Tested some stuff for this out in the writer's forum, now posting here with final changes.
1.
“When the first U.S. Marines ran ashore at Swakopmund on January 10th, 1890 they were presented with sights none could scarcely have dreamed of before. Moving inland, for the Germans had posted virtually nothing to defend the coast even after two years of war, they looked out other the endless expanse of Namibian desert and many wondered just why the Germans would ever have wanted it. Smoke rose from across the desert where American shells had come down in the pre-landing bombardment, a bombardment rendered completely pointless because the only German-speaking enemy to be found were the civil servants in the town itself, and a couple of Marines shyly pet camels as curious herders stopped to watch these bands of white men in tan uniforms and cowboy hats milling about apparently unsure of what to do with themselves.
“We could hardly believe it,” said a Private Eugene Stetson from Oregon. “We’d crossed an ocean for the grand adventure across Africa, and for what?” A few frustrated Marines found solace by introducing themselves to the local women in Swakopmund, some among a whole community overawed by the flotilla of grand iron ships, many still with sail rigs, on an ocean while glimmered bluer than scarcely any American there had ever seen. Two days later, the Marines would finally get the action they craved – but it was only action they could watch. Belching black smoke from her funnels, the German armoured warship Oldenburg surged over the horizon and the battleship Florida moved to engage. The German turned hard to port to bring her 10 inch guns to bear, but created a greater profile for Florida to target. As the growing crowd of Marines and civilians watched excitedly, Oldenburg fired once only to gain the spectacle of water splashing up in front of the charging Florida. The American fired back, and two shells slammed into the German’s side. Wounded, she tried to turn away but flames were licking all over from within and her captain instead directed the stricken vessel to beach herself at Swakopmund. The Marines on the beach soon had to run as the burning vessel came right for them, her steel bow ploughing into the sand and an intense screeching coming from her body, like a braking freight train, as Oldenburg tore into the beach and came to a rest, still ablaze, her rear half still in the water to be tickled by the cresting white waves. German sailors leaped onto the sand, others into the water to swim the few paces ashore. They watched in despair as the black silhouettes of American soldiers appeared on the beach, moving in a disorganised rush towards them. A few German sailors, soaked from head to toe, stumbled out of the water and tried to shake the hands of the Americans for their honourable defeat. Meanwhile, Oldenburg kept on burning.
The Marines could hardly have known that at that very moment, President Cleveland was standing before a delighted Congress to declare that the liberation of Namibia was the beginning of America’s new mission in the world; “the liberation of all people in all places.” His aides had tried to tone down the language, and that particular phrase had actually been removed at the last moment by Cleveland’s speechwriter. When the President realised as he read from it, he simply improvised it back in and birthed one of the great American moments. Cleveland appealed to the same American spirit which had brought almost all of the North American continent under the Stars and Stripes; at that very moment explorers were surveying some of the most remote parts of what had long ago been called Rupert’s Land. The speech was a moment that Europe watched with trepidation. France and Britain had been content to let the German-American War rage, both having been slowly coming to the realisation that there might not be enough room in Europe for three great powers. If America wanted to cut Germany down to size, they were happy to let her. But President Cleveland’s language was incendiary as far as all European empires were concerned. Was America planning on “liberating” their empires too? She was about to strip Namibia from Germany and had already wrestled away all her hard-won (or hard-bought in the case of what had once been Spanish) possessions in the Pacific. Now in some quarters there was even talk of revolution on the streets of Vienna, the German capital.
A few months later, on June 7th, the Treaty of the Hague would see Germany accept the independence of Namibia as a U.S. protectorate while German New Guinea, Palau, the Caroline Islands, Nauru, and the Marshall Islands would all become U.S. territories. Back in Germany the Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, was beside himself. The German Empire was, for all intents and purposes, gone after just a few years. It was a humiliation from which he could not recover. Nor, it seemed, could his bodyguards. One, Adolph Schneider, shot him in the back of the head as he retired to his study on June 10th. As the news of the killing spread, rioting erupted in the streets. The unrest was an expression of the German people’s horror at what had befallen their nation; they had been humbled, humiliated, by the Americans. “The world laughs at us,” cried the soon-to-be Maximilian I. When on December 7th, Maximilian took to the throne it was seen by some as a chance for Germany to start again. The new Kaiser hoped so too. But the only way that could happen would be if Europe, not just Germany, recognised the danger posed by America. Speaking to the French Ambassador two days after his coronation he said, “everything we could do to each other, they could do a thousand times worse.” A coalition was needed, he said. One that would ensure the Americans wouldn’t dare interfere in the grand European empires. Who were these Americans, anyway, to tell the enlightened centre of civilisation how it should behave? He asked the same question to John Sherman, who succeeded Cleveland in 1893. “We are the New World,” the 21st President replied. “Your betters in every way.”
- R. Wang, The Greatest Nation on Earth?, p.148.