This TL seems to be off to a great start. Will Spain be selling the Phillipines? To Germany perhaps?
A New Balance
- Thread starter Jim Smitty
- Start date
No that's not happening. The Philippines is staying a Spanish Colony for the foreseeable future.
Unless it backed up by one of the other big guys aka France, Germany and UK. Washington flexing his muscle with Spain and buying the Danish Virgin Island will mean that she become a player in the international politic game much earlier and this mean that things like the Monroe Doctrine will be challenged if the various european powers think that the americans will become a little too 'adventurous'; after all there are a lot of place where Anglo-American interest clash...like Hawaii and there is the Alaska-Canada border dispute, plus a lot of other problems like the Fenians.
Spain will be a lot changed by this war, the Carlist will probably win the civil war unlike OTL, as the Liberals losing Cuba will mean for them losing a lot of credibility and appeal...plus finally having to stop that endless and costly fight will be a long term bonus for the poor Spanish treasury.
This might actually be a bit of a blessing for Spain. Now freed from the need to fight independence movements in Cuba they can focus their attention on suppressing the rebellion in the Philippines. Maybe leading to greater success. Also the Spanish economy might be more stable with only the need to fight one independence movement.
The Monroe Doctrine is a tricky thing. The only time any of the Europeans really challenged it was when the US was fighting itself during the ACW. It really wasn't till the Roosevelt Corollary that the US said hands off all together. They were ok with people going in collecting debts for a while so long as they weren't there to re-colonize the place. That changed during TR's time in the White House OTL. The question is those this happen sooner than OTL?
And yes there are a lot of areas where Anglo-American interest clash. There is also a lot of areas American-German interest clash as well. Off the top of my head I can't think of any areas American-Franco interest clash through. This is going to effect a lot of things post-1895. As to Spain we really aren't going to see them for a while.
On a different note through I'm not covering every thing that happened. Things like the First Italo-Ethiopian War aren't being covered. Simply because I don't see anyway for Italy's bacon to be saved from that even with butterflies.
One reason of the Monroe Doctrine 'success' was the support of the British at the idea as it give them diplomatic ammunition to keep the situation in the Americas on the status quo and concentrate on more important and pressant thing...with the USA being more expansionist and beating a middle-sized european power, people in London will start to take notice of the 'colonials' earlier ITTL.
A Franco-American alliance due to opposite Anglo-German interest can mean a lot of difference
Butterfly are tricky thing, expecially if the event happen so near the Russo-Turkish war of 77 and the following Congress of Berlin even minor changes in that event can have a lot of repercussion.
Regarding the first Italo-Ethiopian war (ehy...it's my area of interest so back off man
), saving Italy's bacon is not that difficult...better remember that Ethiopian victory was also due to the fact that the goverment (and people) of Italy decided that even if she was perfectly capable of military beat Abyssinia after the loss at Adua (not that Menelik situation was much better but few understood this in Rome) was too costly and decided to cut her loss saving diplomatic face.Back to the war, just kill Francesco Crispi in June 1894, he was attacked by an anarchic and the bullet missed by 'that much' and without him there is much less political pressure to have a splendid little colonial war and a political/diplomatic agreeement with Menelick it's very probable (that result can be also obtained by the need to not waste troops on the far end of the world if some other crisis arise as the war was not so popular in Italy in both popular and political circle or Crispi facing more political opposition as he was basically a Trump or Mussolini ante-litteram).
Like I said the major butterflies don't really hit home till the mid-1890s. I don't see what happened in the Spanish-American War having mark effects in either the Russo-Turk War of 1877-78 or the Congress of Berlin. Sure there might be a village or two controlled by someone else ITL, but in the grand scheme of things nothing has really changed. If you have a way to save the Italian Bacon in the Italo-Ethiopian War I'm all ears and PM. But I really saw no way for that to work for Italy.
Island War 1894-95, Part One
This was meant to be a single update, but as it grew I decided to spited it up as two.
The Island War of 1894-95, Part One
Even through the Island War started in the Caribbean it has its origins in the Southwest Pacific and over the question of who had sovereignty over the Samoa Island Group. Three nations were all buying for the sovereignty of these islands in the vast Southwest Pacific. The nations that were buying for the control of these islands was the British Empire, the German Empire, and the United States. Both the German Empire and the United States were late comers to the Empire Game. Germany was only united as one nation in 1871 and every great European nation had an empire and the people in Germany wanted their empire. The US only came into the game following its victory in the Spanish American War in early 1875.
Things were starting to come to a head during the Samoan Crisis between 1887-89. Both the Germans and Americans had a small squadron of warships in Apia Harbor and they were being monitored by the British. The Samoans themselves were in a state of civil war over who was their king. Both the American and German squadrons had taken part in this civil war firing on villages of the other side they supported and it when without saying that the Americans and Germans supported different factions in this civil war. The crisis was partly defused by the 1889 Apia Cyclone.
In a matter of pride, even with the warning signs all pointing to the fact a storm was coming and the fact Apia wasn’t a harbor where you could ride out a storm in the captains of these ships refused to take action to save their commands from the danger of being in the harbor that offered no protection when the storm hit. It was viewed as weakness to leave the harbor by the captains of the ships in both the American and German squadrons. They also refused to allow the merchant ships in the harbor leave. This was a prime case of cutting your nose off to spite your face.
The United States which has been performing a mild buildup of its navy[1] since the end of the Spanish American War as part of the fallout from the failed raid at New Orleans sent another small squadron to replace the wrecked squadron to maintain its presence in Samoa. This reinforcement of the American squadron at Samoa happened just after Kaiser Wilhelm the Second came to power in Germany. Kaiser Wilhelm was resented the power the US had in the Caribbean, South America, and its growing power in the Pacific. It was even more upset by the fact the US had brought the Danish West Indies following the Spanish-American War in 1879. With the US having annexed both Cuba and Puerto Rico in the aftermath of its war with Spain it was the only location left the Germans could expand into the Caribbean without a war. The fact the US send a replacement squadron to Apia angered the Kaiser and he was pushed to get more money funneled into the navy in colonial commitments in effort to push back against the Americans.
With the Germans working on building up their navy at the time the crisis passed for the time being. Things came to a head again in the Venezuelan Crisis of 1894. The British had a territorial dispute with the United States of Venezuela as to where the border for British Guiana ended. At the same time Venezuela, had defaulted on loans it owed to Germany. The British saw this as a chance to kill two birds with one stone. The British were worried about the growing power of the Americans since the end of the Spanish-American War. They were still refusing to play a large role in European affairs instead focusing on the Americas and the Pacific. The Germans were an up and coming power who at this point they favored over the Americans and they figured they would use the Germans to perform their bidding for them. They told the Germans that if they felt the need to collect those debts at the point of a gun that they would receive their support. Kaiser Wilhelm jumped at the chance to knock the Americans down a peg or two and make gains both in the Pacific and Caribbean at their expense.
The Imperial German Navy however was still in a state of building itself up into a navy that was worthy being a great power navy. This was a large change from before unification of Germany where their navies of the different states had largely been a show the flag and coastal defense force. As such they lacked numbers needed to perform every task needed and if not for British support it would had been questionable if they were been able to get their small squadron into the Caribbean. The squadron was based around the one of the newest battleships of the fleet, SMS Brandenburg. Supporting the Brandenburg was SMS Kaiserin Augusta one of the newest protected cruiser of the German Fleet, and the unprotected cruisers SMS Bussard, SMS Falke, and SMS Seeadler. The naval squadron reached the coast of Venezuela in early September 1894.
