In 1898, at the request of the U.S. Consul in Havana, the U.S. Navy sent the battleship USS Maine to Havana for a "goodwill visit" at the request of the U.S. Consul in Havana, Fitzhag Lee, and the Maine arrived in Havana on January 24 without prior notice to the Spanish side.

The arrival of the Maine added some variables to the already tense situation in Cuba at this time, and made the Spanish officials who were trying to deal with the Cubans very nervous, for fear that the Americans would add fuel to the already turbulent situation in Cuba, after all, Cuba now has no Spanish ships capable of confronting this huge ship.

The Americans, on the other hand, simply stayed in Havana under the pretext of protecting overseas Chinese.

The Maine was the first battleship designed and built by the United States, launched in November 1890 at the Brooklyn Naval Shipyard in New York, but due to delays in outfitting work, the guide was launched five years after it was officially commissioned. Therefore, at this time, the Maine was still a new ship that was only 3 years old.

This battleship was of great significance to the Americans, and when she was launched, more than 20,000 New Yorkers came to watch, which can be called the national battleship of the United States at this time.

Although the displacement is only 6,682 tons, the main turret adopts the broadside diagonal arrangement commonly used in the era of ironclad forts, and each turret is equipped with two 10-inch guns. Although it is already an outdated second-class ironclad, it is already an out-and-out big guy for Havana at this time.

For the residents of Havana, who don't usually see many large warships, the white hull of this 97-meter-long ironclad ship still attracts their attention every day, and it has also become a topic of conversation after dinner.

The local Spanish officials were suspicious and uneasy about the unannounced arrival of the Americans, but the Spaniards were extremely friendly to the Americans and did their best to entertain the uninvited guests. However, the Spanish government was still very dissatisfied with the arrival of the Americans, and then issued a protest, and the American government invited the Spanish Navy to visit in order to appease the dissatisfaction of the Spaniards. After that, the armored cruiser Viskaya of the Spanish Navy made a return visit to New York.

In Havana, the American crew and the Spaniards got along fairly well, but this qiē was completely shattered on the night of February 25.

At 9:10 p.m., after the melodious lights-out horn, the lights of the Maine dimmed, and the entire battleship went into calm except for the sentries. In the captain's cabin, Captain Sigsby wrote in a letter to his wife: The situation in Havana is very calm, and it is estimated that the ship will return with a handsome hand. In addition, the Spanish officials I came into contact with were real gentlemen, and only when they watched the bullfighting show did they seem a little rude.

At this moment, two huge explosions occurred at the front of the Maine, and the force of the second explosion produced a wave of air that even blew out the candles in the homes of the surrounding residents outside the harbor. The Maine leaned to the left, and then the bow plunged headlong into the harbor, leaving only the broken stern struggling to float on the surface.

The reddish light of the fire illuminated the surroundings like hell, and some of the surviving sailors climbed the still burning stern of the ship, while many more struggled on the surface.

Although the nearby Spanish warship Alfonso XII was the first to separate the rescue in the face of flames and the explosion of ammunition on board the Maine, and then other ships and port authorities in the harbor joined the rescue efforts, and all survivors, including the wounded, received the best medical care and attention from the Spanish authorities, 254 of the 392 crew members of the Maine still lost their lives in the disaster.

Although the Spaniards extended a helping hand and did their best to properly resettle the survivors, the surviving captain Sigsby expressed his gratitude to the Spaniards in his report to the American side, but this could not prevent the Americans from taking advantage of the problem, and the good intentions of the Spaniards were completely ignored by the Americans.

The two major news organizations in the United States, Randolph Hirst and Joseph Pulitzer, seized the opportunity to start a new round of hype competition, and Hirst even sent a telegram to a painter who was preparing to return home because he felt that the situation on the ground was not fierce enough: Just stay! You're in charge of providing news cartoons, and I'll be in charge of providing war!

"It seems that the Americans and the Spaniards are going to fight now." Frederick III gloated with the newspaper in his hand.

"Yes, the whole of America is now filled with cries for revenge, and all newspapers have a single word in their headline - war. In this case, the Americans will not give up an opportunity to get Cuba. Caprivi was also smiling.

"What's more important is that the Spaniards don't bow their heads, I don't think it's possible for the Spaniards to do it. So how could Spain swallow its anger after being framed by the Americans? And the Spaniards couldn't have given up Cuba, otherwise our actions in the Philippines wouldn't have gone so smoothly. "Jochen had known for a long time that the American system would fight, so he seemed very calm.

