Gunboat Policy

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The German Central American Squadron in front of Corinto in Nicaragua in March 1878, during the Eisenstuck affair . From the left SMS Leipzig , SMS Elisabeth and SMS Ariadne
Landing command of the British corvette Comus with landing gun
River gunboat SMS Otter around 1909 on a test drive on the Weser. The boat still carries the national and not the Reich war flag

The expression gunboat policy or gunboat diplomacy , also belittling the fleet demonstration , denotes the action taken by sea ​​powers against smaller powers to assert their own interests by means of one or more warships . It was a common means of projecting power , especially during the heyday of imperialism in the second half of the 19th century to the early years of the 20th century before the First World War . The gunboat policy served not only to enforce economic and power interests but also to collect claims and protect its own citizens - the latter argument sometimes only served as a pretext; it should legitimize the use of gunboats.

Often were for these tasks gunboats used: smaller warships due to their low draft, drive up to near the coast and could drive in rivers, and so with their gun armament directly against civilian or militarily weak secure goals such as port facilities and coastal resorts of an adversary effect could achieve. Most warships were also able to form small landing squads from the crew.

After 1945 the gunboat policy experienced a late revision, for example in cases in which long-standing colonial powers did not want to simply evacuate positions and zones of influence that had become untenable as part of decolonization . The US is using its aircraft carrier fleet to demonstrate its power.

Causes and possibilities

In the 19th century, the enforcement of European and American power interests overseas with military force or the threat of such force was a common form of exercise of power. There are two phases of imperialism: that of early imperialism from around 1815 to 1870 and that of high imperialism from 1870 to 1914. There were various motives for this.

One of the focal points of gunboat policy was Latin America and, above all, Central America . After independence from Spain and Portugal , larger state structures emerged, such as the Central American Confederation between 1823 and 1838 or Greater Colombia from 1819 to 1830; these gradually disintegrated into individual states. Internal disputes resulted in a number of civil wars and coups . For this reason, no reliable state authority with responsibility for foreign policy could be established in these areas for a long time . The Monroe Doctrine, pursued by the USA, fell into this power vacuum .

At the same time, Latin America had become an important overseas trading partner, especially for those nations that did not have their own colonial property, such as B. the United States and Germany until 1884. Many European emigrants and business people settled there. These foreigners needed the protection of their home countries in order to secure their existence in a situation of great legal uncertainty in underdeveloped states. Their status was dependent on the prestige and military might of their country. Powers that had bases in the region began using their naval forces to protect their citizens and collect financial claims.

Another reason for military diplomacy was the lack of other diplomatic channels as developed in the 20th century. Many of the non-European states had no diplomatic relations with European countries, around 1875 Peru had no diplomatic relations with foreign countries at all. Nor were there any telegraph connections or similar fast means of communication that could have been helpful in settling disputes between states. Supranational institutions such as the League of Nations or the United Nations were founded much later.

After all, the understanding of international law was developed differently than in the 20th and 21st centuries. The use of military means to enforce national interests was considered legitimate. The national concept of honor required sanctions in the event of disrespect for small powers.

In addition, gunboat policy was facilitated by the developments in weapons technology in the course of industrialization and research ; may be mentioned:

  • The transition to the rifled gun around 1860 enabled accurate shooting over a greater distance. In addition, long projectiles from drawn tubes could be used instead of imprecise bullets. With the same caliber, this increased the weight of the bullet and thus the penetration power and impact as well as the firing range .
  • The gunpowder filling of grenades has been replaced by more effective explosives. Since the advent of this explosive shell , ship guns have been able to cause much more damage than before. The grenades that exploded on impact hurled metal fragments with more force into a larger area.
  • At about the same time, medium- caliber rapid-fire guns appeared for ships. With this, one could achieve a great destructive effect on unarmored or weakly armored parts at short to medium combat distances.
  • The introduction of slowly burning powder from 1880 onwards made even larger propellant charges possible . Since the slower burning of the propellant charge made longer gun barrels sensible, the caliber lengths increased from about L / 15 to L / 30 to L / 40.
  • The quality of the bullets has been improved. In order to achieve a better armor-piercing effect, they were made from chilled cast iron from the Gruson works from 1868 , then from steel.

Examples of gunboat policy

Great Britain

The British Royal Navy was an active instrument of gunboat policy, for example in asserting British interests against Greece in the so-called Don Pacifico incident in Piraeus in 1850 .

