naval warfare, Military operations conducted on, under, or over the sea and waged against other seagoing vessels or targets on land or in the air. The earliest naval attacks were raids by the armed men of a tribe or town using fishing boats or merchant ships. The first warships were galleys, replaced in the 16th and 17th centuries by sail-driven warships equipped with cannons. The British victory over the Spanish Armada (1588) marked a major development: British galleons refused to allow the Spanish ships to get close enough for boarding and hand-to-hand combat and instead pounded them with guns of superior firing capability. Ships of the line and cruisers emerged in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the later 19th century, steam replaced sail propulsion, and ironclads offered greater protection against the increasing power of guns. The battleship, developed in these years, reigned until World War II, when the Pearl Harbor attack proved that bombers launched from aircraft carriers could sink any and all surface ships. Since then, naval air power—missiles as well as carrier-based planes—has been the primary weapon of the world’s fleets. Submarines also play a major role in naval warfare.
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