The deployment of the German Squadron hadn’t gone unnoticed by the United States. Since their high point at the end of the Spanish-American War relations with the Germans have slowly been going downhill. President William McKinley[2] in his first major test in foreign policy ordered the navy to monitor the Germans. The Germans have given their word they weren’t there to colonize Venezuela, but many in the McKinley White House didn’t trust them. One of the loudest voices war Assistant Secretary of Navy Theodore Roosevelt[3] to do something about the Germans. McKinley however, was a veteran of the Civil War and wasn’t about to start a war if he could help it. He ordered the navy to keep tabs on the Germans. To that end the navy send USS Maine ACR-8 and USS New York ACR-9[4] which was the two newest armored cruisers in the fleet. Along with the Maine and New York the navy send the destroyer tender USS Panther AD-1 together with two destroyers of the three strong Bainbridge Class of Torpedo Boat Destroyers[5]. The third ship of the class the USS Decatur TBD-2 would had been assigned to the squadron sent to monitor the Germans off Venezuela as well, however she was currently undergoing a refit after a steam pipe exploded during a training patrol a few months earlier causing massive damage to the ship.
After the American Squadron under the command Commodore Winfield Scott Schley reached a position off Venezuela a few days after the German fleet and expeditionary force reached Venezuela. What started next was best put as a Mexican Standoff. On the night of September 15/16th things turned deadly. Stories differ about what happened on this night but this is the most accepted account of the events of that night. A junior naval officer on the Bussard believed that one of the two American torpedo boat destroyers were making charge against the German fleet. The Bussard open fire with a number of their 10.5 cm guns. This started a cascade effect of ships firing at each other. Firing ceased about 45 minutes after it started. There were minor damage to a number of the ships on both sides. The most important fact about the First Battle of Caracas was the fact 9 Imperial German Sailors died and 11 American Sailors died. There were also a few more wounded.
News was slow getting out to the rest of the world about the First Battle of Caracas. The two sides off Caracas kept up with the standoff after the battle. The US answered by sending one of its first battleships, the USS Texas BB-1[6] to reinforce the squadron off Caracas and allow the Maine to retire to Guantanamo Bay for repairs. However, the Germans were engaged by the Battle of Caracas. The crisis over Venezuela reach to highs as the British stepped in and offered to arbitrate the issues between the Americans and Germans. It might of worked and kept things from blowing up into a war, but Kaiser Wilhelm ran his mouth and the British newspaper the Daily Telegraph ran a story that the Kaiser would only accept the US surrender of the American Virgin Islands as the Danish West Indies had come to be known now as a German colony and withdraw all claims to the Samoa Islands. This ended the US efforts to find a peace once the Germans made it clear that was really their position a day later. The Americans refused and walked out of the arbitrate meetings in London on October 19 vowing to never return.
Days later Ambassador Anton Saurma von der Jeltsch visited President McKinley that handed him a note that was an ultimatum. It demanded that they return to the arbitration meetings and agree to the terms the Germans were putting forward. McKinley refused saying those demands was the same as a declaration of war. With the US refusing to return to arbitration the ball was back in the German court. Kaiser Wilhelm declared war on the United States on November 1st with the support of the German government.
This led to the Second Battle of Caracas on the 2nd. The battle started after wireless message reached the Brandenburg in the early morning hours of the second from a hastily set up German wireless station in Georgetown who had been relayed the message from the telegraph station there. It was the Brandenburg who opened fire with its 28 cm guns first after newly prompted Konteradmiral Alfred von Tirptiz gave the order. This was quickly answered when Schley gave the order to return fire. He also ordered his two torpedo boats to charge and torpedo the Germans. Both sides broke contact after the torpedo runs Bainbridge and Paul Jones made their runs. The Brandenburg received three torpedo hits from the Paul Jones and slipped under the waves in a matter of minutes. The Bainbridge made her run at the Seeadler and was able to put enough torpedoes into her were she sunk as well. But unlike the Paul Jones the Bainbridge was caught by a hail of smaller weapons and sunk by the Germans. Before the Germans withdrew their edge in gunnery made itself clear by what happened to the New York. The New York was stuck by at least three 28 cm shells fired by the Brandenburg six 15 cm shells from the Kaiserin Augusta, with countless other hits from lighter weapons from other ships in this battle. The New York was kept afloat by a herculean effort of her crew but she would flounder on the trip to Guantanamo Bay for repairs a day after the battle.
The day follow the Second Battle of Caracas President McKinley when before a joint session of congress to ask for a counter declaration of war against the German Empire. It was past after only nine hours of debate. In the house it clear by a vote of 307-9. In the Senate it was 59-14. On the same day Rear Admiral Sampson in a squadron built around the only other battleship in the USN the USS Indiana BB-2 and three protected cruisers to hunt down the remains of the German squadron under von Tirpitz before. However, giving the time and distances Sampson didn’t find von Tirpitz’s squadron.
For the British this was the last thing they expected to happen. They didn’t expect the Germans to push their demands so hard or Americans to be so unwilling to talk. For the French this was a boom to them. They wanted to see the Germans get knocked down a peg or two and contacted the Americans to allow let them know that they could use French ports of call in this war. The British kept supporting the Germans and started to lightly apply pressure the Americans to come to back to the table. However with on going wars between the Chinese and Japanese and the Italians in a major colonial campaign in Africa the British had their hands full.
The next battle in the war was the Battle of Apia. Both America and Germany had replaced their losses from the cyclone of 1889. The Battle of Apia was between the USS Chicago one of the first ships built following the Spanish American War with the USS Dolphin in support. Against them was SMS Irene and SMS Prinzess Wilhelm. Chicago had heavier firepower than both the Irene and Prinzess Wilhelm but better trained gun crews made up for this. In this some odd battle of both sides being in port at the time the battle started saw the Germans carry the day. The Chicago and Dolphin did damage to the German ships, but the crews of the Irene and Prinzess Wilhelm put enough rounds into the Chicago to force her captain to strike her colors. The Dolphin then put to sea to escape.
Following the Battle of Apia on November 9th the two sides settled into a phony war as one newspaper said in December as nothing was really happening. This was more due to the distances in the war than anything else. Rear Admiral George Dewey only set sail on January 3rd 1895 from the American base in San Diego to retake Apia. He was escorting a force under the command of Bvt. Major General Arthur MacArthur Jr who commanded a force of some 50,000 men. Under Dewey’s own command was basically every naval ship in the Pacific Fleet that could make the journey to the Southwest Pacific leaving behind only civil war era monitors to defend the Pacific Coast of the United States. Two weeks prior the Germans had sent Generalmajor Friedrich von Bernhardi to reinforce its Pacific holdings. Under the command of von Bernhardi was the command some 25,000 troops with some of its old ironclads to escort and reinforce these colonies as well.
At the same time the Germans were planning a highly risky invasion of the American Virgin Islands. Kaiser Wilhelm decided he was going to strip the United States of its Caribbean holdings and used the Virgin Islands as his base of operations to move on to Puerto Rico and then Cuba. This was being planned by Generalfeldmarschall Alfred von Waldersee. The US knew something like this and had made the call not to ship more ships to the Pacific as they knew[7] what the Germans were sending and were betting that Dewey’s fleet could handle them.
[1] Nothing massive, just the US ordering a few to a half of dozen new ships every year. Still isn’t anywhere what the US could do if it really if they decided to go full throttle on ship building. The army though hasn’t seen the same kind of funding increase that the navy has.
[2] Benjamin Bristow (R) 1877-1885 (Retired), Winfield Scott Hancock (D) 1885-1887 (Death/Natural), William Ralls Morrison (D) 1887-1889 (Lost re-election in the 1888 campaign), James G Blaine (R) 1889-1893 (Retired do to ill health), William McKinley (R) 1893-????
[3] How can I do a TL in this time frame and not have TR in it?
[4] Because of the mild naval build up that has been going on since 1876, these two ships are sisters ITL and have the lay out the OTL USS New York ACR-2. Only two ships in the class through.
[5] These are basically an American answer to the Japanese Kotaka.
[6] Basically think something like the British Centurion Class (1890) Battleships but with American weapons.
[7] An American Naval Intelligence Officer left behind in Germany and making trips to the Netherlands as needed.
The Island War of 1894-95, Part One
Even through the Island War started in the Caribbean it has its origins in the Southwest Pacific and over the question of who had sovereignty over the Samoa Island Group. Three nations were all buying for the sovereignty of these islands in the vast Southwest Pacific. The nations that were buying for the control of these islands was the British Empire, the German Empire, and the United States. Both the German Empire and the United States were late comers to the Empire Game. Germany was only united as one nation in 1871 and every great European nation had an empire and the people in Germany wanted their empire. The US only came into the game following its victory in the Spanish American War in early 1875.