Uruguay and Brazil 1828

Brazil , which found itself in an armed conflict with the separatists in Uruguay , decided after many indecisive fighting to carry out a sea blockade in front of the Río de la Plata in order to cut off the separatists from trade. However, Britain saw its trade interests threatened and used the gunboat policy to force Brazil to make peace with the insurgents. When Brazil realized the danger posed by British gunboats, it gave in and accepted the peace of Rio de Janeiro . That peace created a new, independent state: Uruguay.

Honduras 1849

On 4 October 1849 occupied British marines the port of Trujillo in Honduras , a call to the Honduran government in the amount of 100,000  US dollars to collect.

Haiti 1865

On October 23, Great Britain intervened in the Haitian civil war and destroyed several Haitian gunboats in the port of Cap Haitien . The gunboat HMS Bulldog ran aground and burned out completely from fire.

Honduras 1873

On August 19th, a British warship bombed the port of Omoa in reprisal for looting British property.

Nicaragua 1895

On April 27, 1895, British naval forces occupied the Corinto Customs House to collect financial claims from the Nicaraguan government.

Russia 1919–1921

After the armistice with the German Reich on November 11, 1918, the Empire sent a fleet of up to 90 ships to the northeastern Baltic Sea. The aim was to reduce German influence in the Baltic States and to prevent the newly founded states of Estonia , Latvia and Lithuania from being taken over by the Bolsheviks . The climax of this maritime intervention was the sea battle off Petrograd on August 17 and 18, 1919. A British motor speedboat association and aircraft from the carrier HMS Vindictive attacked Soviet Russian naval units. The ships of the line Andrei Pervosvanny and Petropavlovsk sank in shallow waters due to torpedo hits, the submarine mother ship Pamjat Asowa and a depot ship were destroyed. The Royal Navy lost three speedboats. With the end of the Russian Civil War , the establishment of Bolshevik rule in Russia and the recognition of the three Baltic states by the Soviet government, the British naval presence ended.

Greece 1920

On November 17, 1920, the former Greek Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos , loser in the presidential elections and protégé des Empires, escorted HMS Centaur on his escape from the country on a yacht and was thus able to escape arrest by the new government.

Turkey 1922

Battleship Malaya

From September to November 1922, the Royal Navy in the Dardanelles and on the Bosphorus prevented Turkish troops from entering the European part of Greece. On November 18, the overthrown Sultan of Turkey Mehmed VI. transported into exile in Malta by the British battleship HMS Malaya to protect him from his subjects and to prevent his arrest.

Mexico 1924

On January 11, 1924, the HMS Capetown intervened in riots in Minatitlán , Mexico , to protect a British oil refinery. The commander of the replacing ship HMS Constance prohibited Mexican gunboats from bombarding the place.

China 1926

That year, 15 British, 9 American, 10 Japanese and 6 French gunboats patrolled the Yangtze River on the occasion of unrest in central China. These events were processed literary in 1962 in Richard McKenna's novel The Sand Pebbles and implemented in 1966 by Robert Wise in the feature film of the same name .

Mediterranean / Palestine 1947

During 1947, British naval units operated in the eastern Mediterranean to prevent the illegal immigration of Jewish emigrants by sea into Palestine . Although most of the ships were intercepted, a few transporters managed to break through, which turned out to be a diplomatic failure for Britain.

Guatemala 1948

In late February 1948, the cruisers HMS Sheffield and HMS Devonshire were dispatched to British Honduras, now Belize , to put pressure on the Guatemalan government, which had claimed ownership of the colony's territory.

China 1949

On April 19, 1949, the frigate HMS Amethyst tried to reach Nanking on the Yangtze River to land guards for the British embassy there. She was driven back by communist artillery and stranded. Attempts by HMS Consort and later by HMS London and HMS Black Swan to tow her failed. A few days later, the frigate managed to leave the sandbar on its own. The incident is of historical significance because it is the last attempt at classic gunboat policy in China. The incident was dramatized in the British feature film Yangtze River Incident in 1957 .

Iceland 1958/59

From September 1, 1958 to March 14, 1959, the Royal Navy began operations around Iceland to prevent Iceland's claim to fishery protection within the 12-mile zone . During this time, the Navy prevented 46 Icelandic attempts to raise British trawlers. After all, the British government had to recognize the Icelandic claim.

