


Over the next decade, Congress approved building multiple modern steel-hulled armored cruisers and battleships, and by around the start of the 20th century had moved from twelfth place in 1870 to fifth place in terms of numbers of ships. Navy consisted of many outdated ship designs. After the Civil War, most of its ships were laid up in reserve, and by 1878, the Navy was just 6,000 men. Navy fought the small Confederate States Navy with both sailing ships and new revolutionary ironclad ships while forming a blockade that shut down the Confederacy's civilian coastal shipping. In 1861, the American Civil War began and the U.S. In 1845, the Naval Academy was founded at old Fort Severn at Annapolis, Maryland by the Chesapeake Bay. Navy was at peace until the Mexican–American War in 1846, and served to combat piracy in the Mediterranean and Caribbean seas, as well as fighting the slave trade off the coast of West Africa. Over the next 20 years, the Navy fought the French Republic Navy in the Quasi-War (1798–99), Barbary states in the First and Second Barbary Wars, and the British in the War of 1812. The original six frigates were authorized as part of the Act. This led to the Naval Act of 1794, which created a permanent standing U.S. Under the Presidency of George Washington, merchant shipping came under threat while in the Mediterranean by Barbary pirates from four North African States. With the end of the American Revolutionary War, the Continental Navy was disbanded. The United States Navy claims Octoas the date of its official establishment, when the Second Continental Congress passed a resolution creating the Continental Navy. The history of the United States Navy divides into two major periods: the "Old Navy", a small but respected force of sailing ships that became notable for innovation in the use of ironclads during the American Civil War, and the "New Navy" the result of a modernization effort that began in the 1880s and made it the largest in the world by 1943. Ford, as of 2018, is the US Navy's latest and most advanced nuclear powered aircraft carrier, and the largest naval vessel in the world. USS United States, the first of the original six frigates of the United States Navy, seen here defeating HMS Macedonian in battle, before taking her as a prize during the War of 1812 USS Gerald R.