"Your Highness, are you so sure that the Spaniards did not do it?" Caprivi asked, a little confused.

"Of course, Spain is not stupid, provoking the United States when the situation in Cuba is uncertain, where did they get the courage? And if you want to do it, you will do it a long time ago, why wait until now? The Americans insisted on planting the blame on Spain, that is, for a pretext for war. ”

"So you mean it's possible that this is a play directed and acted by the Americans?" Caprivi asked.

"I don't know about this, if it's really a play, played with the lives of 254 American sailors, I can only say that there is a very good careerist among the Americans." Although Jochen thinks of Theodore Roosevelt, the powerful politician who fits perfectly into the image of the protagonist of conspiracy theories, he cannot speak nonsense without evidence.

In fact, whether the Maine explosion is a conspiracy has always been a mystery. The cause of her explosion was very simple, the wreckage of the Maine was salvaged from the water in 1911, and after investigation, it was believed that there was a great possibility that the coal tank caught fire, and the fire spread to the ammunition depot and caused an explosion.

At that time, it was common for coal tanks to be arranged in the critical areas of the ship as a means of protection, which could be seen as an additional layer of armor. In fact, only a few months after the explosion of the USS Maine, the US battleship Oregon also had spontaneous combustion in the coal tank, but because it was discovered in time, it did not cause a catastrophe.

It's just that whether the spontaneous combustion of the coal tank of the Maine was an accident or man-made can only be regarded as a historical open case, but in any case, this certainly has nothing to do with the Spaniards.

In any case, the Spanish-American war was inevitable, and it was a good opportunity for Germany.

"If the United States and Spain go to war, Spain will inevitably lose control of the Far East completely, and this is our opportunity to seize the whole of the Philippines." Frederick III was very happy, and the long planning and preparation was not for this day.

"If possible, it would be better to get the Spaniards to sell the Philippines to us, and if we take it by force, we may break the good image we have created before, and in the event of a war between a European country and that American nouveau riche, we may be hostile to the whole of Europe if we take it by force." Of course, Frederick III was not excited enough to get his brain hot enough to prepare for a direct robbery.

"This should not be a big problem, the Spaniards and the United States will no longer have the strength to govern the Far East, and the war will cost money, as far as Spain's current economic situation is concerned, I think as long as we offer the right price and put a little pressure, the Spaniards have no possibility of refusing." Caprivi is still very confident in this.

"We need to do something, because the Americans' ambitions will not be limited to one Cuban, the Philippines will also be their target, and the American Asian detachment will not miss the opportunity to annihilate the Spanish Far East Fleet. So that on the one hand, their west coast will not be threatened, and on the other hand, they can also extend their hands to the Philippines, and we cannot let the Americans succeed. ”

Jochen thought that Caprivy's idea was risky, and that as long as the Americans could crush the Spaniards, Spain would no longer risk offending Germany to refuse its demands.

Historically, however, George Dewey had struck earlier in the Pacific than in the Caribbean, and the Germans had to strike first.

"So what should we do? Or do you have to use force? Frederick III asked.

"We can't use force to grab Luzon directly, but we can control the surrounding islands first, creating a fait accompli. In this way, when the Spaniards sell to us, these areas will not be under the control of the Americans.

Guam, the Mariana Islands, the Palau Islands, the Caroline Islands, and the Micronesian Islands must be controlled as soon as possible, and none of these islands actually have any Spanish armed forces, at most some officials stationed on the islands. There will be no armed conflict with our takeover, as long as we can return these people to the Spaniards intact in the future. ”

The islands are of great significance to Jochen, and the value of Guam is self-evident, and it has been the most important transit point and support point for the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet in later generations, a strategic location for maintenance, replenishment, and reconnaissance, as well as a U.S. Navy nuclear submarine base.

Truk Island in the Caroline Islands, which is known as Gibraltar in the Pacific Ocean, is second only to Pearl Harbor and Guam. Connecting New Guinea, Guam, and Truk Island together would form an iron triangle in the Pacific Ocean that was easy to defend and difficult to attack, and was of great significance to the defense of Germany's Far Eastern colonies in World War I.

As for Luzon, such a large area can't be run, but it can be slowly grinding with the Spaniards. R1152