Iraq 1961

A landing of Royal Marines and other troops in Kuwait and a concentration of naval units prevented an Iraqi occupation of the country.

Rhodesia 1965–1968

Aircraft carrier Eagle

The aircraft carrier HMS Eagle cruised off the coast of Tanzania in December 1965 to signal the government of Zambia that it could count on British air support in the conflict with Rhodesia . The presence of the porter prevented Rhodesian air attacks.

On April 9, 1966, based on a resolution of the UN Security Council , the HMS Berwick brought up the Greek tanker Manuela , which was transporting oil for Rhodesia, and prevented it from continuing to Beira in what was then Portuguese East Africa . British sea ​​patrols known as Beira Patrol operated in the region until 1968 , although Rhodesia has now obtained its oil through other channels.

Argentina 1966

In the Falklands conflict with Argentina , Great Britain sent HMS Puma to Port Stanley because a group of Argentine private individuals had carried out a mock invasion of the British colony. The conflict was resolved through negotiations.

Guatemala 1972

The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal was relocated to British Honduras in 1972 to fend off a suspected Guatemalan invasion.

United States

The USA first used the gunboat policy in 1815 in the Second Barbarian War , when naval officer Stephen Decatur threatened the Dey of Algiers with a heavy cannonade in the city and forced him to sign a peace treaty within 48 hours.

Japan 1853

Perry's ships returning to Japan in March 1854

In July 1853, four Black Ships under the command of Commodore Matthew Perry landed in the Japanese Bay of Edo , today's Tokyo . At the end of March 1854, Perry returned to Japan for the Kanagawa Convention with seven ships and forced the so-called "Treaty of Peace and Friendship" on the Shogun , which established formal diplomatic relations between Japan and the United States .

Paraguay 1859

An American naval expedition, consisting of 15 warships with a total of 77 guns, 1,448 sailors and 281  marines on board, penetrated the area of ​​the Río de la Plata in January 1859 and forced compensation of 10,000 US dollars from the Paraguayan government Paraguayan troops shelled the stranded US warship USS Water Witch on May 1, 1855 .

Venezuela 1899

In January 1899 the gunboat USS Wilmington , built in 1894 especially for service on East Asian rivers, traveled up the Orinoco to Ciudad Bolívar . On board were the American envoy for Venezuela , Francis Loomis , and the US military attaché for Venezuela, Captain Charles Collin. In addition to scientific purposes, the trip also served to "show the flag" to both Venezuelan politicians and the military and Great Britain, which had its own economic interests in the Orinoco region. The military has been at every opportunity the firepower of the Colt - machine guns demonstrated since, according to the Republican senator from Ohio , Joseph B. Foraker had been unfairly treated in recent years, American citizens. It was the first voyage of a US warship on the Orinoco.

USS Wilmington

Cuba before 1900

In 1897 the US warship Maine was deployed in the waters of what was then the Spanish colony of Cuba . On January 25, 1898, she anchored off Havana to put pressure on the Spaniards through his presence.

Cuba 1902 to 1959

Between 1902 and 1959, US warships repeatedly anchored in the port of Havana , the capital of Cuba , in order to overthrow unpleasant governments or to force economic policy decisions in favor of the USA .

To support a diplomatic mission of the American special envoy Sumner Welles on behalf of President Franklin D. Roosevelt , two US warships were sent to Havana on August 13, 1933. Other units with US marines anchored off the coast in order to be able to intervene. The aim of the mission was the resignation of President Gerardo Machado . Because of the pressure, Machado resigned.

From September 1933 to the end of January 1934 ships of the United States Atlantic Fleet stayed . Finally, Carlos Mendieta was sworn in as the new president on January 18, 1934 .

Nicaragua

The light cruiser USS Denver , a sister ship of the Cleveland

On July 13, 1854, the sloop USS Cyan shelled the port city of Greytown, now San Juan del Norte , and completely destroyed the place after a claim for damages of $ 24,000 was not paid for insulting an American consul.

On August 4, 1925, the pro-American, Conservative government of Nicaragua called on US Navy units to prevent a revolution. Thereupon USS Denver was ordered to Corinto on the Pacific coast and USS Tulsa to Bluefields on the Caribbean coast. The presence of the two warships could not prevent the Liberal Party's uprising against the government.

On May 6, 1926, the cruiser USS Cleveland US Marines landed in Bluefields to protect American property and interests in the Civil War between the Liberals and the Conservatives. From this action, the US military intervention in Nicaragua 1926–1933 developed indirectly , which was only ended in 1933 with the withdrawal of US troops.

