000			02312 a2200325 4500
001			1138248584
005			20250317100411.0
008			250312042016GB eng
020			_a9781138248588
037			_bTaylor & Francis _cGBP 53.99 _fBB
040			_a01
041			_aeng
072	7		_aNHD _2thema
072	7		_aNHW _2thema
072	7		_aJPWS _2thema
072	7		_a3M _2bisac
072	7		_aHBJD1 _2bic
072	7		_aHBW _2bic
072	7		_aJPWS _2bic
072	7		_a3J _2bisac
072	7		_aHIS027060 _2bisac
072	7		_aHIS037060 _2bisac
072	7		_a359.00941 _2bisac
100	1		_aStephen Cobb
245	1	0	_aPreparing for Blockade 1885-1914 _bNaval Contingency for Economic Warfare
250			_a1
260			_aOxford _bRoutledge _c20161028
300			_a376 p
520			_bToday, the First World War is remembered chiefly for the carnage of the Western Front, but at the time the Royal Navy's blockade of Germany was a more frequent source of debate. For, even at a time of war, there were influential voices in Britain who baulked at a concept of economic warfare that hindered the free passage of goods on the high seas, and brought German society to the brink of famine. To further our understanding of these issues, this book looks at the background to the blockade, and the effects of its implementation in 1914. It argues that there was a widely shared, but largely unwritten, strategic culture within British naval circles which accepted that in a war with a major maritime power the British response would be to attack enemy trade. This is demonstrated by the fact that from at least the late 1880s the Royal Navy planned for the use of armed merchantmen to enforce an economic blockade of an enemy. This it did by entering into detailed arrangements with major British shipping companies for the design and subsidy of liners with the potential for use as merchant cruisers, and stockpiling their prospective armament. In line with the contemporary, Corbettian, view that seapower depends upon free communications, the book concludes by asserting that the primary role of the Grand Fleet in the First World War was to guarantee the ability of the merchant cruisers on the Northern Patrol to interdict German seaborne trade, rather than to engage in large set-piece battles.
999			_c2410 _d2410