Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Theories of Naval Power: A. T. Mahan and the Naval History of Medieval and Renaissance Europe
- I Northern Europe
- II Southern Europe
- III Sixteenth and Early-Seventeenth-Century Europe
- The Navies of the Medici: The Florentine Navy and the Navy of the Sacred Military Order of St Stephen, 1547–1648
- The State of Portuguese Naval Forces in the Sixteenth Century
- Naval Power in the Netherlands before the Dutch Revolt
- Naval Power and Control of the Sea in the Baltic in the Sixteenth Century
- The New Atlantic: Naval Warfare in the Sixteenth Century
- Conclusion: Toward a History of Medieval Sea Power
- Index
- Titles in the series
Naval Power and Control of the Sea in the Baltic in the Sixteenth Century
from III - Sixteenth and Early-Seventeenth-Century Europe
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 April 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Theories of Naval Power: A. T. Mahan and the Naval History of Medieval and Renaissance Europe
- I Northern Europe
- II Southern Europe
- III Sixteenth and Early-Seventeenth-Century Europe
- The Navies of the Medici: The Florentine Navy and the Navy of the Sacred Military Order of St Stephen, 1547–1648
- The State of Portuguese Naval Forces in the Sixteenth Century
- Naval Power in the Netherlands before the Dutch Revolt
- Naval Power and Control of the Sea in the Baltic in the Sixteenth Century
- The New Atlantic: Naval Warfare in the Sixteenth Century
- Conclusion: Toward a History of Medieval Sea Power
- Index
- Titles in the series
Summary
Why did the two Nordic kingdoms of Denmark-Norway and Sweden become important naval powers in the sixteenth century? And why did the sea power of the German Hanse that had dominated the Baltic for hundreds of years evaporate in this century? Which incentives stimulated Nordic rulers to buy and build specialised warships, arm them with modern heavy guns and create the infrastructures with dockyards, seamen, officers and skilled artisans which were necessary to make naval forces operationally useful? Was it urgent requirements during wars or ambitious long-term policies that were decisive?
The transformation of the political power structure in the Baltic region in the first half of the sixteenth century was rapid and radical. In the late Middle Ages, the Baltic had been a part of Europe where power had been strongly connected with trade and the control of markets. The importance of the Hanse is the most obvious example. The role of territorial states in Baltic power politics had been limited in comparison to the resources of the societies. The Nordic and Polish-Lithuanian kings, the north German princes and the Teutonic Orders which controlled Estonia, Livonia, Courland and Prussia had had limited possibilities to mobilise the resources of their territories. With large merchantmen and concentrated financial resources, autonomous cities and mercantile interests could exercise a political influence out of proportion to their resources in an area where maritime lines of communication were very important for bulk trade, trade in valuable commodities and the transfer of military resources between strategically important areas.
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- War at Sea in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance , pp. 217 - 232Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2002