On April 11, 1931, the USS Asheville was dispatched to Puerto Cabezas on the Caribbean coast, as local unrest broke out after the reduction of the US Marines as intervention troops and the property of American and British citizens appeared at risk.

Argentina 1936

On December 1, 1936, the cruiser USS Indianapolis ran into Buenos Aires with President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The cruiser was accompanied by the older USS Chester . Roosevelt took part in an inter-American conference at which Argentina campaigned against third-party intervention rights in Latin America. The Argentine position was accepted despite the American demonstration.

Germany

The German gunboat SMS Adler from 1883

After Prussia had built up its own navy from the middle of the 19th century , it also took part in military operations against overseas countries. This practice was taken over by the German Empire from 1871, for example in the context of the so-called Eisenstuck Affair 1876-78 in Nicaragua, the conflict over Samoa , the Boxer Uprising in China in 1900 or the Second Moroccan Crisis in 1911 with " Panther jump to Agadir ".

Other cases of German gunboat policy were:

Battle of Tres Forcas in Morocco 1856

On August 7th, the Prussian admiral Prince Adalbert von Prussia used a naval maneuver of the Prussian Navy in the Atlantic to carry out a landing operation with the wheel corvette SMS Danzig on the Moroccan coast, where in 1852 the Prussian trading brig Flora von den Rifkabylen had been attacked. The punitive expedition failed when the Rifs received unexpected reinforcements. The disembarked landing corps eventually had to withdraw; seven Prussian navy members died. Among the 20 injured was the 16-year-old midshipman and later Admiral Eduard von Knorr .

Eulenburg expedition 1859–1862

The East Asian Squadron of the Prussian Navy

The Prussian government expressly allowed Friedrich zu Eulenburg to use military force in the Prussian East Asia expedition to enforce trade agreements with China, Japan and Siam . In 1861 Eulenburg succeeded in concluding the treaties with China and Japan without the threat of violence.

Haiti 1872

On June 13, the two corvettes SMS Vineta and SMS Gazelle, under the orders of Captain Karl Ferdinand Batsch , forced the Haitian government in Port-au-Prince to pay a claim by the German merchant Diekmann by manning two Haitian warships lying in port .

Demonstration of the tank training squadron off Constantinople, 1876

After the French consul Jules Moulin and the German consul Henry Abbott were killed in a mosque by an angry Muslim crowd on May 5, 1876 in Thessaloniki, on the occasion of tensions between the Muslim and Christian populations , without the Ottoman authorities intervening to protect them During an international fleet demonstration, the Reich government sent the so-called tank training squadron to the Aegean Sea to enforce their demands for the perpetrators to be punished and for the victims' families to be compensated. The German squadron under Karl Ferdinand Batsch, who had meanwhile been promoted to Rear Admiral , consisted of the armored ships Kaiser , Deutschland , Friedrich Carl and Kronprinz , the Corvette Medusa , the Aviso Pommerania and the gunboats Meteor and Comet . It was the largest squadron that had been formed in the Prussian-German Navy up to that point. In June it was in front of the Ottoman capital Constantinople to demonstrate for the implementation of the German demands. After these were fulfilled, it was dissolved at the end of August that year.

Liberia 1881

On March 8, with the approval of the Liberian government, the corvette SMS Victoria forced the residents of the village of Nana Kru to pay compensation for the looting of the stranded German steamer Carlos .

Dahomey 1882

From 17 to 21 August, the Corvette sat SMS Hertha the King of Dahomey claims for damages due to predation and abuse of the crew of the German merchant ship harvest by that was stranded in Cotonou.

Amoy Pan War in China 1882

The cruiser frigate SMS Stosch and the corvette SMS Elisabeth deployed landing corps in the Chinese port of Amoy on December 29, 1882 and confiscated a number of sugar boiling pans that the Chinese authorities had confiscated from the German merchant Kopp. The background to this was customs disputes.

Swatow 1883

On April 28, the SMS Iltis gunboat suppressed a xenophobic movement among the Chinese population in Swatow .

Zanzibar 1885

On August 7, 1885, the German East African cruiser squadron with five warships anchored in the port of Zanzibar in order to force the local sultan Barghasch ibn Said to recognize German sovereignty over part of the East African coast .

