ABSTRACT
In traditional accounts of state-formation and empire-building, the focus has been on armies and the capacity to raise taxes. If the sea has figured at all, it has been a differentiating factor between overseas and contiguous empires. In this chapter, we demonstrate that the sea and sea power were far more important in the formation of many European empires and states than has previously been understood. However, until the nineteenth century, the sea power in question was not exclusively state-controlled. Rather, as we demonstrate, states and empires were shaped by hybrid forms of sea power, where what we today would call “public” and “private” interests were intermingled.
