Brown-water navy
The term brown-water navy or riverine warfare refers in its broadest sense to any naval force capable of military operations in river or littoral environments those carrying heavy sediment loads from soil runoff or flooding. It originated in the United States Navy during the American Civil War, when it referred to Union forces patrolling the muddy Mississippi River, has since been used to describe the small gunboats and patrol boats used in rivers, along with the larger "mother ships" that supported them; these mother ships include converted LSTs, among other vessels. Brown-water navies are contrasted with seaworthy blue-water navies, which can independently conduct operations in open ocean. Green-water navies are the bridge between blue-water navies. After losing its blue-water fleet in the Battle of Copenhagen, the kingdom of Denmark-Norway built a brown-water navy; the partial successes of the resulting Gunboat War were undone by land invasion. The term brown-water navy originated in the American Civil War, of 1861–1865.
As a blueprint for the "strangulation" of the Confederate States of America, Winfield Scott's Anaconda Plan called for a two-pronged approach by first blocking the South's harbors and pushing along the Mississippi River cutting the Confederate territory in two while robbing the South of its main artery of transport. The U. S. Navy was assigned the blockade of the seaports, while a new force of gunboats and river ironclads, together with regular army units, would take, or at least lay siege to, the Confederate forts and cities along the Mississippi. In the early days of the war, U. S. Army built and crewed these boats, with the naval officers commanding them being the only direct connection to the U. S. Navy. By the autumn of 1862, the boats and their mission were transferred to the Department of the Navy; because of the river's murky brown water, the ships that participated in these Mississippi campaigns were referred to as the brown-water navy, as opposed to the regular U. S. Navy. After the end of the American civil war the next major military conflict in the world was the Paraguayan War.
In this the Brazilian brown-water navy, which comprised large ironclads as well as river monitors, had a crucial role. The natural highway to the Republic of Paraguay was the River Paraguay but this route was blocked by the formidable Fortress of Humaitá, it comprised a 6,000-foot line of artillery batteries overlooking a sharp concave bend in the river, at a point where the channel was only 200 yards wide. A chain boom could be raised to block the navigation; the fortress was exceedingly hard to take from the landward side for it was protected by impassible swamp, marsh or lagoons and, where not, by 8 miles of trenches with a garrison of 18,000 men. The river was shallow and capable of trapping large vessels if the water level should fall. In that environment the greatest threat to shipping was "torpedoes". Six vessels of the Brazilian ironclad squadron succeeded in dashing past Humaitá in an incident known as the Passage of Humaitá, an event considered as nearly impossible. Although it could not operate far beyond its military forward base Brazilian domination of the river meant that Paraguay could no longer resupply the fortress, it was starved out and captured by the land forces in the Siege of Humaitá.
After Humaitá was captured − which took more than two years – the Paraguayans improvised further strongpoints along the river, further delaying the Allies. Save for an occasional river patrol boat, the United States' river ironclad navy was all but abolished at the end of the American Civil War, yet the concept of a river defense force lived on in countries and regions where rivers enabled the U. S. to project its military presence. U. S. river boats of the Asiatic Fleet operated in portions of Chinese rivers, sometimes referred to as the "Asiatic Navy" or "China Navy", during the turbulent 1920s, patrolling for insurgents and river pirates. Two of the most notable China gunboats were USS Panay, sunk in 1937 by Japanese military aircraft prior to World War II, USS Wake, captured by the Japanese in December 1941; the U. S. Navy of that era used the term for protecting U. S. foreign policy and its citizens abroad "gunboat diplomacy". The U. S. Navy, China gunboat, USS Asheville, was sunk by the Japanese in March 1942.
