Hypothesis: what would the US have to do to defend the Monroe Doctrine if the SS Virginius Affair ha
Jan 3, 2022 16:16:36 GMT
Post by stevep on Jan 3, 2022 16:16:36 GMT
The US Navy wasn't inactive in the Far East in and around the early 1870s....
I would note:
1871 - The United States Korean Punitive Expedition of June 1871,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_expedition_to_Korea, itself a sequel to the earlier General Sherman incident, when the Koreans assaulted the visiting USS General Sherman in 1866 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Sherman_incident
1867 - The United States Punitive Expedition to Formosa of June 1867 (gosh, the Yanks got frisky in June back then), en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formosa_Expedition in retaliation for the earlier Rover incident en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rover_incident, where Taiwanese aborigines had killed shipwrecked American sailors
1878 - US acquisition of refueling station at Pago Pago harbor, Samoa, not in Asia but the far South Pacific, at distances from the US mainland and Hawaii comparable to Guam and the Philippines.
Good points as as in 1898 they can probably use bases such as Hong Kong, at least until their formally at war. However think the Philippines would probably be too big [and Catholic] to look that attractive to them I suspect. Mind you if there's an independence movement with any strength there the US in the 1870's might be willing to support independence for the island.
Checking on the Korean incident the US was even then only 1 frigate, 2 sloops and 2 gunboats so that's still a fairly small force. Even then it took 5 years for this response to the disappearance of the General Sherman. However the biggest ship was a 3,400 ton steam [i.e. mixed as had sails as well] from 1856 and seems to have had the capacity to travel widely.