Naval Scare from 1884

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The Naval Scare of 1884 (German "Marine-Schrecken von 1884") was a political event in Great Britain. As with other naval scares , the 1884 "Scare" was a state of public hysteria and panic in the United Kingdom resulting from the fear that the superiority of the British fleet over the fleets of other European powers was being jeopardized.

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The 1884 scare was triggered by an alarmist report by journalist WT Stead in the Pall Mall Gazette . In his article, "The Truth about the Navy," Stead warned of the alleged weakness of the British fleet, pointing out that France already had a similar number of world-class battleships to the United Kingdom. In addition, he conjured the danger of a Franco-German merger and thus a superiority of a united "Franco-Prussian fleet" over the British naval forces. In his - exaggerated - article, Stead relied on information he had received from the future fleet chief John Arbuthnot Fisher , then still a captain.

The article sparked a brief mass panic in the British population, who feared for the maritime supremacy of the United Kingdom and thus for the continued existence of the most important pillar of the British Empire. The UK government responded to press and public concerns by donating £ 5.4 million for new shipbuilding and coal depots. The Naval Scare of 1884 contributed to the adoption of the Two Power Standard of 1889, which stated that the British fleet must be at least as strong as the two next largest fleets combined. It was hoped to be able to effectively counteract the danger of the two next strongest rivals conjuring up in 1884.