During the First Indochina War, the French Navy created the Dinassaut, in 1947, to operate in the waters of the Mekong and Red rivers, conducting search and destroy missions, against communist guerillas and river pirates. They succeeded the river flotillas created by the request of General Leclerc; the Dinassaut served until the end of the conflict in 1955, its concept would be latter adopted by the United States Navy in the Vietnam War. Ten Dinassauts were created, with five based in the others in Tonkin; each one was made of one Commandos Marine unit. The types of vessels operated by a Dinassaut included LCI, LCT, LCM, LCVP, LCS, LCA, LSSL and fire support vessels; the role of the Dinassaut was to transport and support the infantry, to patrol the watercourses and to assure the supply of the isolated posts. The sailors that served in the Dinassaut were referred as the "Navy in Khaki", in comparison with the sailors that served in the ocean that were referred as the "Navy in White". In Portuguese service, the
Green-water navy
Green-water navy is terminology created to describe a naval force, designed to operate in its nation's littoral zones and has the competency to operate in the open oceans of its surrounding region. It is a new term, has been created to better distinguish, add nuance, between two long-standing descriptors: blue-water navy and brown-water navy, it is a non-doctrinal naval term used in different ways. It originates with the United States Navy, who use it to refer to the portion of their fleet that specializes in offensive operations in coastal waters. Nowadays such ships rely on stealth or speed to avoid destruction by shore batteries or land-based aircraft; the US Navy has used the term to refer to the first phase of the expansion of China's navy into a full blue-water navy. Subsequently, other authors have applied it to other national navies that can project power locally, but cannot sustain operations at range without the help of other countries; such navies have amphibious ships and sometimes small aircraft carriers, which can be escorted by destroyers and frigates with some logistical support from tankers and other auxiliaries.
The elements of maritime geography are loosely defined and their meanings have changed throughout history. The US's 2010 Naval Operations Concept defines blue water as "the open ocean", green water as "coastal waters and harbors", brown water as "navigable rivers and their estuaries". Robert Rubel of the US Naval War College includes bays in his definition of brown water, in the past US military commentators have extended brown water out to 100 nautical miles from shore. During the Cold War, green water denoted those areas of ocean in which naval forces might encounter land-based aircraft; the development of long-range bombers with anti-ship missiles turned most of the oceans to "green" and the term all but disappeared. After the Cold War, US amphibious task forces were sometimes referred to as the green-water navy, in contrast to the blue-water carrier battle groups; this distinction disappeared as increasing threats in coastal waters forced the amphibious ships further offshore, delivering assaults by helicopter and tiltrotor from over the horizon.
This prompted the development of ships designed to operate in such waters – the Zumwalt-class destroyer and the littoral combat ships. Rubel has proposed redefining green water as those areas of ocean which are too dangerous for high-value units, requiring offensive power to be dispersed into smaller vessels such as submarines that can use stealth and other characteristics to survive. Under his scheme, brown water would be zones in which ocean-going units could not operate at all, including rivers, minefields and other choke points; as the preeminent blue-water navy of the early 21st century, the US Navy is able to define maritime geography in terms of offensive action in the home waters of its enemies, without being constrained by logistics. This is not true for most other navies, whose supply chains and air cover limit them to power projection within a few hundred kilometres of home territory. A number of countries are working on overcoming these constraints. Other authors have started to apply the term "green-water navy" to any national navy that has ocean-going ships but lacks the logistical support needed for a blue-water navy.
It's not clear what they mean, as the term is used without consistency or precision. A green-water navy does not mean that the individual ships of the fleet are unable to function away from the coast or in open ocean, instead it suggests that due to logistical reasons they are unable to be deployed for lengthy periods, must have aid from other countries to sustain long term deployments; the term "green-water navy" is subjective as numerous countries that do not have a true green-water navy maintain naval forces that are on par with countries that are recognized as having green-water navies. For example, the German Navy has near the same capability as the Canadian Navy but is not recognized as a true green-water navy. Another example is the Portuguese Navy that, despite being classified as a minor navy, has several times conducted sustained operations in faraway regions typical of the green-water navies. However, the differences between blue-water navies and brown or green-water navies is quite noticeable, for example the US Navy was able to respond to the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 and continue operations in the region with relative ease though the search area covered the Indian Ocean.
