140 david abulafiabetween Athens and the Ionian coast of Asia Minor were, however, dotted with
islands—indeed, the headquarters of the political and religious league that was domi-
nated by classical Athens lay on the sacred island of Delos. Many islands were within
sight of one another, or of the mainland. Thucydides’ awareness of the importance of
the islands can be observed in his insistence that the Cyclades were taken under
Minos’ control. And archaeological evidence suggests that he may have been right:
the astonishing discoveries at Akrotiri on the island of Santorini have revealed what
was very possibly a Cretan satellite city, or at any rate a place that was deeply imbued
with the so-called Minoan culture of Bronze-Age Crete, until the island was blasted
into the skies by a massive volcanic eruption around 1500 bCe. Among the most
impressive testimonies to the Cretan presence or influence at Akrotiri is a remarkable
fresco showing the town’s port, with ships coming and going in the water, manned by
semi-naked sailors in the traditional Cretan costume of a kilt, and standing in the same
pose as one finds in the frescoes Sir Arthur Evans uncovered (and then heavily
restored) at Knossos on Crete itself. To this we could also add evidence from pottery
discovered in the Aegean islands and on the Greek mainland that reveals the extensive
influence of Minoan Crete beyond the island shores (Barber, 1987: 159–178).
The intention here is to explore what the concept of thalassocracy actually
means: whether political power can indeed be exercised over maritime spaces, and
if so how. There is a suspicion that the ships portrayed in the Akrotiri fresco may
have been trading vessels. That raises the highly significant question of the impor-
tance of commercial links in the foundation and maintenance of sea empires. Did
most or all maritime empires emerge out of trading networks? Do trading networks
to which little territory was attached qualify as thalassocracies? While different
historians might choose to use the word in different ways, the question of the
relationship between trade and empire recurs again and again in the history of
the Mediterranean—with the Athenians, Etruscans and Carthaginians, with the
Genoese, Venetians and Catalans, with the British and the French. Before looking
at further examples, however, it will be helpful to turn to another classic work of
history, Alfred Thayer Mahan’s The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660–1783,
a work first published in 1890 that by no means confined itself to the 120-year
span in the title, and that had a powerful influence on strategic thinking in
London, Berlin and Washington on the eve of the First World War. Mahan’s book
ranged far beyond the Mediterranean; his aim was in large part to reveal the
importance for the United States of an active naval policy at a time when isola-
tionism was the order of the day and when even American merchant fleets were,
he says, playing only a modest role in world trade; and a particular concern was
the exploitation of the three maritime frontiers of the new republic: the Pacific,
the Atlantic, and the vast area of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. He
insisted, however, on the primacy of the Mediterranean as a theatre for maritime
power struggles:Circumstances have caused the Mediterranean Sea to play a greater part in the history of
the world, both in a commercial and a military point of view, than any other sheet of
water of the same size. Nation after nation has striven to control it, and the strife still goes
on. Therefore a study of the conditions upon which preponderance in its waters has
rested, and now rests, and of the relative military values of different points upon its0002063951.INDD 140 2/17/2014 11:36:30 AM