“And this strategy tended to be played out in partisan politics, with the “Whigs favoring the Navy and the Tories the Army. ” I’m fairly certain that’s not correct. During the war of the Spanish Succession, it was the Whigs who favored engagement on the continent (and thus the Army) and the Tories who favored a “blue water” strategy (and thus the Navy), and this was more or less the split through the first two Hanoverians – Whigs catering to Kings’ continental interests, Tories not.