On the contrary, in 2005 the green-water navy such the Russian Navy was unable to properly respond when its AS-28 rescue vehicle became tangled in undersea cables unable to surface, relying on the blue-water Royal Navy to respond and carry out the rescue in time. Just as nations build up naval capability some lose it, for example the Austro-Hungarian Navy was a modern green water navy of the time, however as the countries lost their coasts during World War I their navies were confiscated and their ports became parts of Italy and Yugoslavia; the Axis powers lost naval capabilities after their defeat in World War II with most of Japan's Imperial Navy and Germany's Navy being disarmed and their troop and ship numbers capped and monitored by the allies. The collapse of the USSR brought with it the collapse of the second largest naval force in the world, the largest submarine force in the world. Although the Russian Federation made sure to inherit the most capable ships, passing most older models to successor states, as it had lost the logistical capabilities of the Soviet Navy, it was no longer able to operate away from Russian shores for extende
Modern history
Modern history, the modern period or the modern era, is the linear, historiographical approach to the time frame after post-classical history. Modern history can be further broken down into periods: The early modern period began in the early 16th century; the late modern period began in the mid-18th century. It took all of human history up to 1804 for the world's population to reach 1 billion. Contemporary history is the span of historic events from 1945 that are relevant to the present time; this article covers the 1800–1950 time period with a brief summary of 1500–1800. For a more in depth article on modern times before 1800, see Early Modern period. In the pre-modern era, many people's sense of self and purpose was expressed via a faith in some form of deity, be it that in a single God or in many gods. Pre-modern cultures have not been thought of creating a sense of distinct individuality, though. Religious officials, who held positions of power, were the spiritual intermediaries to the common person.
It was only through these intermediaries. Tradition was sacred to ancient cultures and was unchanging and the social order of ceremony and morals in a culture could be enforced; the term modern was coined in the 16th century to indicate recent times. The European Renaissance, which marked the transition between the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern times, started in Italy and was spurred in part by the rediscovery of classical art and literature, as well as the new perspectives gained from the Age of Discovery and the invention of the telescope and microscope, expanding the borders of thought and knowledge. In contrast to the pre-modern era, Western civilization made a gradual transition from pre-modernity to modernity when scientific methods were developed which led many to believe that the use of science would lead to all knowledge, thus throwing back the shroud of myth under which pre-modern peoples lived. New information about the world was discovered via empirical observation, versus the historic use of reason and innate knowledge.
The term Early Modern was introduced in the English language in the 1930s to distinguish the time between what has been called the Middle Ages and time of the late Enlightenment. It is important to note. In usage in other parts of the world, such as in Asia, in Muslim countries, the terms are applied in a different way, but in the context with their contact with European culture in the Age of Discovery. In the Contemporary era, there were various socio-technological trends. Regarding the 21st century and the late modern world, the Information Age and computers were forefront in use, not ubiquitous but present in everyday life; the development of Eastern powers was with China and India becoming more powerful. In the Eurasian theater, the European Union and Russian Federation were two forces developed. A concern for Western world, if not the whole world, was the late modern form of terrorism and the warfare that has resulted from the contemporary terrorist acts; the modern period has been a period of significant development in the fields of science, politics and technology.
It has been an age of discovery and globalization. During this time, the European powers and their colonies, began a political and cultural colonization of the rest of the world. By the late 19th and 20th centuries, modernist art, politics and culture has come to dominate not only Western Europe and North America, but every civilized area on the globe, including movements thought of as opposed to the west and globalization; the modern era is associated with the development of individualism, urbanization and a belief in the possibilities of technological and political progress. Wars and other perceived problems of this era, many of which come from the effects of rapid change, the connected loss of strength of traditional religious and ethical norms, have led to many reactions against modern development. Optimism and belief in constant progress has been most criticized by postmodernism while the dominance of Western Europe and Anglo-America over other continents has been criticized by postcolonial theory.
One common conception of modernity is the condition of Western history since the mid-15th century, or the European development of movable type and the printing press. In this context the "modern" society is said to develop over many periods, to be influenced by important events that represent breaks in the continuity; the modern era includes the early period, called the early modern period, which lasted from c. 1500 to around c. 1800. Particular facets of early modernity include: The Renaissance in Italy The Reformation and Counter Reformation The Age of Discovery The Columbian Exchange and Colonization of the Americas The rise of mercantilism and capitalism The Golden Age of PiracyImportant events in the early modern period include: The spread of the printing press The Thirty Years' War and the Peace of Westphalia in Europe The English Civil War, the Glorious Revolution, the union
Amphibious assault ship
An amphibious assault ship is a type of amphibious warfare ship employed to land and support ground forces on enemy territory by an amphibious assault. The design evolved from aircraft carriers converted for use as helicopter carriers. Modern ships support amphibious landing craft, with most designs including a well deck. Coming full circle, some amphibious assault ships support V/STOL fixed-wing aircraft, now having a secondary role as aircraft carriers; the role of the amphibious assault ship is fundamentally different from that of a standard aircraft carrier: its aviation facilities have the primary role of hosting helicopters to support forces ashore rather than to support strike aircraft. However, some are capable of serving in the sea-control role, embarking aircraft like Harrier fighters for combat air patrol and helicopters for anti-submarine warfare or operating as a safe base for large numbers of STOVL fighters conducting air support for an expeditionary unit ashore. Most of these ships can carry or support landing craft, such as air-cushioned landing craft or LCUs.