Things were starting to come to a head during the Samoan Crisis between 1887-89. Both the Germans and Americans had a small squadron of warships in Apia Harbor and they were being monitored by the British. The Samoans themselves were in a state of civil war over who was their king. Both the American and German squadrons had taken part in this civil war firing on villages of the other side they supported and it when without saying that the Americans and Germans supported different factions in this civil war. The crisis was partly defused by the 1889 Apia Cyclone.
In a matter of pride, even with the warning signs all pointing to the fact a storm was coming and the fact Apia wasn’t a harbor where you could ride out a storm in the captains of these ships refused to take action to save their commands from the danger of being in the harbor that offered no protection when the storm hit. It was viewed as weakness to leave the harbor by the captains of the ships in both the American and German squadrons. They also refused to allow the merchant ships in the harbor leave. This was a prime case of cutting your nose off to spite your face.
The United States which has been performing a mild buildup of its navy[1] since the end of the Spanish American War as part of the fallout from the failed raid at New Orleans sent another small squadron to replace the wrecked squadron to maintain its presence in Samoa. This reinforcement of the American squadron at Samoa happened just after Kaiser Wilhelm the Second came to power in Germany. Kaiser Wilhelm was resented the power the US had in the Caribbean, South America, and its growing power in the Pacific. It was even more upset by the fact the US had brought the Danish West Indies following the Spanish-American War in 1879. With the US having annexed both Cuba and Puerto Rico in the aftermath of its war with Spain it was the only location left the Germans could expand into the Caribbean without a war. The fact the US send a replacement squadron to Apia angered the Kaiser and he was pushed to get more money funneled into the navy in colonial commitments in effort to push back against the Americans.
With the Germans working on building up their navy at the time the crisis passed for the time being. Things came to a head again in the Venezuelan Crisis of 1894. The British had a territorial dispute with the United States of Venezuela as to where the border for British Guiana ended. At the same time Venezuela, had defaulted on loans it owed to Germany. The British saw this as a chance to kill two birds with one stone. The British were worried about the growing power of the Americans since the end of the Spanish-American War. They were still refusing to play a large role in European affairs instead focusing on the Americas and the Pacific. The Germans were an up and coming power who at this point they favored over the Americans and they figured they would use the Germans to perform their bidding for them. They told the Germans that if they felt the need to collect those debts at the point of a gun that they would receive their support. Kaiser Wilhelm jumped at the chance to knock the Americans down a peg or two and make gains both in the Pacific and Caribbean at their expense.
The Imperial German Navy however was still in a state of building itself up into a navy that was worthy being a great power navy. This was a large change from before unification of Germany where their navies of the different states had largely been a show the flag and coastal defense force. As such they lacked numbers needed to perform every task needed and if not for British support it would had been questionable if they were been able to get their small squadron into the Caribbean. The squadron was based around the one of the newest battleships of the fleet, SMS Brandenburg. Supporting the Brandenburg was SMS Kaiserin Augusta one of the newest protected cruiser of the German Fleet, and the unprotected cruisers SMS Bussard, SMS Falke, and SMS Seeadler. The naval squadron reached the coast of Venezuela in early September 1894.
The deployment of the German Squadron hadn’t gone unnoticed by the United States. Since their high point at the end of the Spanish-American War relations with the Germans have slowly been going downhill. President William McKinley[2] in his first major test in foreign policy ordered the navy to monitor the Germans. The Germans have given their word they weren’t there to colonize Venezuela, but many in the McKinley White House didn’t trust them. One of the loudest voices war Assistant Secretary of Navy Theodore Roosevelt[3] to do something about the Germans. McKinley however, was a veteran of the Civil War and wasn’t about to start a war if he could help it. He ordered the navy to keep tabs on the Germans. To that end the navy send USS Maine ACR-8 and USS New York ACR-9[4] which was the two newest armored cruisers in the fleet. Along with the Maine and New York the navy send the destroyer tender USS Panther AD-1 together with two destroyers of the three strong Bainbridge Class of Torpedo Boat Destroyers[5]. The third ship of the class the USS Decatur TBD-2 would had been assigned to the squadron sent to monitor the Germans off Venezuela as well, however she was currently undergoing a refit after a steam pipe exploded during a training patrol a few months earlier causing massive damage to the ship.
After the American Squadron under the command Commodore Winfield Scott Schley reached a position off Venezuela a few days after the German fleet and expeditionary force reached Venezuela. What started next was best put as a Mexican Standoff. On the night of September 15/16th things turned deadly. Stories differ about what happened on this night but this is the most accepted account of the events of that night. A junior naval officer on the Bussard believed that one of the two American torpedo boat destroyers were making charge against the German fleet. The Bussard open fire with a number of their 10.5 cm guns. This started a cascade effect of ships firing at each other. Firing ceased about 45 minutes after it started. There were minor damage to a number of the ships on both sides. The most important fact about the First Battle of Caracas was the fact 9 Imperial German Sailors died and 11 American Sailors died. There were also a few more wounded.
News was slow getting out to the rest of the world about the First Battle of Caracas. The two sides off Caracas kept up with the standoff after the battle. The US answered by sending one of its first battleships, the USS Texas BB-1[6] to reinforce the squadron off Caracas and allow the Maine to retire to Guantanamo Bay for repairs. However, the Germans were engaged by the Battle of Caracas. The crisis over Venezuela reach to highs as the British stepped in and offered to arbitrate the issues between the Americans and Germans. It might of worked and kept things from blowing up into a war, but Kaiser Wilhelm ran his mouth and the British newspaper the Daily Telegraph ran a story that the Kaiser would only accept the US surrender of the American Virgin Islands as the Danish West Indies had come to be known now as a German colony and withdraw all claims to the Samoa Islands. This ended the US efforts to find a peace once the Germans made it clear that was really their position a day later. The Americans refused and walked out of the arbitrate meetings in London on October 19 vowing to never return.
Days later Ambassador Anton Saurma von der Jeltsch visited President McKinley that handed him a note that was an ultimatum. It demanded that they return to the arbitration meetings and agree to the terms the Germans were putting forward. McKinley refused saying those demands was the same as a declaration of war. With the US refusing to return to arbitration the ball was back in the German court. Kaiser Wilhelm declared war on the United States on November 1st with the support of the German government.
This led to the Second Battle of Caracas on the 2nd. The battle started after wireless message reached the Brandenburg in the early morning hours of the second from a hastily set up German wireless station in Georgetown who had been relayed the message from the telegraph station there. It was the Brandenburg who opened fire with its 28 cm guns first after newly prompted Konteradmiral Alfred von Tirptiz gave the order. This was quickly answered when Schley gave the order to return fire. He also ordered his two torpedo boats to charge and torpedo the Germans. Both sides broke contact after the torpedo runs Bainbridge and Paul Jones made their runs. The Brandenburg received three torpedo hits from the Paul Jones and slipped under the waves in a matter of minutes. The Bainbridge made her run at the Seeadler and was able to put enough torpedoes into her were she sunk as well. But unlike the Paul Jones the Bainbridge was caught by a hail of smaller weapons and sunk by the Germans. Before the Germans withdrew their edge in gunnery made itself clear by what happened to the New York. The New York was stuck by at least three 28 cm shells fired by the Brandenburg six 15 cm shells from the Kaiserin Augusta, with countless other hits from lighter weapons from other ships in this battle. The New York was kept afloat by a herculean effort of her crew but she would flounder on the trip to Guantanamo Bay for repairs a day after the battle.
The day follow the Second Battle of Caracas President McKinley when before a joint session of congress to ask for a counter declaration of war against the German Empire. It was past after only nine hours of debate. In the house it clear by a vote of 307-9. In the Senate it was 59-14. On the same day Rear Admiral Sampson in a squadron built around the only other battleship in the USN the USS Indiana BB-2 and three protected cruisers to hunt down the remains of the German squadron under von Tirpitz before. However, giving the time and distances Sampson didn’t find von Tirpitz’s squadron.
