The Influence of History

Two of the greatest navies in Europe have long been the British and the French. For most of their history, these two navies have been competitors, facing off in numerous wars from the Battle of Sluys in 1340 to the Attack on Mers-el-Kebir in 1940 (it is worth noting that, as was often the case in conflicts between these two great navies, the British triumphed in both the first and last of these actions). However, as Britain and France were eclipsed by rising powers outside of Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries, the Royal Navy and Marine Nationale slowly became partners rather than rivals. From the Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata in 1845 and the Second Opium War in 1856 to the Suez Crisis of 1956, the British and French navies worked effectively together to project power abroad. Still, declining national strength during the Cold War saw both navies largely relegated to auxiliary forces under the umbrella of the United States Navy. While the Royal Navy saw a brief fli...

HMS Spey , the latest addition to the Royal Navy. While often underappreciated, offeshore patrol vessels like her are critical to projecting naval power at home and around the world. World Navies in the New Year For a much-delayed first post of the new year, we have the official Influence of History  2021 World Navy Rankings. As always, this ranking system attempts to provide an overview of the relative naval power of the world's nations by listing their naval inventories and providing a somewhat relative points value. Because of the contentious nature of warship classification, I have resorted to my own fairly simplistic, but universal, system that classifies ships based on size and type. Points are determined based on the number and type of ships. While my system does attempt to capture total national naval power by including coast guard ships and other government vessels, it does not count coastal craft outside of missile boats and minesweepers. The points system has remained fa...