SMS Arcona

Venezuela 1892

The cruiser corvette SMS Arcona forced satisfaction for the insult to the German flag in Macuro, Venezuela on August 29, 1892.

Naval mutiny in Rio de Janeiro 1893/94

During a civil war in Brazil, the Corvette forced Arcona in on November 3, 1893 Rio de Janeiro the release of six seized by the insurgents barges .

Morocco 1894

The cruiser frigate SMS Irene obtained compensation for the murder of a German businessman in Casablanca in 1894 . A year later, the coastal armored ship SMS Hagen , the cruiser SMS Kaiserin Augusta , the cruiser frigate SMS Stosch and the corvette SMS Marie forced the fulfillment of German demands against the envoy in Tangier .

Crete 1897

During an uprising of the Christian population in Crete against the Ottoman rule , the great cruiser Empress Augusta deployed a landing corps against the rebels in Chania on February 25, 1897 .

Haiti 1897

On December 6, 1897, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, the cruiser frigates Stein and Charlotte obtained compensation for a German citizen who had allegedly been unjustifiably sentenced to imprisonment and for insulting the German business agent .

Kiautschou 1897

The murder of two German missionaries was a welcome pretext for Kaiser Wilhelm II to occupy the Bay of Kiautschou on the east coast of China by the landing corps of a cruiser division and thus to enforce a lease for 99 years.

Marcomannia incident in Haiti, 1902

The German gunboat SMS Panther , which became known in several overseas operations
The Haitian gunboat Crete-à-Pierrot sinks after being shot by SMS Panther in the port of Gonaives on September 6, 1902

In the context of the Haitian civil war, the insurgent Haitian gunboat Crête-à-Pierrot searched the German steamer Markomannia . The Haitian government declared the boat a "pirate ship", whereupon the Crête-à-Pierrot was destroyed on September 6, 1902 in the port of Gonaïves by the German gunboat SMS Panther . The crew had left their boat beforehand. However, the Haitian Admiral Hammerton Killick stayed on board and was killed on the ship. His body was later recovered from the half-sunken wreck.

"Panther jump to Agadir" 1911

The sending of the gunboat Panther to Agadir as a threatening gesture against France at the beginning of the second Moroccan crisis .

France

Yangtze River Fleet

French gunboats had been operating in Chinese waters since 1860, but it was not until 1900 that a permanent flotilla was stationed on the Yangtze River, which existed with interruptions from the First World War until the outbreak of the Second World War . The gunboats Argus (1900–1914), Vigiliante (1900–1914), Olry (1901–1909), Ta Kiang (1901–1904), Doudart de Lagrée (1922–1939), Balny (1922–1939), Francis were used Garnier (1927–1939) and the Sloop Alerte (1922–1936).

Paknam incident

In May 1893 there was an armed border conflict between the Siamese and the French military on the Mekong . The French military tried to establish the Mekong as the western border of French Indochina , while the area east of the river still belonged to Siam, now Thailand . In order to enforce the claims, the French Navy blocked the exit of the Chao Phraya into the Gulf of Thailand south of Bangkok from July 13, 1893 . On July 29, 1893, Siam gave in and with a treaty dated October 3, 1893, renounced the left bank of the Mekong and all islands in the river.

Bizerta crisis

The Bizerta crisis began when the Tunisian President Habib Bourguiba in July 1961 demanded the evacuation of the French military base in Bizerta in the country that has been independent since 1956. The Tunisian military installed a loose blockade of the base. Shortly afterwards, a French naval formation attacked and shelled the city. Strongly superior French troops landed and took the city. There were several hundred deaths, almost exclusively on the Tunisian side. It was not until the autumn of 1963 that the last French soldiers left Bizerta after an agreement had been concluded.

Tartu crisis

The French destroyer Tartu was dispatched to the Brazilian northeast coast on February 21, 1963, when three French fishing trawlers were brought up there by the Brazilian Navy on charges of violating Brazilian sovereign rights. The Brazilian Navy ran out with a cruiser, five destroyers and two corvettes also in this sea area, whereupon the Tartu was withdrawn.

Netherlands

On April 5, 1960, the threatened Dutch government of the Indonesian government by sending a fleet association , consisting of the aircraft carrier Karel Doorman and two destroyers in the waters of Dutch New Guinea to Indonesian attacks to prevent their territory. This resulted in attacks on Dutch nationals in Indonesia. Conversely, on January 15, 1962, three Indonesian units attempt to depose insurgents in New Guinea. The Dutch Navy sank one of the boats and forced the other two to flee.

