Carolines Question

On 23 January 1885 the Hamburg firm of Hernsheim & Co asked the German government to take the Caroline Islands under protection in order to secure its trading monopoly.

[2] The Colonial advisor in the Foreign Office, Friedrich Richard Krauel, endorsed this proposal and forwarded it to the Under-Secretary, Herbert von Bismarck.

[3] His father, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, believed that Spain was about to formally annexe the Caroline Islands in response to German expansion.

The Carolines Question allowed Spain's Republican opposition to embarrass King Alfonso XII, which meant that his government wanted the matter resolved quickly.

Bismarck, surprised by the scale of the protests, announced on August 23, 1885, that Germany had no intention of negating established historic rights and proposed to take the matter to arbitration.

However Spain produced no evidence of prior ownership and Bismarck was in no hurry to conclude matters before receiving a report from the German navy.

On the evening of 2 August 1885 when the German gunboat Iltis steamed into the harbour at Yap, it found two Spanish warships, the San Quentin and the Manila at anchor.

Meanwhile, the gunboat Albatross under Corvette Captain Max Plüddemann continued to raise the German flag and visited many of the Caroline Islands between 20 September and 18 October 1885.

Spain played upon German commercial concerns by promising an advantageous trade agreement for Germany in return for recognising Spanish sovereignty.

He also directed the Spanish government to set up a functioning administration as soon as possible, and granted Germany freedom to trade and settle in the Carolines as well as a possible coal and naval station on Yap.