Peter Parker
Banned
The US won the Spanish-American war, and forced Spain ti give up their Pacific and Caribbean colonies.
What if the US got the African colonies as well?
What if the US got the African colonies as well?
The US won the Spanish-American war, and forced Spain ti give up their Pacific and Caribbean colonies.
What if the US got the African colonies as well?
Were you considering the Canary Islands/Islas Canarias to be African?
At the time Spain only had Guinea
They were core provinces and taking them would not be acceptable
They were core provinces and taking them would not be acceptable
Taking Equatorial Guinea would be hard, because the Europeans wouldn't stand for it
Were you considering the Canary Islands/Islas Canarias to be African?
Were you considering the Canary Islands/Islas Canarias to be African?
They were core provinces and taking them would not be acceptable
Taking Equatorial Guinea would be hard, because the Europeans wouldn't stand for it
They are african, but they aren't a colony, or to avoid complicated terrain, their population feels themselves like any other spaniard and are seen like any other spaniard. Some would prefer to be independent (I doubt those existed in 1898) so, just like any other spanish region.
Now, there is no way Spain is going to cede the Canary Islands without a fight, even after Cavite and Santiago. And in this scenario the roles are somewhat reversed. Spain plays nearer home and with sympathetic population, while the USA plays far from its bases and with hostile population. Equatorial Gunea...maybe if the americans really press for it, though you have the treaties establishing the scramble of Africa, so other powers won't be happy. Also, I don't think 1898 USA had either the will or even the power projection to enforce a claim there by military means.
....Rear Admiral Francis M. Ramsay, chief of the influential Bureau of Navigation, had long been an strong opponent of the Naval War College, and it is likely that he was the one who persuaded Secretary of the Navy Hilary Herbert to convene a board in the summer of 1896 to draft a separate plan for war with Spain. Like the Kimball plan, the Ramsay Board focused on the a naval blockade, but added the deep water ports of Puerto Rico to those of Cuba. The destruction of crops in Cuba by both sides led the Board to believe that the Spanish garrison needed to import food in order to survive. A relief force from Spain would consume most of its coal simply in crossing the Atlantic and thus would be in no position to engage American naval forces. Although the present strength of the U.S. Navy was sufficient to meet and defeat any fleet arriving from Spain, the Board called for the purchase of a number of small fast steamers to enforce the blockade. Finally, the European Squadron should be reinforced by ships from the U.S. and the Asiatic Squadron, and together operate against the Spanish coast after capturing the Canary Islands as an advance base. Captain Taylor strongly dissented from the views of the Board stating that large operations in Spanish waters were too dangerous, and that a naval blockade would not be sufficient to subdue Spanish forces in Cuba.9
Perhaps confused by the different positions in the existing plans, the new Secretary of the Navy, John Long, convened his own War Planning Board under Commander in Chief of the North Atlantic Station, Rear Admiral Montgomery Sicard, in June 1897. Chief Intelligence Officer Lieutenant Commander Richard Wainwright was the only member who had served on the previous board. The Sicard Board endorsed the War College idea that joint operations against Havana would be necessary to end the war. Therefore, the plan called for the early seizure of Matanzas, sixty miles east of Havana, to serve as a base of operations against the latter, and to deliver arms to the Cuban insurgents. Purchased or chartered merchant steamers were to be armed and sent to the Caribbean to enforce a swift and strong blockade. This would also free the heavier ships to intercept a relief force from Spain. The members emphasized the need for colliers to refuel the fleet on blockade rather than forcing vessels to return to coaling stations. Although the Board rejected the idea of trying to capture the Canary Islands, it recommended the formation of a flying squadron consisting of two armored cruisers and two commerce destroyers to operate on the coast of Spain in order to detain Spanish ships in home waters. .......