efficiency.

The efficiency of a navy or an army is exactly what the strategic
system makes it. Eleven thousand Greeks under Miltiades, highly
efficient and thoroughly trained, defeated 100,000 Persians at
Marathon. A Greek fleet under Themistocies defeated and almost
destroyed a much larger Persian fleet at Salamis. With an army
of less than 35,000 men, but highly trained by Philip of Macedon,
his father, Alexander, in only twelve years conquered ten of the
most wealthy and populous countries of the world. Caesar, Alaric,
Attila, Charlemagne, and all the great military men from the greatest
antiquity down to the present moment have trained and organized
bodies of soldiers and sailors, under systems suited to the times,
and then waged successful war on peoples less militarily efficient.
Cortez conquered Mexico, and Pizarro conquered Peru; the British,
French, and Spanish subdued the Indians of North America, and during
the latter half of the nineteenth century nearly all the land in
the world that was "unoccupied" by Europeans or their descendants
was taken in possession by European Powers. Great Britain is now
mistress of about one-quarter of the land and the population of
the globe. Russia, France, Germany, and the United States govern
most of the remainder.

These results were brought about almost solely by the exercise
of military force:--and of this force, physical courage was not a
determining element, because it was just as evident in the conquered
as in the conquerors. The determining element was strategy that
(under the behest of policy) prepared the military and naval forces
in material and personnel before they were used, and directed their
operations, while they were being used.

Of all the single factors that have actually and directly made the
history of the world, the most important factor has been strategy.

CHAPTER VIII

DESIGNING THE MACHINE

The most important element connected with a navy is the strategy which
directs it, in accordance with which all its plans are laid--plans for
preparation before war and plans for operations during war. Strategy
is to a navy what mind is to a man. It determines its character,
its composition, its aims; and so far as external conditions will
permit, the results which it accomplishes.

It is possible for certain features connected with a navy to be
good, even if the strategy directing it be faulty; or for those
features to be faulty, even if the stra