Abstract
Sea power is "the ability to control the sea with armed force" and has always represented an important issue for rulers connected with the sea. European states such as Britain, France, Spain and the Netherlands used sea power in many ways in the early modern period in order to gain benefits and power. One of the main objectives of sea power is to obtain "Command of the Sea", which means, according to the study of Mahan, "to use the oceans as a highway for one's own trade and a barrier to that of the enemy; and that command is the perquisite of the strongest capital fleet." Thus, in order to better understand how important sea power was to the interests of European states, its impact on national development and on war must be studied.
