The Batsch affair was an 1872 diplomatic incident between Haiti and Germany and an example of gunboat diplomacy.
[1] During the Franco-Prussian war, the Haitians openly showed their sympathy for France, which displeased Germany.
[2] After Germany prevailed in the war, Captain Karl Ferdinand Batsch [de], of the frigate Vineta, arrived at Port-au-Prince on June 11, 1872, under the pretext of demanding the payment of £3,000 on behalf of two subjects of the German Empire.
[2][3] Without warning Batsch took possession of the two Haitian men-of-war, which, not expecting such an aggression, were lying at anchor in the harbor and unable to make the slightest resistance.
[2] Indignant at this attack, the Haitian people—in the words of poet Oswald Durand—"threw the money to the Germans as one would cast a bone to a dog.