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As most everyone here probably knows, from 1887 to 1889 the United States and Imperial Germany were engaged in a naval standoff over the island nation of Samoa, which both nations had competing interests in. At the time, Sāmoa was in the midst of a civil war, with warriors led by tribal leader Mata’afa Iosefo (backed diplomatically by the US and Britain) battling forces led by Tamasese, a German-installed puppet king. Three American warships faced down three German warships until March 1889, when a cyclone wiped out the flotillas of both nations in Apia’s harbor. Fighting on Samoa continued on and off until 1899 when an agreement between the US, Britain, and Germany divided Samoa into American and German posessions.
So, had the Germans deployed the marines and the US intervened in response, what would a US-German war in 1888 have looked like? Would it have been largely limited to a naval conflict centered around Samoa, or could there be fighting in other locations? How would the British have responded to the outbreak of such a conflict? IOTL the British had interests in Samoa as well and deployed a single warship to the island during the crisis of 1887-1889. Who would the likely victor be? I assume it would be whoever had naval superiority in that area of the Pacific, which I unfortunately do not know.