The largest fleet of these types is operated by the United States Navy, including the Wasp class dating back to 1989 and the similar America-class ships that debuted in 2014. Amphibious assault ships are operated by the French Navy, the Italian Navy, the Republic of Korea Navy, the Royal Australian Navy, the Brazilian Navy, the Spanish Navy; the term amphibious assault ship is used interchangeably with other ship classifications. It applies to all large-deck amphibious ships such as the Landing Platform Helicopter, Landing Helicopter Assault, Landing Helicopter Dock. In the Pacific theatre of World War II, escort carriers would escort the landing ships and troop carriers during the island-hopping campaign. In this role, they would provide air cover for the troopships as well as fly the first wave of attacks on the beach fortifications in amphibious landing operations. On occasion, they would escort the large carriers, serving as emergency airstrips and providing fighter cover for their larger sisters while these were busy readying or refuelling their own planes.
In addition, they would transport aircraft and spare parts from the US to the remote island airstrips. Despite all the progress, seen during World War II, there were still fundamental limitations in the types of coastline that were suitable for assault. Beaches had to be free of obstacles, have the right tidal conditions and the correct slope. However, the development of the helicopter fundamentally changed the equation; the first use of helicopters in an amphibious assault came during the invasion of Egypt during the Suez War in 1956. In this engagement, two British light fleet carriers and Theseus, were converted to perform a battalion-size airborne assault with helicopters; the techniques were developed further by American forces during the Vietnam War and refined during training exercises. The modern amphibious assault can take place at any point of the coast, making defending against them difficult. Most early amphibious assault ships were converted from small aircraft carriers; as well as the two Colossus-class light aircraft carriers converted for use in the Suez War, the Royal Navy converted the Centaur-class carriers Albion and Bulwark into "commando carriers" during the 1950s.
Their sister ship HMS Hermes was converted to a commando carrier in the early 1970s, but was restored to aircraft carrier operations before the end of the 1970s. The United States Navy used three Essex-class aircraft carriers. Amphibious assault craft were constructed for the role; the United States Navy constructed the Tarawa class of five Landing Helicopter Assault ships, which began to enter service from the late 1970s, the Wasp class of eight Landing Helicopter Dock ships, the first of, commissioned in 1989. The United States Navy is designing a new class of assault ships: the first America-class ship entered service in October 2014; the first British ship to be constructed for the amphibious assault role was HMS Ocean, commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1998. Other nations have built amphibious assault ships. Most modern amphibious assault ships have a well deck, allowing them to launch landing craft in rougher seas than a ship that has to use cranes or a stern ramp; the US Navy hull classification symbols differ among these vessels, depending on, among other things, their facilities for aircraft: a modern Landing Ship Dock has a helicopter deck, a Landing Platform Dock has a hangar, a Landing Helicopter Dock or Landing Helicopter Assault has a full-length flight deck with internal aviation facilities for both rotary and fixed wing craft below deck.
Due to their aircraft carrier heritage, all amphibious assault ships resemble aircraft carriers in design. The flight deck is used to operate attack and utility helicopters for landing troops and supplies and on some ship types launch and recover Harrier Jump Jets to provide air support to landing operations. STOL aircraft such as the OV-10 were sometimes deployed on and were able to perform short take-offs and landings on large-deck amphibiou
Submarine aircraft carrier
A submarine aircraft carrier is a submarine equipped with aircraft for observation or attack missions. These submarines saw their most extensive use during World War II, although their operational significance remained rather small; the most famous of them were the Japanese I-400-class submarines and the French submarine Surcouf, although small numbers of similar craft were built for other nations' navies as well. Most operational submarine aircraft carriers, with the exception of the I-400 and AM classes, used their aircraft for reconnaissance and observation; this is in contrast to the typical surface aircraft carrier, whose main function is serving as a base for offensive aircraft. Germany was the first nation to experiment with submarine aircraft carriers, initiated by the Imperial German Naval Air Service commander Oberleutnant zur See Friedrich von Arnauld de la Perière who commanded a unit of two Friedrichshafen FF.29 reconnaissance seaplanes in Zeebrugge. One of the first U-Boats to arrive at the Zeebrugge base was Kapitänleutnant Walther Forstmann's SM U-12, to play the role of a submarine aircraft carrier.
