Baltimore Crisis - Background

Background

In 1884 Chile emerged from the War of the Pacific as a potential threat to the hegemony of the United States. The Chilean navy, then the strongest fleet in the Pacific, was able to confront American policy. In 1882 Chile refused US mediation in the War of the Pacific. In 1885, as the United States Navy occupied Colón, then part of Colombia, the Chilean government ordered its navy to occupy Panama City and not to leave until after the American forces evacuated Colon. Finally in 1888 Chile annexed Easter Island, located some 2,000 miles west of Valparaíso, and by occupying Easter Island, Chile joined the imperial nations.

But by 1891 the equation of power had changed. The United States possessed more naval power and, more significantly, Alfred Thayer Mahan's theories were needed to secure the growing influence of the United States in Latin America.

During the Chilean Civil War the American government supported the forces of President Jose Manuel Balmaceda and enforced a ban on exports for the insurgents that was supported partially by the United Kingdom. These and another circumstances troubled relations between the United States and the victorious former insurgents, who in 1891 defeated the presidential forces and were then in power in Chile.

Just before the end of the Chilean Civil War the State Department ordered the USS Charleston to force the Chilean insurgents' cargo ship Itata, that illegally loaded arms in San Diego for the insurgents, to return to San Diego. The USS Charleston reached the Itata in Iquique after the end of the war. The new Chilean government ordered the ship back to San Diego to face outstanding charges.

During the war the American owned Central and South American Cable Company, by order of the Balmaceda administration, restored submarine telegraph cable service between Santiago and Lima and sundered the cable connection to the insurgent headquarters.

In addition, the United States minister in Santiago gave diplomatic asylum to various insurgent leaders during the war and to Balmaceda's supporters after the war. The victorious insurgents called upon the American minister in Santiago, Patrick Egan, to surrender the newest refugees to the authorities but it was refused.

From the insurgents' point of view, the United States had tried to stop them from purchasing weapons, denied the rebels access to international telegraph traffic, spied on the insurgent troops, and refused to surrender war criminals.