For the British this was the last thing they expected to happen. They didn’t expect the Germans to push their demands so hard or Americans to be so unwilling to talk. For the French this was a boom to them. They wanted to see the Germans get knocked down a peg or two and contacted the Americans to allow let them know that they could use French ports of call in this war. The British kept supporting the Germans and started to lightly apply pressure the Americans to come to back to the table. However with on going wars between the Chinese and Japanese and the Italians in a major colonial campaign in Africa the British had their hands full.
The next battle in the war was the Battle of Apia. Both America and Germany had replaced their losses from the cyclone of 1889. The Battle of Apia was between the USS Chicago one of the first ships built following the Spanish American War with the USS Dolphin in support. Against them was SMS Irene and SMS Prinzess Wilhelm. Chicago had heavier firepower than both the Irene and Prinzess Wilhelm but better trained gun crews made up for this. In this some odd battle of both sides being in port at the time the battle started saw the Germans carry the day. The Chicago and Dolphin did damage to the German ships, but the crews of the Irene and Prinzess Wilhelm put enough rounds into the Chicago to force her captain to strike her colors. The Dolphin then put to sea to escape.
Following the Battle of Apia on November 9th the two sides settled into a phony war as one newspaper said in December as nothing was really happening. This was more due to the distances in the war than anything else. Rear Admiral George Dewey only set sail on January 3rd 1895 from the American base in San Diego to retake Apia. He was escorting a force under the command of Bvt. Major General Arthur MacArthur Jr who commanded a force of some 50,000 men. Under Dewey’s own command was basically every naval ship in the Pacific Fleet that could make the journey to the Southwest Pacific leaving behind only civil war era monitors to defend the Pacific Coast of the United States. Two weeks prior the Germans had sent Generalmajor Friedrich von Bernhardi to reinforce its Pacific holdings. Under the command of von Bernhardi was the command some 25,000 troops with some of its old ironclads to escort and reinforce these colonies as well.
At the same time the Germans were planning a highly risky invasion of the American Virgin Islands. Kaiser Wilhelm decided he was going to strip the United States of its Caribbean holdings and used the Virgin Islands as his base of operations to move on to Puerto Rico and then Cuba. This was being planned by Generalfeldmarschall Alfred von Waldersee. The US knew something like this and had made the call not to ship more ships to the Pacific as they knew[7] what the Germans were sending and were betting that Dewey’s fleet could handle them.
[1] Nothing massive, just the US ordering a few to a half of dozen new ships every year. Still isn’t anywhere what the US could do if it really if they decided to go full throttle on ship building. The army though hasn’t seen the same kind of funding increase that the navy has.
[2] Benjamin Bristow (R) 1877-1885 (Retired), Winfield Scott Hancock (D) 1885-1887 (Death/Natural), William Ralls Morrison (D) 1887-1889 (Lost re-election in the 1888 campaign), James G Blaine (R) 1889-1893 (Retired do to ill health), William McKinley (R) 1893-????
[3] How can I do a TL in this time frame and not have TR in it?
[4] Because of the mild naval build up that has been going on since 1876, these two ships are sisters ITL and have the lay out the OTL USS New York ACR-2. Only two ships in the class through.
[5] These are basically an American answer to the Japanese Kotaka.
[6] Basically think something like the British Centurion Class (1890) Battleships but with American weapons.
[7] An American Naval Intelligence Officer left behind in Germany and making trips to the Netherlands as needed.
Thanks for the update Jim Smitty. Tempers are hating up and really getting things into action mode. Both sides scrambling to get men and ships into position, but who will get there first.
Germany is going to get screwed no matter what. The US is going to build and recruit until they get revenge and acquire the territories. They may even take more from Germany, colony or money wise, so the treachery that Germany has performed. (In the US eyes ITTL)
Britain is going to lose face and goodwill by siding and aiding Germany. Not actual War, but their actions will chill relations and make the US less likely to help Britain down the road.
I look forward to what will happen in Samoa and what the US can do to take Germany down a peg or two.
Germany is going to get screwed no matter what. The US is going to build and recruit until they get revenge and acquire the territories. They may even take more from Germany, colony or money wise, so the treachery that Germany has performed. (In the US eyes ITTL)
Britain is going to lose face and goodwill by siding and aiding Germany. Not actual War, but their actions will chill relations and make the US less likely to help Britain down the road.
I look forward to what will happen in Samoa and what the US can do to take Germany down a peg or two.
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This is either incredibly bold, or just incredibly stupid.... even for Germans.
Ah screw it, just blame Wilhelm.
Ah screw it, just blame Wilhelm.
Zert the spelling and grammer has been noted before. I personally think I'm a far cry from where I was when I first started on this site and its still improving.
Thank you I need that laugh.
Thank you I need that laugh.
My apologies, was not meant as a dig. I myself can be a crappy speller without spellcheck.I have edited out that line.
I very much appreciate the story and your style.
Looking forward to the next update when you can.
Island War 1894-95, Part Two
The Island War of 1894-95, Part Two
Over the course of December and January there was a low in the fighting. The only fighting at this time was merchant raiding by both Germany and the United States in the Atlantic. Even through most expected this surprise war that came out of nowhere to take place mostly in the Pacific, neither had the ships in place to perform merchant raiding in the Pacific. However, both sides were taking this low in the fighting to plan for the future. For the US this was a twofold mission. First they were planning for a defense of the Eastern Seaboard and their Caribbean territories. They knew there was a chance that Germany might tried to perform an invasion of the US or more likely their Caribbean territories. It was why Admiral Dewey wasn’t expecting reinforcements from the much larger Atlantic Fleet to take on the Germans in the Pacific.
The second plan the US was working on in December 1894 was the invasion of German Togoland. Even through the US had no interest in holding any territory on the Dark Continent it was viewed as something they could possibly take and use a bargaining chip at peace talks when those were held. Lt General William Shafter who was the senior army officer and the de facto chief of staff was looking at the possibly of this African Campaign seriously viewed this plan as a plan of last resort. It was believed that Germany would come to the table if they were defeated in the Pacific. However, in the event Germany refused to come to the table after such a defeat this was viewed as the next step in the war. It was also viewed as a way to regain a status quo should Dewey and MacArthur lose in the Pacific.
Admiral Dewey and his fleet was the first in the race to reinforce the SW Pacific even though they left two weeks after the German fleet had left Wilhelmshaven. Instead of heading for Apia, Dewey and his fleet head had headed to Pago Pago after recoiling in Hawaii. The soldiers and Marines who landed at Pago Pago on February 9th only met light resistance and that was from local pro-German groups who had been armed with cast offs or captured American weapons. With Pago Pago in his hands, Dewey when about recoiling his ships again and turning the harbor into his base of operations in the region.
Dewey and his fleet wasn’t at Pago Pago long through. Leaving behind the USS Boston and USS McCulloch a cutter that had been in the service of the US Revenue Cutter Service before the war Dewey made his way to Apia. This would lead to the Battle of the Apolima Strait on February 16th. Dewey’s seven strong fleet caught the SMS Irene as she was returning from Simpsonhafen. At the time Dewey was screening the ships that were being used by MacArthur’s troops to take Apia itself from the small German Garrison that held the harbor. The Irene was in a poor positioned as she was badly outnumbered, outgunned as all of Dewey’s ships had eight inch guns where the Irene largest guns were 15 cm. Worse yet three of the seven ships in Dewey’s fleet were quicker than the Irene. The Irene’s captain did what any captain would have done. She did hard over on the rudder and when to flank to try and out run the Americans. Only with the USS Olympia [1], USS Baltimore, and USS Raleigh all closing the gap at an alarming speed the four ships opened fire. The Irene was having to fight three ships at once where three ships were all firing on her. As she was being racked from the more powerful eight inch shells of the Americans her gunners were proving that they were just as good as they had been back in November, but they couldn’t fight their ways out of this one. With his ship listing and taking on water the captain of the Irene order his crew to abandon ship and scuttle her.
