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The Great White Fleet: Promoting the Empire:
"Speak softly and carry a big stick."
-- President Theodore Roosevelt, September 2, 1901
New Empire thinkers equated American prosperity with possession of overseas colonial territories. The key to national power and security, according to Alfred Thayer Mahan, a leading imperialist theoretician, was a strong Navy. Mahan argued eloquently for the construction of a vast fleet of the most heavily armed and armored vessels, which soon became known as battleships.
The United States authorized the construction of its first battleship in 1890. To popularize naval expansion, the huge ships were named after states including Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Within twenty years, the United States had a fleet of twenty-five battleships and some called upon the nation to build forty-eight.
To demonstrate the arrival of the United States as a world power, President Theodore Roosevelt ordered sixteen battleships on an historic 46,000-mile around-the-world cruise in 1907. Roosevelt was particularly interested in impressing Japan, since the American colony in the Philippines lay very close to the Island Empire and diplomatic relations with Japan were at that moment strained. The ships were known as the Great White Fleet because of the heat-reflecting white paint applied to their hulls, and their voyage was immensely successful. Clearly, America's New Empire would be defended by its New Navy, including the 11,000-ton battleship Wisconsin (BB-9). |