History and Evolution of the United States Marine Corps

Origins and Early Naval Missions

The Marine Corps was founded to serve as an infantry unit aboard naval vessels and was responsible for the security of the ship and its crew by conducting offensive and defensive combat during boarding actions and defending the ship's officers from mutiny. To the latter end, their quarters on ship were often strategically positioned between the officers' quarters and the rest of the vessel.

Continental Marines manned raiding parties, both at sea and ashore. America's first amphibious assault landing occurred early in the Revolutionary War on 3 March 1776, as the Marines gained control of Fort Montague and Fort Nassau, a British ammunition depot and naval port in New Providence, the Bahamas.

Evolution of Combat Roles

The role of the Marine Corps has expanded significantly since then. As the importance of its original naval mission declined with changing naval warfare doctrine and the professionalization of the naval service, the Corps adapted by focusing on what were formerly secondary missions ashore. The Advanced Base Doctrine of the early 20th century codified their combat duties ashore, outlining the use of Marines in the seizure of bases and other duties on land to support naval campaigns.

Service in the 19th and 20th Centuries

Throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries, Marine detachments served aboard Navy cruisers, battleships, and carriers. Marine detachments (generally one platoon per cruiser, a company for battleships or carriers) served their traditional duties as the ship's landing force, manning the ship's weapons and providing shipboard security.

Marine detachments were augmented by members of the ship's company for landing parties, such as in the First Sumatran Expedition of 1832, and continuing in the Caribbean and Mexican campaigns of the early 20th centuries. Marines would develop tactics and techniques of amphibious assault on defended coastlines in time for use in World War II. During World War II, Marines continued to serve on capital ships. They often were assigned to man anti-aircraft batteries.

Modern Transition and Legacy

When gun cruisers were retired by the 1960s, the remaining Marine detachments were only seen on battleships and carriers. Its original mission of providing shipboard security finally ended in the 1990s when nuclear weapons were withdrawn from active deployment and the battleships were retired.