capture territory in India and the West Indies. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the In this article the inhabitants of the thirteen colonies that supported the American Revolution are primarily referred to as "Americans" with occasional references to "Patriots" India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country The Caribbean (ˌkærəˡbiən kæ'rəbiən Cariben|Caraïben or Caraïben; Caraïbe or more commonly Antilles; Caribe is a Region consisting In the Baltic Sea, the final attempt to revive the Swedish Empire led to Gustav III's Russian War, with its grande finale at the Second Battle of Svensksund. The Russo-Swedish War of 1788–90, known as Gustav III's Russian War in Sweden, Gustav III's War in Finland and Catherine II's Swedish The Second Battle of Svensksund ( fi: Ruotsinsalmi ru: Rochensalm was a naval engagement fought in the Gulf of Finland outside the present The battle was unrivalled in size until the 20th century, was a decisive Swedish tactical victory but its strategical result was poor (due to poor army performance and previous lack of initiative from the Swedes) and the war ended without any territorial changes.

The 1805 Battle of Trafalgar, depicted here in its opening phase, was the climactic battle of the Age of Sail. The Battle of Trafalgar ( 21 October 1805) was a historic sea battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the

Even the change of government due to the French Revolution seemed to intensify rather than diminish the rivalry, and the Napoleonic Wars included a series of legendary naval battles, culminating in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, by which Admiral Horatio Nelson broke the power of the French and Spanish fleets, but lost his own life in so doing. The French Revolution (1789–1799 was a period of political and social upheaval in the History of France, during which the French governmental structure previously an The Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815 involved Napoleon's French Empire and a shifting set of European allies and opposing coalitions The Battle of Trafalgar ( 21 October 1805) was a historic sea battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson 1st Viscount Nelson 1st Duke of Bronté, KB (29 September 1758– 21 October 1805 was a British

From wood and wind to steel and steam

Trafalgar ushered in the Pax Britannica of the 19th century, marked by general peace in the world's oceans, under the ensigns of the Royal Navy. Pax Britannica ( Latin for "the British Peace" modelled after Pax Romana) was the period of relative peace in Europe But the period was one of intensive experimentation with new technology; steam power for ships appeared in the 1810s, improved metallurgy and machining technique produced larger and deadlier guns, and the development of explosive shells, capable of demolishing a wooden ship at a single blow, in turn required the addition of iron armour. A steam engine is a Heat engine that performs Mechanical work using Steam as its Working fluid. Metallurgy is a domain of Materials science that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their intermetallic compounds, and their A shell is a payload-carrying Projectile, which as opposed to shot, contains an explosive or other filling though modern usage includes large solid projectiles

Although Chinese naval power during the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties established China as a major world seapower in the East, the Qing Dynasty lacked an official standing navy like earlier dynasties. Not to be confused with Qin Dynasty, the first dynasty of Imperial China They were more interested in pouring funds into military ventures closer to home (China proper), such as Mongolia, Tibet, and Central Asia (modern Xinjiang). Xinjiang ( Uyghur: شىنجاڭ Shinjang;; Postal map spelling: Sinkiang; Turkish: Sincan, Sincan Uygur Özerk However, there were some considerable naval conflicts during the Qing Dynasty before the Opium Wars (such as the Battle of Penghu, or the conflict against Koxinga). The Opium Wars ( also known as the Anglo-Chinese Wars, lasted from 1839 to 1842 and 1856 to 1860 the climax of a trade dispute between China under the Qing The Battle of Penghu ( of 1683 is where the admiral Shi Lang of Qing attacked the fleet of Kingdom of Tungning in Penghu. Koxinga ( Pe̍h-oē-jī: Kok-sèng-iâ/Kok-sìⁿ-iâ Lord with the Imperial Surname) is the traditional Western spelling of the popular appellation of The insignificant naval effort that the Manchus/Chinese pitted against the more advanced British steam-powered ships during the first of the Opium Wars in the 1840s was sorely defeated. The Manchu people ( Manchu: Manju;, Mongolian: Манж Russian: Маньчжуры are a Tungusic people who originated in This left China open to virtual foreign domination (from European powers and then Japan) via spheres of influence over regions of China for economic gain. Although the Qing Dynasty attempted to modernize the Chinese navy, China's Beiyang Fleet was dealt a severe blow by the Imperial Japanese Navy in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895). The Beiyang Fleet ( was one of the four modernised Chinese navies in the late Qing Dynasty. For Combined Fleet, please see that article For Carrier Striking Task Force, please see that article The First Sino-Japanese War ( 日清戦争 Romaji: Nisshin Sensō ( 1 August 1894 – 17 April 1895) was a war fought between