Fighting in Apia itself was over fairly quickly. The German garrison was a platoon size unit with German officers and NCOs and locals filling out the ranks. Being outgunned and outnumbered they put up a defense that was more for the shake of honor than anything else. After fighting for about ten minutes the commander surrender to the Americans and ending fighting on Samoa. The US suffered some 17 dead and 78 wounded in taking Apia along with minor damage to all three cruisers of the Olympia class. For Germany they had suffered 45 dead, with another 387 sailors and soldiers taken prisoner.
With Apia in his hands Dewey took a few days to perform repairs to the Olympia class cruisers before he made his way to Simpsonhafen. Dewey knew that the German fleet had set sail for the SW Pacific two weeks prior him leaving San Diego. He wanted to catch that fleet before it reached Simpsonhafen and had the chance to recoal and recover from this journey. He lost the race when he reached Simpsonhafen on March the 23rd, three days after the Germans did under Konteradmiral Otto von Diederichs and his five ship fleet had reached the port.
Konteradmiral von Diederichs fleet was made up of the two Kaiser class ironclads, the SMS Oldenburg, and a pair of aviso. Germany simply didn’t have more modern ships to send to the Southwest Pacific and sent these older ironclads. With Dewey having missed his shot at an open battle instead started to blockade Simpsonhafen as the ships carrying MacArthur’s troops moved into a position to land on New Pomerania.
MacArthur oped for a double envelopment landing system land troops in both Open Bay and Wide Bay[2] on the 24th. His foe von Bernhardi knew that a landing in his rear was likely. So he ordered his troops to start digging in. His force was armed with some of the most advance equipment that Germany had to offer at the moment. The two big items were the Gewehr 1888 rifle and the Maxim Machine Gun both of which were better to what the American troops had to use in the Simpsonhafen campaign. The US Army was using Gatling Guns a design that dated from the Civil War and the Marines using the newest machine gun the M1894 Colt-Browning Machine Gun[3]. The rifles used by both the army and marines through fell let short of what the Mauser could do.
The Battle of Simpsonhafen started on March 25th. The Americans fighting on New Pomerania came to quickly understand that the Germans simply had better guns then they did. The only trump card they had to play was their five 1.65 inch Hotchkiss Guns. This light artillery help the US gain the upper hand. The Germans had their own artillery, a battery of Krupp FK 73s. The Hotchkiss Guns used by the US were lighter and able to move better in the rough terrain of New Pomerania. This gave the Americans the edge in artillery on land. A edge they badly needed.
After two days of brutal fighting, Dewey and the Navy seeing that MacArthur was taking a beating, decided to charge into the battle instead of simply blockading the Germans. This caught the Germans under von Diederichs by surprise. Most of the crews had dismounted to fight as naval infantry units to help hold the line against MacArthur’s larger force. This meant they couldn’t leave the docks where they were tied up to. The gun crews of the ships were still there and started to return fire, but being unable to move made them a sitting target. However, in von Diederichs defense if von Bernhardi and his force would had been overran he would been dead anyways as he understood he wasn’t about to get away from Dewey’s fleet. One by one the ships of the fleet of von Diederichs was disabled and knocked out of the fight.
With von Diederichs fleet knocked out, Dewey opened fire on von Bernhardi’s force. The heavy firepower brought things to a speedy end. Von Bernhardi would surrender his force just before sundown on the 27th. The US had paid a heavy price for having the crappier end of the small arms fight at Simpsonhafen. They suffered 1,392 dead in the two days of fighting to take Simpsonhafen with a further 1,932 wounded. The Germans under von Bernhardi suffered numbers well under MacArthur with 839 dead and 1,208 wounded in the two days of fighting to hold the port.
The only other ship the Germans had in the area the SMS Prinzess Wilhelm had been patrolling near Bougainville Island at this time only to return to Simpsonhafen on April 1st to recoal only to find part of Dewey’s fleet there. Not wanting to fight she left the area and was able to get away. She docked at Port Moresby and was able to take on more coal and then try to effect the US movements in the area who was moving to take over all German outpost in the area.
After learning of the defeat at Simpsonhafen Kaiser Wilhelm became upset and ordered an invasion of the US Caribbean that day. However, his general staff both in the army and navy viewed this as foolish. They use slow orders to keep the fleet from sailing to the Caribbean and what they viewed as a suicide mission. A few days after learning of the defeat of Simpsonhafen, Wilhelm calmed down and agree to see reason and cancelled the planned invasion of the American Virgin Islands. He then ordered peace feelers to be send out to the United States.
The US was more than willing to start peace talks and agreed to a cease fire on April 30th. Peace talks started at The Hague six weeks later. Negotiations were hard fought but with the US being clear winner of the war put them in the driver seat. The Germans under the terms of the Treaty of The Hague surrendered all rights to Samoan Island Group. They also turned over control of German New Guinea to the United States which effetely pushed Germany out of the Pacific. Further Germany admitted fault at the Battle of Caracas. In return the United States paid Germany 3.5 million dollars for all the infrastructure it had in German New Guinea.
[1] More or less OTL, but it was a class run of three.
[2] I’m using Google Maps, and I shit you not that is their name.
[3] With butterflies the M1895 came into service about a year earlier.
Over the course of December and January there was a low in the fighting. The only fighting at this time was merchant raiding by both Germany and the United States in the Atlantic. Even through most expected this surprise war that came out of nowhere to take place mostly in the Pacific, neither had the ships in place to perform merchant raiding in the Pacific. However, both sides were taking this low in the fighting to plan for the future. For the US this was a twofold mission. First they were planning for a defense of the Eastern Seaboard and their Caribbean territories. They knew there was a chance that Germany might tried to perform an invasion of the US or more likely their Caribbean territories. It was why Admiral Dewey wasn’t expecting reinforcements from the much larger Atlantic Fleet to take on the Germans in the Pacific.
The second plan the US was working on in December 1894 was the invasion of German Togoland. Even through the US had no interest in holding any territory on the Dark Continent it was viewed as something they could possibly take and use a bargaining chip at peace talks when those were held. Lt General William Shafter who was the senior army officer and the de facto chief of staff was looking at the possibly of this African Campaign seriously viewed this plan as a plan of last resort. It was believed that Germany would come to the table if they were defeated in the Pacific. However, in the event Germany refused to come to the table after such a defeat this was viewed as the next step in the war. It was also viewed as a way to regain a status quo should Dewey and MacArthur lose in the Pacific.
Admiral Dewey and his fleet was the first in the race to reinforce the SW Pacific even though they left two weeks after the German fleet had left Wilhelmshaven. Instead of heading for Apia, Dewey and his fleet head had headed to Pago Pago after recoiling in Hawaii. The soldiers and Marines who landed at Pago Pago on February 9th only met light resistance and that was from local pro-German groups who had been armed with cast offs or captured American weapons. With Pago Pago in his hands, Dewey when about recoiling his ships again and turning the harbor into his base of operations in the region.
Dewey and his fleet wasn’t at Pago Pago long through. Leaving behind the USS Boston and USS McCulloch a cutter that had been in the service of the US Revenue Cutter Service before the war Dewey made his way to Apia. This would lead to the Battle of the Apolima Strait on February 16th. Dewey’s seven strong fleet caught the SMS Irene as she was returning from Simpsonhafen. At the time Dewey was screening the ships that were being used by MacArthur’s troops to take Apia itself from the small German Garrison that held the harbor. The Irene was in a poor positioned as she was badly outnumbered, outgunned as all of Dewey’s ships had eight inch guns where the Irene largest guns were 15 cm. Worse yet three of the seven ships in Dewey’s fleet were quicker than the Irene. The Irene’s captain did what any captain would have done. She did hard over on the rudder and when to flank to try and out run the Americans. Only with the USS Olympia [1], USS Baltimore, and USS Raleigh all closing the gap at an alarming speed the four ships opened fire. The Irene was having to fight three ships at once where three ships were all firing on her. As she was being racked from the more powerful eight inch shells of the Americans her gunners were proving that they were just as good as they had been back in November, but they couldn’t fight their ways out of this one. With his ship listing and taking on water the captain of the Irene order his crew to abandon ship and scuttle her.