Japan

The Japanese Navy began its Yangtze River activities only after the end of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905. It used the gunboats Uji , Fushimi , Sumida , Toba , Saga , Seta , Katada , Honzu , Hira , Futami , Atami until the end of the Second World War , Ataka and Sumida . These boats were also used during operations in the Sino-Japanese War and World War II, and when the war ended, they were either scrapped by the Allies or given to the national Chinese of the Kuomintang .

Italy

In 1920 the Regia Marina began to install its own Yangtze River patrol with the gunboat Sebastiano Caboto . It was reinforced from 1927 by the Ermanno Carlotto and the Lepanto . While the Sebastiano Caboto returned to Italy shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, the other two gunboats remained in Shanghai until 1938 . During the Italian surrender they were sunk by the crews themselves, but lifted by the Japanese and apparently handed over to the national Chinese in 1945.

Multinational operations

In many cases several powers took part in a gunboat policy operation when their interests were jointly affected.

China 1876

In May 1876, an international fleet demonstration in China, in which the covered corvettes Hertha and Vineta , the gunboats Cyclop and Nautilus and the cruiser corvettes SMS Ariadne and Luise were involved from the German side . The demonstration was intended to force the Chinese government to take action against piracy in Chinese waters. When the German ambassador in Beijing was given appropriate assurances, the association was dissolved.

Turkey 1922

British, US, French and Italian units, including battleships, entered the port of Smyrna, now İzmir in Turkey , where Greek troops were preparing to withdraw to Greece . The western states secured their own interests and supported the evacuation of around 200,000 Greek civilians to Greece until the new Turkish administrative forces could guarantee order in Smyrna.

China 1923

British, French, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese and US naval units entered the port of Canton to prevent the Chinese government from taking over the international customs facilities. After the Chinese government had forcibly given up this intention, the ships were withdrawn again in April 1924.

Venezuela blockade 1902–1903

Blockade of Venezuela, painting by Willy Stöwer

The Venezuela blockade during the Venezuela crisis was, along with the intervention of the East Asia Squadron in the Chinese Boxer Rebellion, the largest operation of the Imperial Navy from the founding of the Empire to the First World War. The background to this was President Cipriano Castro's refusal to recognize old debts of the previous governments. As a result, Germany, the United Kingdom , Italy and temporarily the Netherlands decided to intervene while Castro was at the same time in a civil war with insurgents.

When Castro failed to comply with an ultimatum to pay on December 7, 1902, German and British naval forces occupied the Venezuelan war vehicles on December 10 and 11. The gunboat Restaurador , the former American luxury yacht Atalanta , was put into service under the German flag under Kapitänleutnant Titus Türk . As the British steamer Topaze was detained in the port of Puerto Cabello by the Venezuelan authorities , the German great cruiser Vineta and the British cruiser HMS Charybdis shelled the forts of the city. The blockade began on December 20th. The East American cruiser division under Commodore Georg Scheder consisted, in addition to the Restaurador , of the large cruiser Vineta , the small cruisers Gazelle , Falke and Sparrowhawk , the gunboat Panther , the cruiser frigates Stosch and Charlotte and the supply ship Sibiria .

On January 4, 1903, Puerto Cabello was occupied by a German landing corps. On January 22nd, 1903, there was a skirmish between the Panther and Fort San Carlos at the entrance to the Gulf of Maracaibo . The next day the fort was shot to pieces by the Vineta , the Gazelle and the Panther ; the number of Venezuelan victims is unknown. After the Castro government, which had meanwhile successfully taken action against the insurgents, promised to pay the debts on February 10, 1903, the blockade was lifted. The restaurador was handed over to the Venezuelan authorities. Her commander Titus Türk published his memoirs under the title 75 days aboard the cruiser “Restaurador” soon afterwards .

Effects and End of Gunboat Policy

The gunboat policy had mostly negative effects not only for the states concerned. The great powers also recognized the disadvantages that this approach brought with it. The forcible enforcement of interests prevented the formation of legal certainty and favored the stronger, who was currently on site with armed forces. As a result, the great powers were forced to maintain naval forces in many areas. In addition, there was always the risk of unwanted confrontation with one another.

