1623 Studios Podcasts

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In this final episode, the postlude book-ending the Revolution at Sea series, John Curtis Perry adds a few words as a sort of summary of our time together. "Together we have thought about some aspects of how the world of the terracentric has interacted with the world of the salt water (71% of the planet). We are living in a time of immense and rapid change as we grapple with the many dimensions of globalism that the ocean has provided to humanity, while serving as avenue, arena, and source, a shaper of the human experience. I hope that my remarks may have contributed to your understanding of what this means in the examples I have drawn from the past, and perhaps even to think about the implications for today."—John Curtis Perry.

Under Deng Xiaoping’s leadership, China opens to the outside world and builds a highly successful export economy. Logistics come first, Deng says.

Having begun our discussion with China, we now return to it. We begin by looking at the nineteenth century when the Atlantic powers seized and occupied many ports, giving China an idea of what the outside world was like and what it then considered to be modern. For China, an age of bitterness.

Japan, the first Asian nation to develop an export-driven economy, becomes a leader in salt water commerce. It has become the world’s third largest economy and plays an important role in international affairs.

Waterfronts are no longer densely populated because ships need more space than cities can provide. Sailors now spend only hours in port instead of days. They no longer see the world. A sense of community is lost.

Europe tears itself apart in the first half of the 20th century. Warfare becomes global and civilians suffer severely. Ocean forms both avenue for the flow of resources, goods, and people, but also for an arena. New weaponry below the surface and above it complicate war at sea.