The Third Reich: The Return of the King

Chapter 364

Eagle sauce, California Berkeley branch.

A forty-year-old middle-aged man walked into the classroom quickly, put the documents in his hand on the podium, and then habitually glanced at the students in the classroom.

As usual, there were very few students attending the lecture. There were only less than twenty students in the huge classroom. The others either asked for leave or skipped classes. In short, they failed to show up on time.

Even the students who came to the classroom were listless, and it was obvious that their hearts were not in the classroom!

Lieutenant Colonel Nimitz sighed slightly in his heart. It was normal for these reserve students to be unwilling to come to class. After all, under the intervention of the president, the naval expansion plan of the Eagle Sauce family was greatly hindered. It was heard that the president was going to cut the number of active naval personnel, not to mention these reserve personnel who had no place to go?

The reason why these students did not come to class was probably because they had already known something, so they gave up on themselves, right?

However, among this group of listless students, there was a young man who sat upright and stared at himself intently, which aroused Nimitz’s curiosity.

It seems that not everyone has given up. At least this guy seems to be quite serious!

“Okay, everyone, open the textbook to page 59. Today we are going to learn Mahan’s Sea Power Theory!”

Although there are not many students attending the lecture, Nimitz did not intend to be perfunctory. He has always been meticulous in his teaching tasks. He does not want to mislead his students, so he is conscientious in every lecture, very well prepared, without any reservation, and teaches the students everything he knows. As for how much they can listen, it is not up to Nimitz to decide!

Mahan’s Sea Power Theory is definitely the most authoritative and famous strategic masterpiece on the ocean in the 20th century. The birth of Sea Power Theory has changed the attitudes of countries around the world towards the ocean. As a result, all countries realized the importance of sea power to them.

Therefore, in the late 19th century and early 20th century, the navies of various countries launched a fierce arms race, all wanting to have the world’s sea power and maximize the benefits for their own countries!

As a naval lieutenant colonel, Nimitz naturally highly praised Ma Hai’s sea power theory. In fact, the reason why the naval forces of the United States rose rapidly was because they were influenced by the sea power theory, which made them clearly know the strategic position of their country and clarified the path of future development and expansion.

“In Mahan’s theory of sea power, there are six very important elements, among which the first one is geographical location!”

“Geographical location determines the importance a country attaches to the ocean, just like island countries like the British Empire and the Foot Basin.

They neither rely on land to defend themselves nor expand their territory. If they want to get rid of the constraints of their homeland, they must completely target the ocean. Therefore, when they develop their navy and expand to the ocean, they have a clearer strategic goal of developing to the ocean than continental countries, and have superior conditions for developing sea power.

This is why the British Empire’s navy can have the last laugh in the competition with the navies of European countries, because they can invest almost all of their resources in the construction of the navy, and European countries themselves are on the continent, so they will naturally be threatened by other countries on land. They need to invest part of their energy in the construction of the army to ensure the safety of their homeland.

As a result, they would certainly not be able to put their best efforts into their naval investment.

Back then, the navy of Banya was at its peak and took the lead in dominating the world, but their invincible fleet was eventually defeated by the British Navy.

This defeat was not decided by one battle, but lasted for decades or even hundreds of years.

In the continuous consumption, the British Navy’s investment in the navy caught up with and surpassed Banya.

This was the fundamental reason for their ultimate victory!

”

“When facing later competitors, such as the Windmill Kingdom and the Gauls, the British Empire not only fought a decisive battle with them at sea, but also supported some countries on the European continent, allowing these countries to threaten and contain the power of these two countries from the continent, thereby distracting the energy of these two countries, making their navies unsustainable and ultimately leading to their defeat!”

“It can be seen that when island countries compete with mainland countries for sea control, they naturally have their own advantages!”

Nimitz did have his own unique insights, but the theory he said did not impress the sleepy students below. Many people looked at him with dull eyes, and their minds flew to some gentle place!

But what made Nimitz feel relieved was that the student who had been focused before was still looking at him attentively, and even taking notes seriously, which made him feel a little comforted.

“The same principle applies to the foot basin.

The foot basin is also an island country, and they also defeated the Celestial Empire and the Bear, which were far stronger than them, and became one of the world powers with these two wars!

The reason why the foot basin can win is determined by their geographical location as an island country.

The enemies they face are stronger than them, but their enemies cannot concentrate all their strength to deal with them alone, especially in the navy.

The navies of these two powers do not have an overwhelming advantage when facing the foot basin.

The poor geographical location of the Bear makes their fleets too scattered, and they are defeated one by one by the foot basin, and eventually lose the control of the sea, and then lose the initiative in the war!

The navy of the Celestial Empire is even more hopeless. The stupid and corrupt ruling class may not realize the importance of the control of the sea. The failure of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 did not hurt them, but they lost the courage to take the initiative and handed over the control of the sea in vain. This stupid approach directly ruined the war!”

When Nimitz mentioned that the British Empire defeated the major European powers, including the Banya, the Windmill Kingdom and the Gauls, his tone was not emotional.

It seemed that he was describing a war that had nothing to do with him.

However, when he described the two naval battles that the Foot Basin participated in and determined the fate of the Foot Basin, Nimitz’s attitude changed significantly!

He seemed to be somewhat disappointed with the two defeated countries, China and the Bear, and was even more angry that the Foot Basin won the naval battle.

This attitude makes people feel puzzled.

“Lieutenant Colonel, do you think that our Eagle Sauce is a continental country or an island country?”

The student who listened very carefully suddenly asked a question.

Nimitz was stunned for a moment after hearing this question. To be honest, he had thought about this question, but even he himself could hardly give a definite answer.

“We in the United States are located on the North American continent, so strictly speaking, we should be a continental country!”

There is nothing wrong with this sentence from the perspective of geographical division.

The Eagle Sauce is the second largest country in North America, with an area of more than 9 million square kilometers, second only to the Maple Leaf Country in the north. However, compared with the Maple Leaf Country, the Eagle Sauce occupies the most essential area of North America. They are located in the temperate zone and have the largest river in North America, the largest plains and most of the Rocky Mountains!

From this perspective, the Eagle Sauce is a continental country.

However, the Eagle Sauce is different from other continental countries, because their neighbors on both the north and south sides are not strong, and there are only these two neighbors. The pressure and threat that these two neighbors can bring to them from the land are very small, which makes them not need to invest a lot of energy in the army like traditional continental countries.

On the contrary, after the end of the civil war, the Eagle Sauce has invested a lot of resources in the navy like an island country, which makes their national attributes somewhat peculiar. They are not strictly island countries, but they are not strictly continental countries.

They can be said to have the advantages of both: the vast land and rich resources of continental countries, and the relatively relaxed external security environment and long coastline of island countries!

“I don’t agree with your judgment!”

The student shook his head and said to Nimitz

“Oh? What do you think?”

Nimitz was very curious about what this student was thinking. Could it be that this guy thought that Eagle Sauce was an island country?