The United States Navy

• 20th century
Our ships are our natural bulwarks.—Woodrow Wilson
A modernization program beginning in the 1880s brought the U.S. in line with the navies of countries such as Britain and Germany. In 1907, most of the Navy's battleships, with several support vessels, dubbed the Great White Fleet, were showcased in a 14-month circumnavigation of the world. Ordered by President Theodore Roosevelt, it was a mission designed to demonstrate the Navy's capability to extend to the global theater.
The Navy saw little action during World War I, but nevertheless the strength of the United States Navy grew under an ambitious ship building program associated with the Naval Act of 1916. Naval construction, especially of battleships was later limited by the Washington Naval Conference of 1921-22, however, construction of aircraft carriers continued, accelerating after the New Deal which provided funding for the construction of the USS Yorktown (CV-5) and USS Enterprise (CV-6). By 1936, with the completion of the USS Wasp (CV-7), the U.S. Navy possessed a carrier fleet of 165,000 tonnes displacement, although this figure was nominally recorded as 135,000 tonnes to comply with treaty limitations.