The unarmed FF-29 seaplanes were modified to carry 26 1⁄2-pound bombs. On 25 December 1915, one of the newly modified aircraft flew across the English Channel and up the River Thames, dropping bombs on the outskirts of London, although they caused only minor damage, it was returned to base safely. On this first bombing mission it was apparent. Encouraged by this success and Forstmann theorized that they could increase the range by carrying the aircraft off the British coast on the deck of submarine in a takeoff position launching an aircraft by submerging, allowing the seaplane to float off. On 15 January 1915, U-12 left Zeebrugge with a single bomb-armed FF-29 on its deck; the submarine left the harbor dwarfed by the 53 ft 2 in wingspan of the biplane, which stretched ⅓ of the 188 ft length of the small coastal patrol submarine. As soon as U-12 passed the safety of the breakwater however, heavy swells threatened to damage the aircraft and Forstmann ordered the immediate launch of the seaplane.
The sub's forward tanks were flooded and despite the pitching of the boat, the seaplane floated off the deck without much difficulty and took off. Arnauld intended to rendezvous with the sub, but decided against it. After gaining altitude, Arnauld left for the British coast which he flew along undetected before returning to Zeebrugge. Although the aircraft had been carried out to sea and had safely floated off the submarine's deck it was obvious improvements were needed in the procedure and setup. Arnauld and Forstmann proposed further experiments to the German Naval Command, but were vetoed as their project was considered impractical; the plans were reinvestigated in 1917 in the hope that they would increase the striking power of new German subs such as the long-range cruiser-type Unterseeboote, which were to be equipped with small scouting seaplanes that could be assembled and dismantled onboard and stored in special compartments on deck - but the idea was abandoned as the war came to an end.
Two of the aircraft designs created for that purpose were the biplane Hansa Brandenburg W.20 and low-wing monoplane Luftfahrzeug Gesellschaft L. F. G. Stralsund V.19. The first type was designed in 1917 for use aboard the Cruiser submarines that never went into service; the British experimented with the aircraft-carrying submarine concept when HMS E22 was fitted out in a manner similar to the German U-Boat but for the purpose of intercepting German airships as they crossed the North Sea. It was capable of launching two Sopwith Schneider floatplanes in 1916. However, just as in the German experiment, the aircraft were carried unprotected on the deck and the submarine was unable to submerge without losing them. Surcouf was a French submarine ordered in December 1927, launched 18 October 1929, commissioned May 1934. At 4,000 tons displacement submerged, Surcouf was the largest submarine in the world at the start of World War II, her short wartime career is laced with conspiracy theories. Surcouf was designed as an "underwater cruiser", intended to engage in surface combat.
For the first part of that mission, it carried an observation float plane in a hangar built into the after part of the conning tower. The guns were fed from a magazine holding 60 rounds and controlled by a director with a 16 ft 6 in rangefinder, mounted high enough to view a 7 mi horizon. In theory, the observation plane could direct fire out to the guns' 15 mi maximum range. Anti-aircraft cannons and machine guns were mounted on the top of the hangar; the Regia Marina ordered Ettore Fieramosca, a submarine with a waterproof hangar for a small reconnaissance seaplane in the late-1920s. In 1928 Macchi and Piaggio each received orders for suitable aircraft which resulted in the Macchi M.53 and the Piaggio P.8, but the program was cancelled, the submarine's hangar was removed in December 1931, before Ettore Fieramosca was delivered. The Japanese applied the concept of the "submarine aircraft carrier" extensively, starting with the J2 class I-6 and the J3 class of 1937–38. Altogether 42 submarines were built with the capability to carry floatplanes, one such vessel being I-8.
After the loss of the heavy gun-carrying HMS M1 and the Washington Naval Treaty which restricted the armament of vessels which were not capital ships, the remaining M-class submarines were converted to other uses. By 1927, HMS M2 had entered service wit
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 until 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender in World War II. The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force was formed after the dissolution of the IJN; the Imperial Japanese Navy was the third largest navy in the world by 1920, behind the Royal Navy and the United States Navy. It was supported by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service for aircraft and airstrike operation from the fleet, it was the primary opponent of the Western Allies in the Pacific War. The origins of the Imperial Japanese Navy go back to early interactions with nations on the Asian continent, beginning in the early medieval period and reaching a peak of activity during the 16th and 17th centuries at a time of cultural exchange with European powers during the Age of Discovery. After two centuries of stagnation during the country's ensuing seclusion policy under the shōgun of the Edo period, Japan's navy was comparatively backward when the country was forced open to trade by American intervention in 1854.