Fighting in Apia itself was over fairly quickly. The German garrison was a platoon size unit with German officers and NCOs and locals filling out the ranks. Being outgunned and outnumbered they put up a defense that was more for the shake of honor than anything else. After fighting for about ten minutes the commander surrender to the Americans and ending fighting on Samoa. The US suffered some 17 dead and 78 wounded in taking Apia along with minor damage to all three cruisers of the Olympia class. For Germany they had suffered 45 dead, with another 387 sailors and soldiers taken prisoner.
With Apia in his hands Dewey took a few days to perform repairs to the Olympia class cruisers before he made his way to Simpsonhafen. Dewey knew that the German fleet had set sail for the SW Pacific two weeks prior him leaving San Diego. He wanted to catch that fleet before it reached Simpsonhafen and had the chance to recoal and recover from this journey. He lost the race when he reached Simpsonhafen on March the 23rd, three days after the Germans did under Konteradmiral Otto von Diederichs and his five ship fleet had reached the port.
Konteradmiral von Diederichs fleet was made up of the two Kaiser class ironclads, the SMS Oldenburg, and a pair of aviso. Germany simply didn’t have more modern ships to send to the Southwest Pacific and sent these older ironclads. With Dewey having missed his shot at an open battle instead started to blockade Simpsonhafen as the ships carrying MacArthur’s troops moved into a position to land on New Pomerania.
MacArthur oped for a double envelopment landing system land troops in both Open Bay and Wide Bay[2] on the 24th. His foe von Bernhardi knew that a landing in his rear was likely. So he ordered his troops to start digging in. His force was armed with some of the most advance equipment that Germany had to offer at the moment. The two big items were the Gewehr 1888 rifle and the Maxim Machine Gun both of which were better to what the American troops had to use in the Simpsonhafen campaign. The US Army was using Gatling Guns a design that dated from the Civil War and the Marines using the newest machine gun the M1894 Colt-Browning Machine Gun[3]. The rifles used by both the army and marines through fell let short of what the Mauser could do.
The Battle of Simpsonhafen started on March 25th. The Americans fighting on New Pomerania came to quickly understand that the Germans simply had better guns then they did. The only trump card they had to play was their five 1.65 inch Hotchkiss Guns. This light artillery help the US gain the upper hand. The Germans had their own artillery, a battery of Krupp FK 73s. The Hotchkiss Guns used by the US were lighter and able to move better in the rough terrain of New Pomerania. This gave the Americans the edge in artillery on land. A edge they badly needed.
After two days of brutal fighting, Dewey and the Navy seeing that MacArthur was taking a beating, decided to charge into the battle instead of simply blockading the Germans. This caught the Germans under von Diederichs by surprise. Most of the crews had dismounted to fight as naval infantry units to help hold the line against MacArthur’s larger force. This meant they couldn’t leave the docks where they were tied up to. The gun crews of the ships were still there and started to return fire, but being unable to move made them a sitting target. However, in von Diederichs defense if von Bernhardi and his force would had been overran he would been dead anyways as he understood he wasn’t about to get away from Dewey’s fleet. One by one the ships of the fleet of von Diederichs was disabled and knocked out of the fight.
With von Diederichs fleet knocked out, Dewey opened fire on von Bernhardi’s force. The heavy firepower brought things to a speedy end. Von Bernhardi would surrender his force just before sundown on the 27th. The US had paid a heavy price for having the crappier end of the small arms fight at Simpsonhafen. They suffered 1,392 dead in the two days of fighting to take Simpsonhafen with a further 1,932 wounded. The Germans under von Bernhardi suffered numbers well under MacArthur with 839 dead and 1,208 wounded in the two days of fighting to hold the port.
The only other ship the Germans had in the area the SMS Prinzess Wilhelm had been patrolling near Bougainville Island at this time only to return to Simpsonhafen on April 1st to recoal only to find part of Dewey’s fleet there. Not wanting to fight she left the area and was able to get away. She docked at Port Moresby and was able to take on more coal and then try to effect the US movements in the area who was moving to take over all German outpost in the area.
After learning of the defeat at Simpsonhafen Kaiser Wilhelm became upset and ordered an invasion of the US Caribbean that day. However, his general staff both in the army and navy viewed this as foolish. They use slow orders to keep the fleet from sailing to the Caribbean and what they viewed as a suicide mission. A few days after learning of the defeat of Simpsonhafen, Wilhelm calmed down and agree to see reason and cancelled the planned invasion of the American Virgin Islands. He then ordered peace feelers to be send out to the United States.
The US was more than willing to start peace talks and agreed to a cease fire on April 30th. Peace talks started at The Hague six weeks later. Negotiations were hard fought but with the US being clear winner of the war put them in the driver seat. The Germans under the terms of the Treaty of The Hague surrendered all rights to Samoan Island Group. They also turned over control of German New Guinea to the United States which effetely pushed Germany out of the Pacific. Further Germany admitted fault at the Battle of Caracas. In return the United States paid Germany 3.5 million dollars for all the infrastructure it had in German New Guinea.
[1] More or less OTL, but it was a class run of three.
[2] I’m using Google Maps, and I shit you not that is their name.
[3] With butterflies the M1895 came into service about a year earlier.
The US has gained some new territories and island bases. They also have a new land that borders the NEI and British/Australian controlled Papua. This may or may not become a sore point in a later confrontation between the US and England.
What will the US rename their new lands in the southwest Pacific?
What will the US rename their new lands in the southwest Pacific?
Sino-Japanese War 1894-95
Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95
The war between the Chinese and Japanese came about as to Korea. Japan which had only in the past few decades had come out 200 plus years of national seclusion, had come to had some European taste, notably that for an empire. They viewed making their own empire along western lines as the best way to keep from becoming a western vessel state or outright colony like other once great empires were becoming in Southeast Asia. However, for the Japanese their nation was lacking in natural resources needed to build a modern industrial state. Outside of coal everything had to be imported in to turn the once hermit kingdom into a modern power. Many within the Japanese Government viewed Korea as a dagger pointing right at the heart of their nation that had be brought under their control.
In 1894, the Kingdom of Joseon as Korea was then known was more or less a puppet of the Qing Empire. Even through the Qing Empire as China was then known had suffered embarrassing defeats at the hands of Westerns for decades now. However, many within the Qing Court viewed themselves as the strongest Empire in Asia. They have even embarked on a series of reforms to transform their nation into something that could stand up to the western nations and reserve the tied that had started with the First Opium War in which western powers had enforced their will on the Chinese people.
The only problem was the Chinese of the Qing Court were hopeless corrupted. Public corruption was nothing new, and indeed all states suffered from it to some degree. However, the scale of the corruption within the Qing Court was mind blowing. Officers of all ranks of the Beiyang Army and Navy regularly embezzled funds which had caused the Beiyang Navy to stop buying newer warships from overseas shipyards as they simply didn’t have the money to buy more ships with the scale of this embezzlement. In 1891 they stopped buying ammo for both the army and navy as those funds were moved to renovate the Summer Palace in Peking. In one even more surprising case the captain of the flagship of the Beiyang fleet, the Dingyuan, pawned one of the 12 inch guns of his ship[1]. On top of the massive opium use within the Beiyang military system and political rivalry of the other military systems within the Qing Empire meant the Chinese were truthy fall weaker than they looked on paper. Put together with the fact they hadn’t seen officers to Europe and the Americas to study modern military tactics was asking basically the same as asking someone to put a match to a piece of paper that had been soak in kerosene only no one really under stood this at the time.