The first step towards the end of the gunboat policy was taken with the Hague Agreement of 1907. The I Hague Agreement on the peaceful settlement of international disputes and the II Hague Agreement on the non-use of force when collecting contractual debts served this purpose . After the First World War and the founding of the League of Nations, the gunboat policy phase was over, with a few exceptions.

literature

  • James Cable : Gunboat Diplomacy. Political Applications of Limited Naval Force (= Studies in International Security. 16). Chatto (Engl.) & Windus, London 1971, ISBN 0-7011-1755-9 . Later as: James Cable: Gunboat Diplomacy 1919–1991. Political Applications of Limited Naval Force. 3rd edition. Macmillan in Association with the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Basingstoke 1994, ISBN 0-333-59739-7 . (engl.)
  • Kenneth J. Hagan: American Gunboat Diplomacy and the Old Navy 1877-1889 (= Contributions in Military History. 4). Greenwood Press, Westport CT et al. a. 1973, ISBN 0-8371-6274-2 . (engl.)
  • David Healy: Gunboat Diplomacy in the Wilson Era. The US Navy in Haiti. 1915-1916. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison WI u. a. 1976, ISBN 0-299-06980-X .
  • Miriam Hood: Gunboat diplomacy, 1895–1905. Great power pressure in Venezuela. , 2nd edition. Allen & Unwin, London a. a. 1983, ISBN 0-04-987002-5 . (engl.)
  • Heinz Britsche: Gunboat Policy. Military publishing house of the German Democratic Republic, Berlin 1984.
  • Jörg Rings, Erich Vad : Gunboat Policy - An investigation into the interaction between security policy and the projection of military power. Hamburg 1990, annual work of the command academy of the Bundeswehr .
  • Bryan Perrett: Gunboat! Small ships at war. Cassell, London 2000, ISBN 0-304-35302-7 . (engl.)
  • Andrew Graham-Yooll: Imperial Skirmishes. War and Gunboat Diplomacy in Latin America. Olive Branch Press, New York NY 2002, ISBN 1-56656-448-4 . (engl.)
  • Cord Eberspächer: The German Yangtze Patrol. German gunboat policy in China in the age of imperialism 1900–1914 (= Small series of publications on military and naval history. Vol. 78). Winkler, Bochum 2004, ISBN 3-89911-006-4 .
  • Gerhard Wiechmann: The Royal Prussian Navy in Latin America 1851 to 1867. An attempt at German gunboat policy. In: Sandra Carreras, Günther Maihold (Hrsg.): Prussia and Latin America. In the field of tension between commerce, power and culture (= Europe - overseas. Vol. 12). Lit, Münster 2004, ISBN 3-8258-6306-9 , pp. 105-144.
  • Russell Crandall: Gunboat Democracy. US Interventions in the Dominican Republic, Grenada and Panama. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham MD et al. a. 2006, ISBN 0-7425-5048-6 . (engl.)
  • Beatrice Heuser : Modern Gunboat Diplomacy, “Force Projection” and Conventional Deterrence. In: Beatrice Heuser: Thinking about the war. The evolution of strategy since ancient times. Schöningh, Paderborn u. a. 2010, ISBN 978-3-506-76832-2 , pp. 321-324.
  • Angus Konstam: Yangtze River gunboats 1900–49 (= New Vanguard. 181). Osprey Publishing Ltd., Oxford et al. a. 2011, ISBN 978-1-84908-408-6 . (engl.)

Fictional literature

Movies

See also

Web links

Wiktionary: Gunboat politics  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. There are three ships with the same name; the ship built between 1851 and 1853 is meant here. See also USS Water Witch (1851 ).
  2. a b The following examples are taken from the book Albert Röhr: Deutsche Marinechronik. Oldenburg 1974.
  3. ^ Gerhard Wiechmann: The Royal Prussian Navy in Latin America 1851 to 1867. An attempt at German gunboat policy. in: Sandra Carreras, Günther Maihold (Eds.): Prussia and Latin America. In the field of tension between commerce, power and culture. (Europa-Übersee Vol. 12), Münster 2004, ISBN 3-8258-6306-9 , p. 84 ff.
  4. ^ Georg Wislicenus : Germany's sea power: together with an overview of the history of the seafaring of all peoples , Reprint-Verlag-Leipzig, reprint of the edition of 1896, page 77
  5. ^ BR Whyte: The Railway Atlas of Thailand, Laos and Cambodia . White Lotus, Bangkok 2010. ISBN 978-974-480-157-9 , p. 143.