This led to the Meiji Restoration. Accompanying the re-ascendance of the Emperor came a period of frantic modernization and industrialization; the navy had several successes, sometimes against much more powerful enemies such as in the Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War, before being destroyed in World War II. Japan has a long history of naval interaction with the Asian continent, involving transportation of troops between Korea and Japan, starting at least with the beginning of the Kofun period in the 3rd century. Following the attempts at Mongol invasions of Japan by Kubilai Khan in 1274 and 1281, Japanese wakō became active in plundering the coast of China. Japan undertook major naval building efforts in the 16th century, during the Warring States period, when feudal rulers vying for supremacy built vast coastal navies of several hundred ships. Around that time Japan may have developed one of the first ironclad warships when Oda Nobunaga, a daimyō, had six iron-covered Oatakebune made in 1576.
In 1588 Toyotomi Hideyoshi issued a ban on Wakō piracy. Japan built her first large ocean-going warships in the beginning of the 17th century, following contacts with the Western nations during the Nanban trade period. In 1613, the daimyō of Sendai, in agreement with the Tokugawa Bakufu, built Date Maru, a 500-ton galleon-type ship that transported the Japanese embassy of Hasekura Tsunenaga to the Americas, which continued to Europe. From 1604 the Bakufu commissioned about 350 Red seal ships armed and incorporating some Western technologies for Southeast Asian trade. For more than 200 years, beginning in the 1640s, the Japanese policy of seclusion forbade contacts with the outside world and prohibited the construction of ocean-going ships on pain of death. Contacts were maintained, with the Dutch through the port of Nagasaki, the Chinese through Nagasaki and the Ryukyus and Korea through intermediaries with Tsushima; the study of Western sciences, called "rangaku" through the Dutch enclave of Dejima in Nagasaki led to the transfer of knowledge related to the Western technological and scientific revolution which allowed Japan to remain aware of naval sciences, such as cartography and mechanical sciences.
Seclusion, led to loss of any naval and maritime traditions the nation possessed. Apart from Dutch trade ships no other Western vessels were allowed to enter Japanese ports. A notable exception was during the Napoleonic wars. Frictions with foreign ships, started from the beginning of the 19th century; the Nagasaki Harbour Incident involving HMS Phaeton in 1808, other subsequent incidents in the following decades, led the shogunate to enact an Edict to Repel Foreign Vessels. Western ships, which were increasing their presence around Japan due to whaling and the trade with China, began to challenge the seclusion policy; the Morrison Incident in 1837 and news of China's defeat during the Opium War led the shogunate to repeal the law to execute foreigners, instead to adopt the Order for the Provision of Firewood and Water. The shogunate began to strengthen the nation's coastal defenses. Many Japanese realized that traditional ways would not be sufficient to repel further intrusions, western knowledge was utilized through the Dutch at Dejima to reinforce Japan's capability to repel the foreigners.
Numerous attempts to open Japan ended in failure, in part to Japanese resistance, until the early 1850s. During 1853 and 1854, American warships under the command of Commodore Matthew Perry entered Edo Bay and made demonstrations of force requesting trade negotiations. After two hundred years of seclusion, the 1854 Convention of Kanagawa led to the opening of Japan to international trade and interaction; this was soon followed by treaties with other powers. As soon as Japan opened up to foreign influences, the Tokugawa shogunate recognized the vulnerability of the country from the sea and initiated an active policy of assimilation and adoption of Western naval technologies. In 1855, with Dutch assistance, the shogunate acquired its first steam warship, Kankō Maru, began using it for training, establishing a Naval Training Center at Nagasaki. Samurai such as the future Admiral Enomoto Takeaki were sent by the shogunate to study in the Netherlands for several years. In 1859 the
Axis powers
The Axis powers known as "Rome–Berlin–Tokyo Axis", were the nations that fought in World War II against the Allies. The Axis powers agreed on their opposition to the Allies, but did not coordinate their activity; the Axis grew out of the diplomatic efforts of Germany and Japan to secure their own specific expansionist interests in the mid-1930s. The first step was the treaty signed by Germany and Italy in October 1936. Benito Mussolini declared on 1 November that all other European countries would from on rotate on the Rome–Berlin axis, thus creating the term "Axis"; the simultaneous second step was the signing in November 1936 of the Anti-Comintern Pact, an anti-communist treaty between Germany and Japan. Italy joined the Pact in 1937; the "Rome–Berlin Axis" became a military alliance in 1939 under the so-called "Pact of Steel", with the Tripartite Pact of 1940 leading to the integration of the military aims of Germany and Japan. At its zenith during World War II, the Axis presided over territories that occupied large parts of Europe, North Africa, East Asia.