Even through tensions between China and Japan were running high in the summer of 1894, they hadn’t reached the point of open war. Things came to a head through when the Kingdom of Joseon suffered a peasant rebellion[2] and requested help from the Qing Empire. The Qing then sent help without informing the Japanese which broke a number of agreements and treaties the two had with each other. This in turn caused the Japanese to send its own troops into Korea. Even through the Qing forces were already leaving Korea as they hadn’t been needed to put town this peasant rebellion, the Japanese used this window to empower a pro-Japanese Korean faction and allow them to take control of the Kingdom of Joseon. The Qing viewed this as an act of war against them and declared war on the Japanese on July 25th 1894. At the time many who were looking at this war as the then ongoing Italo-Ethiopian War was viewed as just another colonial campaign came to study this war. Many believed that the Chinese would soundly defeat the Japanese.
Fighting had taking place between the Chinese and Japanese even before the official Chinese declaration of war against the Japanese. Because of the poor state of the roads in Manchuria and Korea the easiest way to move troops was via the Yellow Sea. Even through war hadn’t been declared yet, things were reaching the breaking point between the two Asian nations. Not wanting to be seen as backing down and not ready to risk their most advance fleet in the Beiyang, the Chinese rented a British flag transport to reinforce their troops at Asan. The Chinese ran into Japanese cruiser squadron and the first signs of Chinese incompetent showed themselves at this battle. In the action that followed the Chinese munity on the British transport when the British crew decided to follow international law and return to China. The transport was sunk in turn by the Japanese. The Japanese also captured both of the gunboats that the Chinese were using to escort the transport.
This caused a diplomatic incident between the British and Japanese. The Chinese who believed they could crush the Japanese when to war siting this action as their reason for war. However, a British court later ruled that the Japanese had followed the rules of international law when dealing with a ship that had mutinied. Even through the Japanese had refused to save the Chinese who had abandon ship caused a black eye in the view of the world. This started a comedy of errors by the Chinese in this war.
Through what could only be called gross incompetent, the Chinese Army at Pyongyang was encircled by the Japanese. This was the second army to surrender to the Japanese since the start of the war, with the smaller army at Asan had already surrender. Even through the Japanese outnumbered the Chinese at Pyongyang, they suffered a faction of the casualties. The Japanese in turn wasn’t ready for the flood of Chinese prisoners. Even after the 3,000 dead Chinese there was 13,000 prisoners who walked into prison camps when they surrender September 3rd.
With their position coming part in Korea the Chinese started trying to reverse the course of the war. They wanted to hold the Japanese south of the Yalu River to keep them out of China itself. When the earlier half measures not being enough they committed the bulk of the Beiyang Fleet to guard a convoy of a new army to enter Korea and shore up the failing positions there. The Japanese fleet under Ito Sukeyuki was able to trap the Chinese who had orders not to travel before the Yalu River between the Yalu and their naval base at Port Arthur. With the Japanese ships being quicker than the Chinese the Chinese wasn’t able to out run the Japanese.
With the Chinese being trapped they tried to fight their way out. Only when they started trying to fire their guns did they learn that their ammo was either the wrong size of ammo or their power was filled with cement. The lack of crew training also a major effective in the battle itself as the Chinese guns fired at a far reduced rate of what could they. They also open fired at a range far to great range that furtherly caused them to use their limited ammo supply for no effect. It also seem the Chinese had no idea how to save guard their fleet from the actions of the Japanese which was taking their edges they were taking in the course for the battle. The Battle of the Yalu River was a decisive Japanese Victory. They forced the armored cruiser Jingyuan, protected cruiser Zhiyuan, and cruiser Jiyuan along with nine merchant ships to strike their colors. They also sunk the armored cruiser Laiyuan, protected cruiser Jingyuen, and Heien a coastal defense ship.
With the victories at Yalu River and Pyongyang by the end of October the Japanese Army enter Manchuria. Like in Korea the Chinese were grossly stupid and poor led with their commanders hadn’t been place in these positions because of political connections and not military skill. This led to the Japanese Army even through smaller to run circles around the Chinese in Manchuria. It also led to the surrender of Port Arthur to the Japanese on November 15th. A French Army officer who was attached to the Japanese army later said that if commanded by a proper command the forts that had defended Port Arthur would had held for years instead of the single day it fell in.
The Japanese started to run into an foe that they couldn’t defeat. This was international finance. Following the start of The Island War two major sources of funding in Germany and the United States dried up. Even the British sources dried up to some degree. This caused the Japanese to enter winter quarters instead of staying on the offensive following their victory at Port Arthur as they couldn’t afford to stay on the offensive and pay for everything that was needed to be paid for in a war. They started prepping for an offensive in the spring.
With the defeat of the Germans in the Pacific War the British approved a major loan at low rates to the Japanese as they started looking for a nation that could possibly be used as a counter weight to the Americans in the Pacific. This allowed the Japanese to restart their offensive earlier than they planned. On April 5th the Japanese started their offensive which they had slated to start in May. This was the Shandong Campaign. And with the new funding the Japanese who were still trying to force China to agree them push harder than they had in Manchuria.
The Battle of Wiehaiwei started three days later. Wiehaiwei was where the remaining units of the Beiyang Fleet were hold up and the Japanese needed to remove these units to the threat to their navy and merchant marine so they could invade Formosa which had become the goal of the Japanese in this war. Even through the Chinese had been given this pause in fighting before the start of the Shandong Campaign, they had failed to use it. Many officers were still more worried about how they were doing than how their nation was going to perform in the war. Opium smoking became a major problem with some units as they viewed fighting the Japanese as death sentence. Without the officers trying to maintain discipline the problem grew.
Wiehaiwei fell in 5 days. Admiral Ding Ruchang committed suicide instead of surrender to the Japanese. Even through he ordered the Beiyang Fleet to scuttle itself before he killed himself that order never reached the ships in the harbor. The Japanese was able to capture two battleships and a number of lesser vessels. With the Beiyang Fleet destroyed or captured the Qing Empire finally agreed to ask for terms.
Only the Japanese were ready yet. They used legal tricks to stall the Chinese peace delegation as they launched their invasion of the invasion of Pescadores Islands. The islands fell fairly quickly and by April 30th they were under their control. With those islands under their control, the Japanese finally started peace talks.
The Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed on May 9th. Under the terms of the treaty the Chinese recognized the full and total independence of Korea. All forms tribute and performance ceremonies that Korea once paid to China was ended. China ceded in perpetuity and full sovereignty of the Pescadores Island Group, Formosa, the cities of Qingdao[3] and Wiehaiwei[4].[5] China would further pay Japan 255 million kuping taels worth of silver. China granted Japan most favored nation status and open a large number of ports to Japanese trade.
[1] I’m fairly sure this happened, but I can’t remember where I read this.
[2] Basically the OTL Donghak Peasant Rebellion, but ITL its called something else.
[3] OTL Kiautschou Bay Concession
[4] OTL Port Edwards in size
[5] Yes the Japanese wanted Port Arthur more. However, the Russians made it clear they wanted it and overplayed their hand and let the Japanese know that the Russians wouldn’t allow them to annex Port Arthur. So they refocused on Shandong area instead of facing a show down on the subject over it with the Russians.
The war between the Chinese and Japanese came about as to Korea. Japan which had only in the past few decades had come out 200 plus years of national seclusion, had come to had some European taste, notably that for an empire. They viewed making their own empire along western lines as the best way to keep from becoming a western vessel state or outright colony like other once great empires were becoming in Southeast Asia. However, for the Japanese their nation was lacking in natural resources needed to build a modern industrial state. Outside of coal everything had to be imported in to turn the once hermit kingdom into a modern power. Many within the Japanese Government viewed Korea as a dagger pointing right at the heart of their nation that had be brought under their control.
In 1894, the Kingdom of Joseon as Korea was then known was more or less a puppet of the Qing Empire. Even through the Qing Empire as China was then known had suffered embarrassing defeats at the hands of Westerns for decades now. However, many within the Qing Court viewed themselves as the strongest Empire in Asia. They have even embarked on a series of reforms to transform their nation into something that could stand up to the western nations and reserve the tied that had started with the First Opium War in which western powers had enforced their will on the Chinese people.
