Projection of Power
During the nineteenth and early twentieth century a favored method of nations in communicating with each other was through the projection of power. Mobilizing an army and sending troops to mass along a rival’s border was a widely practiced method of backing up the arguments of diplomats attempting to resolve disputes. To counter the absence of a shared border with an international rival alliances were formed, and these also were a form of international communication to the rest of the world. Neutrality was an option for smaller nations not desirous of maintaining a large military, but even neutrality required treaties with stronger nations to ensure it would not be violated.
Throughout the nineteenth century and until the end of World War II the development of powerful navies was a means of international communication. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars the British Navy was the world’s largest and most powerful, and the British were determined that it remain so despite the growth of the United States Navy and those of its continental rivals. Navies were and remain expensive to build, maintain, and operate, and several innovations during the hundred years between the fall of Napoleon and the outbreak of World War One rendered all of the world’s warships obsolete virtually overnight, requiring them to be rebuilt.
All of the world powers used their fleets to communicate with the rest of the world. When the United States determined to open trade with Japan it did so by sending a squadron of warships, a use of what was known as gunboat diplomacy. After unification the German Kaiser built a fleet of modern ocean going vessels, anxious to challenge British superiority. The German fleet was sent on diplomatic missions to Morocco to back up German demands during the colonization of Africa. Germany built a colony and naval base in China to support its growing global presence, and to send the British the message that they weren’t the only world empire.
Admirals and captains of ships on independent duty were afforded many of the powers of ambassadors in the days before communications were improved by telegraphy and radio. During the days of sail captains of ships at sea were essentially absolute monarchs, their powers limited only by their respect for the regulations of the service. This power extended to their relations with the officials of the nations in which they entered territorial waters or anchored in their ports. The presence of a ship or squadron in a foreign port inevitably led to a flurry of diplomatic activity between the emissaries of rival and allied nations.
America’s Great White Fleet was in itself an international communication, a message to the European powers that the United States was capable of operating and maintaining a powerful naval presence anywhere on the globe. It led to a naval race between the European powers, the United States, and Japan, and to the Washington Naval Treaty which established the size of the world’s fleets in relation to each other. During the negotiations, the United States relied on decoded diplomatic documents obtained by the Black Branch to undermine the Japanese position and obtain a more favorable ratio of US battleships to Japanese.