Neutral Waters? British Diplomacy of Force in the Canary Islands at the Start of the First World War

What is it about?

At the start of the First World War, the German navy used light cruisers as well as auxiliary cruisers, or armed merchant vessels, as offensive weapons. Its mission was to threaten its enemies’ maritime traffic, especially that of the British, since Germany believed that cruiser warfare could drive Britain to economic collapse by cutting off the maritime routes by which imports of raw materials and provisions arrived.1 Commercial routes leading to Europe via the South Atlantic played an important role in this British provisioning. Among these routes, passages from South America, the western ports of Africa, and the Cape converged in the area of the Canary Islands. This made the archipelago one of the most potentially productive sites for German cruiser warfare. The Canary Islands also provided an essential support, primarily by supplying the German cruisers with coal and information. Britain needed to deploy its cruisers at the intersections of Atlantic trade routes to protect its commerce. In addition to the vigilance of its cruisers and the use of strictly diplomatic channels, the British Admiralty also practised the ‘diplomacy of force’, which, along with other actions, had the aim of impeding the use of the islands in provisioning and transmitting news to the German naval forces.

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