"Keine Torpedos für Spanien": zur Handhabung der Neutralitätspflicht durch das Deutsche Reich während des Spanisch-Amerikanischen Krieges 1898

Abstract

The Hispano-American War of 1898 was conducted largely at sea. Small and poorly trained, the Spanish fleet suffered substantial losses: After the outbreak of war, American diplomats saw to it that none of the neutral countries supplied the Kingdom of Spain with modern armaments. The torpedoes manufactured by the Schwartzkopff Company for Spain were therefore not permitted to leave Germany while the war was in progress, whereas those ordered for the Empire of China were delivered without further ado. The strict observance of the neutrality obligations on the part of the German Reich, however, did not prove to have a negative effect on German- Spanish relations. The article contains a great number of little-known details concerning the Spanish and Chinese war fleets, obtained in the files of the Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Berlin. These details reflect the fact that German diplomats and military attachés in Spain and America kept a close watch over this first modern naval war carried out between two superpowers.