To Rule the Waves
Subtitle: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World (P.S.)
By: Arthur Herman
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Published: October 25, 2005
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 648
ISBN-13: 9780060534257
Subjects: Great Britain. -- Royal Navy -- History; Civilization, Modern -- British influences
Genres: books
First sentence: FOR THREE DAYS the ships had struggled to hold their own against the hurricane.
Description: Recounts how Britain's Royal Navy allowed one nation to rise to a level of power unprecedented in history. From its beginnings under Henry VIII and adventurers like John Hawkins and Francis Drake, the Royal Navy toppled one world economic system, built by Spain and Portugal after Columbus, and ushered in another--the one in which we still live today. Follows its historiy from the defeat of the Spanish Armada, through the seventeenth century, when the navy came to play a leading role as England became a world power, through the convulsions of Napoleon, the twentieth century, and the downfall of the British Empire itself, as Britain passed its essential elements on to its successor, the United States.