Gunboat Diplomacy: Difference between revisions

** [[Older Than They Think]] once you find on a map where the Barbary States were located. The [[Semper Fi|Marine Corps]] hymn doesn't mention the Shores of Tripoli because of anything they did in the ''20th'' century.

** The Barbary Coast states were known as pirates and slave takers until visited in turn by the Americans, the British, and the French at the beginning of the nineteenth century. These three each persuaded them to turn to more gentle ways of life by the use of [[Semper Fi|exceedingly]] [[Wooden Ships and Iron Men|strong]] [[Legion of Lost Souls|persuasions]].

** The crisis also demonstrated the potential for gunboat diplomacy to backfire. The crisis was precipitated by the Chinese military conducting missile tests less than 40 miles from ROC-controlled territory as well as a mobilization of Chinese troops in Fujian province (the province closest to Taiwan) and several live-fire exercises. The actions were intended to scare the Taiwanese populace into not re-electing then-President Lee Teng-hui, who was seen by China as being pro-independence - the crisis actually ''boosted'' Lee's popularity in the 1996 election and gave him an outright majority in the polls as opposed to a mere plurality. China has since learned its lesson and hasn't tried anything so radical in subsequent Taiwanese elections.

* Perhaps most famously, the diplomatic mission of Commodore Matthew C. Perry ([[Friends|not that one]]) to the Empire of Japan.

* In order to construct the Panama Canal, US President Theodore Roosevelt encouraged the Panamanians to revolt against their Colombian rulers, promising assistance from the US Navy. The rebellion was successful mainly because the USS ''Nashville'' just happened to be in local waters, discouraging the Colombians from sending troops to quell the rebels.

* Used without end by both sides during the [[Cold War]] with various degrees of success. There were many versions, from troop movements around the border, military exercises that were either intentionally leaked or outright covered by the media, [[Nuke'Em|nuclear weapons testing]]... The who blinks first attitude shared by both sides nearly led to [[World War Three]] and the [[Endofthe World As We Know It]], multiple times.

* An interesting dueling version: During the 1971 Indo-Pakistan War, the US sent in the Enterprise battle group to threaten India to stop [[Curb Stomp Battle|curb-stomping]] the Pakistanis, only for the Soviets (who were sympathetic to India) to do the same thing. To prevent this from becoming a [[Pretext for War]], the Americans stood down.

* The order of the day between North and South Korea: if you don't like how things are going in the diplomatic table, you arrange a "joint military exercise (with live rounds!)" near your neighbor's land or naval border. Sometimes the "training bullets" fly outside the exercise zone, too.