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Abstract

This paper seeks to show that the key role traditional and revisionist naval historians have attributed to Admiral ‘Jackie’ Fisher as the architect of a naval policy of deterrence and coercion has been overstated. The creation of such a perception of the Fisher-era, the decade leading up to the First World War, has been created mainly from anecdotal accounts. It is intended to support a proposition that shows a naval materiel policy of deterrence and coercion was derived from the strategy of the Government. By not reducing the late Victorian two-power standard of battleship supremacy, the Government’s agenda steered the direction of naval policy in response to domestic politics, diplomatic relations with other Powers and by reacting to their battleship building programmes. This line of reasoning will be supported by an archival analysis of Navy Estimates in Cabinet papers, Parliamentary debate, and the Press. In the event that the formidability of such a significant naval fleet of battleships did not deter war, economic warfare plans with latent coercive capabilities were created to speedily collapse the German economy upon the outbreak of war. This was in addition to addressing the challenges of using blockading to interrupt German imports and exports. These total economic warfare plans looking to exploit Germany’s economic vulnerabilities utilising London’s significant role in the global economic network were devised, but not employed. Evidence that such coercive naval policies were formulated will be found in a series of archived reports of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Whilst materiel and economic warfare naval policies were developed to support a Government strategy of deterrence and coercion, neither resulted in preventing the lengthy First World War. The predictions of the consequences of any future war by Edwardian peace campaigners were borne out with a practical demonstration.

Course: Naval History - MA - C2457P

Date Deposited: 2021-08-19

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis13707.html