American Sea Power in the Old World by William N. Still Jr

Author:William N. Still, Jr.
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781682473115
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
Published: 2018-01-09T00:00:00+00:00

9

THE NEAR EAST AND AFRICA, 1899–1905

Historian generally agree that the Eastern Question and the intense rivalry among the European powers for control of Africa were major causes of World War I. The decay of the Ottoman Empire continued to generate crisis after crisis. Africa south of the Sahara had been progressively partitioned until by the beginning of the twentieth century very little remained that was not under the control of a European nation. In North Africa, Tripoli, later known as Libya, became the scene of conflict between Italy and Turkey; and Morocco, nominally independent under a sultan but long dominated by foreign interests, was the center of two serious international quarrels before French control was stabilized there in 1912.

The United States had no territorial ambitions in either Africa or the Near East. Nevertheless, as in the past, she found herself embroiled in both areas. The continued unrest made it necessary to protect American interests. In the Ottoman Empire the American concern was primarily humanitarian, but in North Africa it was economic.

At the beginning of the twentieth century it was not unusual for nations to employ warships to collect debts. However, this occurred only when the debtor was the weaker nation or in nonwestern areas where there was political and economic instability. Great Britain, France, and Germany resorted to this practice on a number of occasions in Latin America. At times this practice led to a diplomatic confrontation with the United States, which continued to insist on its rights of paternalism under the mantle of the Monroe Doctrine. The Venezuelan crisis of 1902 was a good example. Yet the United States was guilty of similar actions in other parts of the world. In the spring of 1899 the cruiser Chicago was ordered to Tangier to help collect debts owed to American merchants. The Chicago’s commanding officer demanded not only prompt payment of the debts but an official apology from the Moroccan government as well. The demands were supported by an ultimatum of twenty-four hours. There was a “probability,” so the Army and Navy Journal said, “that she might have opened [fire] on the town had the money not been paid within the time limits.” The demands were met, including the payment of some $8,850, and the cruiser departed.1

As the American minister later claimed that only a portion of the debts had been paid, a warship was again summoned and early in 1901 the battleship New York dropped anchor in Tangier. The warship’s commanding officer understood what was expected of him. Upon clearing Gibraltar, the battleship had stripped for action. She fired the usual salute on entering Tangier’s harbor but also trained her starboard battery on the city. The Moroccan officials also understood what was expected of them, and the remainder of the claimed debt was promptly paid. The ship’s crew then held a funeral parade to bury a shipmate, and afterwards marched back to the ship led by the band playing, “In the Good Old Summer Time.” Mission accomplished, the battleship left for Asiatic waters via the Suez Canal.

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