that Corbett believed these factors to be far less relevant at sea was a daring departure from the accepted wisdom of his time. In developing his theory of limited war, Corbett again used On War as his point of departure but ended up with his own, unique method of waging a limited war in a maritime environment. Corbett's views about war Corbett offered no general theory of warfare at sea. Instead, he focused his thoughts on the nature of maritime strategy and what naval warfare meant to the power of a nation. While many theorists of naval warfare tried to mechanically adapt land warfare concepts to the maritime environment, Corbett countered that the interests and requirements of naval warfare differed in fundamental ways from those of land warfare. Corbett felt that protecting lines of communication was much more difficult to enforce at sea than on land. This difficulty was the physical geographical differences of the sea and land. Because of these physical differences, Corbett analysed naval warfare in its own terms, having its own unique characteristics. Corbett stated that you cannot conquer the sea because it is not susceptible to ownership. This led to Corbett's most important contribution to the early theories of naval warfare. What mattered most was not Mahan's concept of physical destruction of the enemy, but the act of passage on the sea. To Corbett, command of the sea was a relative and not an absolute which could be categorised as general or local, temporary or permanent. Corbett defined the two fundamental methods of obtaining control of the lines of communication as the actual physical destruction or capture of enemy warships and merchants, and or a naval blockade. Today, this concept is defined as sea control. Corbett was not infatuated with the search for the decisive battle or with the need for the strategic offensive. In general, he favoured the strategic defensive, with an emphasis on the offensive at the operational level. Corbett's strategic defence advocated such measures as an intense local offensive, the projection of land forces, various types of blockades, and raids on enemy trade routes. Moreover, Corbett recognised that once the enemy has been sufficiently weakened on sea and on land, the shift to the strategic offensive should not be delayed. Corbett did not believe that the concentration of naval forces at sea was the highest and simplest law of strategy. On the contrary,