There were no three-way summit meetings and cooperation and coordination was minimal, with more between Germany and Italy. The war ended in 1945 with the dissolution of their alliance; as in the case of the Allies, membership of the Axis was fluid, with some nations switching sides or changing their degree of military involvement over the course of the war. The term "axis" was first applied to the Italo-German relationship by the Italian prime minister Benito Mussolini in September 1923, when he wrote in the preface to Roberto Suster's Germania Repubblica that "there is no doubt that in this moment the axis of European history passes through Berlin". At the time, he was seeking an alliance with the Weimar Republic against Yugoslavia and France in the dispute over the Free State of Fiume; the term was used by Hungary's prime minister Gyula Gömbös when advocating an alliance of Hungary with Germany and Italy in the early 1930s. Gömbös' efforts did affect the Italo-Hungarian Rome Protocols, but his sudden death in 1936 while negotiating with Germany in Munich and the arrival of Kálmán Darányi, his successor, ended Hungary's involvement in pursuing a trilateral axis.
Contentious negotiations between the Italian foreign minister, Galeazzo Ciano, the German ambassador, Ulrich von Hassell, resulted in a Nineteen-Point Protocol, signed by Ciano and his German counterpart, Konstantin von Neurath, in 1936. When Mussolini publicly announced the signing on 1 November, he proclaimed the creation of a Rome–Berlin axis. Italy under Duce Benito Mussolini had pursued a strategic alliance of Italy with Germany against France since the early 1920s. Prior to becoming head of government in Italy as leader of the Italian Fascist movement, Mussolini had advocated alliance with defeated Germany after the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 settled World War I, he believed. In early 1923, as a goodwill gesture to Germany, Italy secretly delivered weapons for the German Army, which had faced major disarmament under the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. In September 1923, Mussolini offered German Chancellor Gustav Stresemann a "common policy": he sought German military support against potential French military intervention over Italy's diplomatic dispute with Yugoslavia over Fiume, should an Italian seizure of Fiume result in war between Italy and Yugoslavia.
The German ambassador to Italy in 1924 reported that Mussolini saw a nationalist Germany as an essential ally for Italy against France, hoped to tap into the desire within the German army and the German political right for a war of revenge against France. During the Weimar Republic, the German government did not respect the Treaty of Versailles that it had been pressured to sign, various government figures at the time rejected Germany's post-Versailles borders. General Hans von Seeckt supported an alliance between Germany and the Soviet Union to invade and partition Poland between them and restore the German-Russian border of 1914. Gustav Streseman as German foreign minister in 1925 declared that the reincorporation of territories lost to Poland and Danzig in the Treaty of Versailles was a major task of German foreign policy; the Reichswehr Ministry memorandum of 1926 declared its intention to seek the reincorporation of German territory lost to Poland as its first priority, to be followed by the return of the Saar territory, the annexation of Austria, remilitarization of the Rhineland.
Since the 1920s Italy had identified the year 1935 as a crucial date for preparing for a war against France, as 1935 was the year when Germany's obligations under the Treaty of Versailles were scheduled to expire. Meetings took place in Berlin in 1924 between Italian General Luigi Capello and prominent figures in the German military, such as von Seeckt and Erich Ludendorff, over military collaboration between Germany and Italy; the discussions concluded that Germans still wanted a war of revenge against France but were short on weapons and hoped that Italy could assist Germany. However at this time Mussolini stressed one important condition that Italy must pursue in an alliance with Germany: that Italy "must... tow them, not be towed by them". Italian foreign minister Dino Grandi in the early 1930s stressed the importance of "decisive weight", involving Italy's relations between France and Germany, in which he recognized that Italy was not yet a major power, but perceived that Italy did have