The famous battle of the CSS Virginia and USS Monitor in the American Civil War was the duel of ironclads that symbolized the changing times. USS Merrimack becomes CSS Virginia When the Commonwealth of Virginia seceded from the Union in 1861 one of the important federal military bases threatened Design Monitor was one of three ironclad warships ordered by the U Causes of the war See also Origins of the American Civil War, Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War The coexistence of a slave-owning South An ironclad was a steam-propelled Warship of the later 19th century protected by Iron or Steel armor plates The first fleet action between ironclad ships was fought in 1866 at the Battle of Lissa between the navies of Austria and Italy. The Battle of Lissa took place on 20 July 1866 in the Adriatic Sea near the island of Vis ( Italian: Lissa and was Austria (Österreich ( officially the Republic of Austria (Republik Österreich Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Because the decisive moment of the battle occurred when the Austrian flagship the Erzherzog Ferdinand Max successfully sank the Italian flagship Re d'Italia by ramming, in subsequent decades every navy in the world largely focused on ramming as the main tactic.

As the century came to a close, the familiar modern battleship began to emerge; a steel-armored ship, entirely dependent on steam, and sporting a number of large shell guns mounted in turrets arranged along the centerline of the main deck. A battleship is a large heavily armored Warship with a main battery consisting of the largest Calibre of Guns Battleships were The ultimate design was reached in 1906 with the HMS Dreadnought (1906) which entirely dispensed with smaller guns, her main guns being sufficient to sink any existing ship of the time. Genesis Battleships of the era typically carried four large guns mounted fore and aft in twin turrets with a number of smaller-calibre guns ranged along the sides of the

The Russo-Japanese War and particularly the Battle of Tsushima in 1905 was the first test of the new concepts, resulting a stunning Japanese victory and the destruction of dozens of Russian ships. The Russo-Japanese War (日露戦争 Romaji: Nichi-Ro Sensō Русско-японская война Russko-Yaponskaya Voyna;, 10 February 1904 – 5 September The Battle of Tsushima ( Japanese: 対馬海戦 tsushima-kaisen, Цусимское сражение Tsusimskoye srazheniye) commonly known as the

With the advent of the steamship, it became possible to create massive gun platforms and to provide them with very serious armor protection. The Dreadnought battleships and their successors were the first heavy capital ships that combined technology and firepower into a mobile weapons platform. However, in the first half of the 20th century, naval strategists and planners failed to take into account the effect of airpower on the effectiveness and usability of large capital ships, such as battleships.

World War I pitted the old Royal Navy against the new navy of Imperial Germany, culminating in the 1916 Battle of Jutland. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. fix various bugs per WikipediaHow to fix bunched-up edit links --> (The future was heralded when seaplane carrier HMS Campania missed the battle. )

Between wars, the first aircraft carrier, HMS Argus, appeared. An aircraft carrier is a Warship designed with Many nations agreed to the Washington Naval Treaty and scrapped many of their battleships and cruisers while still in the shipyards, but the growing tensions of the 1930s restarted the building programs, with even larger ships than before; Yamato, the largest battleship ever, displaced 72,000 tons, and mounted 18. The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, limited the naval armaments of its five signatories the United States of America, the Construction The Yamato class was built after the Japanese withdrew from the Washington Naval Treaty at the Second London Conference of 1936 1-inch (460 mm) guns.

Above and below the surface

The victory of the Royal Navy at the Battle of Taranto was a pivotal point as this was the first true demonstration of naval air power. The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of the British armed services (and is therefore known as the Senior Service) The naval Battle of Taranto took place on the night of 11 November 1940 &ndash 12 November 1940 during World War II Following 7 December 1941 when the United States came into World War II, the sinking of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse marked the end of the era of the battleship, and the new importance of aircraft and their transportation, the aircraft carrier, came to the fore. Events 43 BC - Marcus Tullius Cicero assassinated 1696 - Connecticut Route 108, one of the oldest highways Year 1941 ( MCMXLI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (the link will display 1941 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including An aircraft carrier is a Warship designed with During the Pacific War, battleships and cruisers spent most of their time bombarding shore positions, while the carriers were the stars of the key Battle of the Coral Sea, Battle of Midway, Battle of the Philippine Sea, and the climactic Battle of Leyte Gulf, which was the largest naval battle in history. The Pacific War was the part of World War II —and preceding conflicts—that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands and in East Asia, between The Battle of the Coral Sea, fought from May 4 – May 8, 1942, with most of the action occurring on May 7 and May 8, was The Battle of Midway was a major Naval battle, widely regarded as the most important one of the Pacific Campaign of World War II. The Battle of the Philippine Sea (aka "The Marianas Turkey Shoot" was a decisive naval battle of World War II, and the largest aircraft carrier battle in history The Battle of Leyte Gulf, also called the "Battle for Leyte Gulf" the "Battles for Leyte Gulf" and formerly as the "Second Battle of the Philippine Air power remained key to navies throughout the 20th century, moving to jets launched from ever-larger carriers, and augmented by cruisers armed with guided missiles and cruise missiles. Guided Missile is a London based Independent record label set up by Paul Kearney in 1994. A cruise missile is a guided Missile that carries an explosive payload and uses a lifting wing and a propulsion system usually a Jet engine, to allow

