1897 - Political Events

Political Events

Crete proclaims union with Greece February 6 following months of strife between Christians and Muslims, Athens sends ships and troops February 10, the world powers announce a blockade of Crete March 18, a Greek-Ottoman war begins April 7, the Turks prevail, the Greeks withdraw, an armistice ends hostilities May 19, and a peace treaty is signed December 4 at Constantinople, but the Turks will withdraw from Crete next year.

Queen Victoria celebrates her Diamond Jubilee June 22, braving the heat at age 78 in her usual black silk moiré dress and wearing a wreath of acacia leaves and an aigrette of diamonds in her black lace bonnet as she reviews regiments who have come from all over the Empire, which now covers one-fifth of the world's land surface and includes nearly one quarter of the world's population.

The first Zionist congress opens August 31 at Basel as Theodor Herzl arouses support for his dream of a Jewish homeland in Palestine that will provide a refuge for oppressed Jews worldwide (see 1894). Herzl writes September 3, "In Basel, I have founded the Jewish state." He will obtain an appointment with the Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid, and although he has scant financial backing he will offer to buy up the Turkish national debt in exchange for Jewish rights in "the Promised Land" of Palestine (see Balfour Declaration, 1917).

Belgian forces reach the Nile at Rejaf in February, defeat the Sudan Dervishes, occupy Loda and Wadelai, reach the Bahr-el-Ghazal region in August, but are challenged in September by a great mutiny as the Batetelas revolt on the upper Congo in an insurrection that will continue until 1900.

Madagascar's Hova queen Ranavalona is deposed at the end of February by General Joseph Gallieni, the French soldier who last August proclaimed the country a colony of France and now ends the 110-year-old Hova dynasty, exiling Queen Ranavalona to the island of Réunion, from which she will be relocated to Algeria.

The French 75-millimeter gun revolutionizes field artillery and will become standard in all armies by 1914. The quick-firing cannon boasts a quick-acting breech mechanism, an on-carriage hydropneumatic recoil-control system, fixed ammunition, modern sighting, and a shield to protect the gunners, but teams of horses can pull only so much weight, so the piece must be dismantled into components and reassembled after being moved to new firing positions.

A Franco-German agreement signed July 23 defines the boundary between Dahomey and Togoland.

British colonial officer Sir Alfred Milner, 43, is appointed high commissioner of southern Africa and governor of the Cape Colony as tensions between Britain and the Transvaal threaten to erupt into open war (see 1899).

French forces take Nikki November 30 (they took Busa February 23), bringing vigorous protests from Britain and raising the threat of war between Britain and France (see 1898).

President McKinley assumes office March 4 with an inauguration address in which he says, "We want no wars of conquest. We must avoid the temptation of territorial aggression. War should never be entered upon until every agency of peace has failed," but tensions have been growing between the United States and Spain (see 1898).

A convention at Tejeros in March appoints revolutionist Emilio Aguinaldo president of a new Philippines Republic (see 1896). Rebel leader Andres Bonifacio refuses to recognize the convention's choice and tries to establish his own government in defiance of Spanish rule, but Aguinaldo has him arrested in April. Tried on charges of treason, Bonifacio is found guilty and executed by a firing squad at Mt. Buntis May 10 at age 33. The pact of Biak-na-Bato December 15 brings a temporary halt to the revolution; Aguinaldo accepts terms that require him to lay down his arms, go into exile at Hong Kong, and receive 400,000 pesos, but the Spaniards will renege on their promises to make significant governmental reforms, and Aguinaldo will use the money to buy arms (see 1898).

The United States annexes the Hawaiian Islands under terms of a June 16 treaty that is ratified by the Hawaiian Senate September 9. Sugar planters who proclaimed the Republic of Hawaii in 1894 have pushed for annexation, but Japan has some 25,000 nationals in the islands and files a formal protest, warning of grave consequences (see 1898; 1941).

Cubans reject an offer of self-government and other concessions from Spain's Liberal prime minister Práxades Mateo Sagasta, insisting on complete independence (see 1896). An Italian anarchist assassinates the 69-year-old former prime minister Antonio Cánovas del Castillo at Santa Agueda, Guipuzcoa, August 8 as he tries to find a peaceful settlement of the Cuban issue; U.S. pressure on Madrid forces the recall of Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau in October (see 1898).

Puerto Rico gains autonomy from Spain November 15 through the efforts of patriots who include notably publisher Luis Muñoz Rivera, 38, who founded the newspaper La Democracia in 1889 (see 1898).

Honduras in Central America has a revolution with help from U.S. soldier of fortune Lee Christmas, who has been working as a locomotive engineer in the country. His journalist friend Richard Harding Davis, 33, celebrates him in the novel Soldiers of Fortune (see Zemurray, 1911).

German forces in China occupy Qingdao (Tsingtao) November 14 following the murder of two German missionaries in Shandong (Shantung) Province. The Germans have selected Qingdao as their reward for having intervened in behalf of China against Japan in 1895, but their action precipitates a scramble for concessions in China by most of the great European powers (see 1895; 1899).