The only problem was the Chinese of the Qing Court were hopeless corrupted. Public corruption was nothing new, and indeed all states suffered from it to some degree. However, the scale of the corruption within the Qing Court was mind blowing. Officers of all ranks of the Beiyang Army and Navy regularly embezzled funds which had caused the Beiyang Navy to stop buying newer warships from overseas shipyards as they simply didn’t have the money to buy more ships with the scale of this embezzlement. In 1891 they stopped buying ammo for both the army and navy as those funds were moved to renovate the Summer Palace in Peking. In one even more surprising case the captain of the flagship of the Beiyang fleet, the Dingyuan, pawned one of the 12 inch guns of his ship[1]. On top of the massive opium use within the Beiyang military system and political rivalry of the other military systems within the Qing Empire meant the Chinese were truthy fall weaker than they looked on paper. Put together with the fact they hadn’t seen officers to Europe and the Americas to study modern military tactics was asking basically the same as asking someone to put a match to a piece of paper that had been soak in kerosene only no one really under stood this at the time.
Even through tensions between China and Japan were running high in the summer of 1894, they hadn’t reached the point of open war. Things came to a head through when the Kingdom of Joseon suffered a peasant rebellion[2] and requested help from the Qing Empire. The Qing then sent help without informing the Japanese which broke a number of agreements and treaties the two had with each other. This in turn caused the Japanese to send its own troops into Korea. Even through the Qing forces were already leaving Korea as they hadn’t been needed to put town this peasant rebellion, the Japanese used this window to empower a pro-Japanese Korean faction and allow them to take control of the Kingdom of Joseon. The Qing viewed this as an act of war against them and declared war on the Japanese on July 25th 1894. At the time many who were looking at this war as the then ongoing Italo-Ethiopian War was viewed as just another colonial campaign came to study this war. Many believed that the Chinese would soundly defeat the Japanese.
Fighting had taking place between the Chinese and Japanese even before the official Chinese declaration of war against the Japanese. Because of the poor state of the roads in Manchuria and Korea the easiest way to move troops was via the Yellow Sea. Even through war hadn’t been declared yet, things were reaching the breaking point between the two Asian nations. Not wanting to be seen as backing down and not ready to risk their most advance fleet in the Beiyang, the Chinese rented a British flag transport to reinforce their troops at Asan. The Chinese ran into Japanese cruiser squadron and the first signs of Chinese incompetent showed themselves at this battle. In the action that followed the Chinese munity on the British transport when the British crew decided to follow international law and return to China. The transport was sunk in turn by the Japanese. The Japanese also captured both of the gunboats that the Chinese were using to escort the transport.
This caused a diplomatic incident between the British and Japanese. The Chinese who believed they could crush the Japanese when to war siting this action as their reason for war. However, a British court later ruled that the Japanese had followed the rules of international law when dealing with a ship that had mutinied. Even through the Japanese had refused to save the Chinese who had abandon ship caused a black eye in the view of the world. This started a comedy of errors by the Chinese in this war.
Through what could only be called gross incompetent, the Chinese Army at Pyongyang was encircled by the Japanese. This was the second army to surrender to the Japanese since the start of the war, with the smaller army at Asan had already surrender. Even through the Japanese outnumbered the Chinese at Pyongyang, they suffered a faction of the casualties. The Japanese in turn wasn’t ready for the flood of Chinese prisoners. Even after the 3,000 dead Chinese there was 13,000 prisoners who walked into prison camps when they surrender September 3rd.
With their position coming part in Korea the Chinese started trying to reverse the course of the war. They wanted to hold the Japanese south of the Yalu River to keep them out of China itself. When the earlier half measures not being enough they committed the bulk of the Beiyang Fleet to guard a convoy of a new army to enter Korea and shore up the failing positions there. The Japanese fleet under Ito Sukeyuki was able to trap the Chinese who had orders not to travel before the Yalu River between the Yalu and their naval base at Port Arthur. With the Japanese ships being quicker than the Chinese the Chinese wasn’t able to out run the Japanese.
With the Chinese being trapped they tried to fight their way out. Only when they started trying to fire their guns did they learn that their ammo was either the wrong size of ammo or their power was filled with cement. The lack of crew training also a major effective in the battle itself as the Chinese guns fired at a far reduced rate of what could they. They also open fired at a range far to great range that furtherly caused them to use their limited ammo supply for no effect. It also seem the Chinese had no idea how to save guard their fleet from the actions of the Japanese which was taking their edges they were taking in the course for the battle. The Battle of the Yalu River was a decisive Japanese Victory. They forced the armored cruiser Jingyuan, protected cruiser Zhiyuan, and cruiser Jiyuan along with nine merchant ships to strike their colors. They also sunk the armored cruiser Laiyuan, protected cruiser Jingyuen, and Heien a coastal defense ship.
With the victories at Yalu River and Pyongyang by the end of October the Japanese Army enter Manchuria. Like in Korea the Chinese were grossly stupid and poor led with their commanders hadn’t been place in these positions because of political connections and not military skill. This led to the Japanese Army even through smaller to run circles around the Chinese in Manchuria. It also led to the surrender of Port Arthur to the Japanese on November 15th. A French Army officer who was attached to the Japanese army later said that if commanded by a proper command the forts that had defended Port Arthur would had held for years instead of the single day it fell in.
The Japanese started to run into an foe that they couldn’t defeat. This was international finance. Following the start of The Island War two major sources of funding in Germany and the United States dried up. Even the British sources dried up to some degree. This caused the Japanese to enter winter quarters instead of staying on the offensive following their victory at Port Arthur as they couldn’t afford to stay on the offensive and pay for everything that was needed to be paid for in a war. They started prepping for an offensive in the spring.
With the defeat of the Germans in the Pacific War the British approved a major loan at low rates to the Japanese as they started looking for a nation that could possibly be used as a counter weight to the Americans in the Pacific. This allowed the Japanese to restart their offensive earlier than they planned. On April 5th the Japanese started their offensive which they had slated to start in May. This was the Shandong Campaign. And with the new funding the Japanese who were still trying to force China to agree them push harder than they had in Manchuria.
The Battle of Wiehaiwei started three days later. Wiehaiwei was where the remaining units of the Beiyang Fleet were hold up and the Japanese needed to remove these units to the threat to their navy and merchant marine so they could invade Formosa which had become the goal of the Japanese in this war. Even through the Chinese had been given this pause in fighting before the start of the Shandong Campaign, they had failed to use it. Many officers were still more worried about how they were doing than how their nation was going to perform in the war. Opium smoking became a major problem with some units as they viewed fighting the Japanese as death sentence. Without the officers trying to maintain discipline the problem grew.
Wiehaiwei fell in 5 days. Admiral Ding Ruchang committed suicide instead of surrender to the Japanese. Even through he ordered the Beiyang Fleet to scuttle itself before he killed himself that order never reached the ships in the harbor. The Japanese was able to capture two battleships and a number of lesser vessels. With the Beiyang Fleet destroyed or captured the Qing Empire finally agreed to ask for terms.
Only the Japanese were ready yet. They used legal tricks to stall the Chinese peace delegation as they launched their invasion of the invasion of Pescadores Islands. The islands fell fairly quickly and by April 30th they were under their control. With those islands under their control, the Japanese finally started peace talks.
The Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed on May 9th. Under the terms of the treaty the Chinese recognized the full and total independence of Korea. All forms tribute and performance ceremonies that Korea once paid to China was ended. China ceded in perpetuity and full sovereignty of the Pescadores Island Group, Formosa, the cities of Qingdao[3] and Wiehaiwei[4].[5] China would further pay Japan 255 million kuping taels worth of silver. China granted Japan most favored nation status and open a large number of ports to Japanese trade.
[1] I’m fairly sure this happened, but I can’t remember where I read this.
[2] Basically the OTL Donghak Peasant Rebellion, but ITL its called something else.
[3] OTL Kiautschou Bay Concession
[4] OTL Port Edwards in size
[5] Yes the Japanese wanted Port Arthur more. However, the Russians made it clear they wanted it and overplayed their hand and let the Japanese know that the Russians wouldn’t allow them to annex Port Arthur. So they refocused on Shandong area instead of facing a show down on the subject over it with the Russians.