Roughly parallel to the development of naval aviation was the development of submarines to travel underneath the sea, at first for short dives, then later to be able to spend weeks or months underwater powered by a nuclear reactor. A submarine is a Watercraft that can operate independently below water as distinct from a Submersible that has only limited underwater capability This article is a subarticle of Nuclear power. A nuclear reactor is a device in which Nuclear chain reactions are initiated controlled In both World Wars, submarines (U-boats in Germany) primarily exerted their power by sinking merchant ships using torpedoes, as well as other warships. U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word, itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot ( undersea boat) and refers The modern torpedo (historically called an automotive automobile locomotive or fish torpedo is a self-propelled explosive Projectile weapon launched above or below In the 1950s the Cold War inspired the development of ballistic missile submarines, each one loaded with dozens of nuclear-armed missiles and with orders to launch them from sea should the other nation attack. Cold War is the state of conflict tension and competition that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR and their respective allies from the A ballistic missile is a Missile that follows a Sub-orbital ballistic flightpath with the objective of delivering a warhead to a predetermined target

Against the backdrop of these developments, World War II had seen the United States become by far the largest Naval power in the world with over 70% of the world's total numbers and total tonnage of naval vessels of 1000 tons or greater. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the ^[3] Throughout the rest of the 20th century The United States Navy would maintain a tonnage greater than that of the next 17 largest navies combined. ^[4]

Three major naval conflicts took place in the second half of the 20th century, of which two pitted fleet against fleet. One was the well known Falklands War, pitting Argentina against the United Kingdom. The Falklands War (Guerra de las Malvinas/Guerra del Atlántico Sur also called the Falklands Conflict/Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Argentina topics. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The other took place 11 years earlier in 1971. It was the third and last of the Indo-Pakistani Wars, in which Bangladesh gained independence from Pakistan with Indian assistance. ( Bengali: বাংলাদেশ inc-Latn Bangladesh) officially Pakistan () officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia, Southwest Asia, Middle East and The Falklands in particular showed the vulnerability of modern ships to sea-skimming missiles like the Exocet. The Exocet is a French -built Anti-ship missile whose various versions can be launched from surface vessels submarines and airplanes One hit from an Exocet sank HMS Sheffield, a modern anti-air warfare destroyer. The sinking of HMS Sheffield British version At approximately 10 A Important lessons about ship design, damage control and ship construction materials were learnt from the conflict. The third major naval war took place between Iran and Iraq from 1980 to 1988. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iran topics. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iraq topics. Although no fleet battles took place, attacks on commercial shipping occurred for the first time since World War II as both sides attempted to deter international trade to their opponents. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The largest surface action since the Second World War also took place during this conflict, when U. S. ships attacked Iranian oil rigs in retaliation for damage done by the latter country's mining of the Persian Gulf. Operation Praying Mantis was an April 18, 1988 attack by US naval forces in retaliation for the Iranian mining of the Persian At the present time, large naval wars seem to be very rare affairs, with the main function of the modern navy being to exploit its control of the seaways to project power ashore. Power projection has been the primary naval feature of conflicts like the Korean War, Suez Crisis, Vietnam War, Konfrontasi, Gulf War, Kosovo War and both campaigns of the War on Terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Korean War refers to a period of military conflict between North Korean and South Korean regimes with major hostilities lasting from June 25 1950 until the The Suez Crisis, also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression, (أزمة السويس - العدوان الثلاثي Crise du canal de Suez מבצע קדש Kadesh The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, or the Vietnam Conflict, occurred in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia The term Kosovo War or Kosovo Conflict is often used to describe two sequential and at times parallel armed conflicts in Kosovo: 1996–1999 The War on Terrorism (also known as the War on Terror) is the common term for the military political and legal, and ideological conflict and specifically for U Afghanistan /æfˈgænɪstæn/ officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan ( Pashto: د افغانستان اسلامي جمهوریت, For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iraq topics.

See also

Notes

References

• Shen, Fuwei (1996). Cultural Flow Between China and the Outside World. China Books & Periodicals. ISBN-13: 978-7119004310
• Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Part 3. Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd.

External links

• Naval battles
• Spanish Naval History
• Naval-History.Net, Naval History of the 20th Century, World Wars 1, 2, post-war and Falklands War - navies, ships, ship losses, casualties