Baltimore crisis

Two drunken sailors from the USS Baltimore were killed outside of a bar in the Chilean port of Valparaíso

The Baltimore Crisis was a diplomatic incident that took place in c. 1891 between Chile and the United States of America.

The United States attempted to aid the government of Chile in its unsuccessful attempt to quash the Rebellion of 1891.

An international group of warships including the USS Charleston, USS San Francisco and USS Baltimore seized a rebel ship the "Itata", which was carrying Arms from the US to Iquique Harbour, for the insurgents in the Northern Provinces.

In response to this action on October 16 1891 a mob attacked a group of sailors on shore leave from the cruiser USS Baltimore outside of a bar in the Chilean port of Valparaíso two sailors were killed and 17 were injured.

After the success of the Revolution, the new Chilean government rejected American protests, but after United States President Benjamin Harrison sent a strong message to the United States Congress, Chile apologized and paid $75,000 in gold.

See also

• Chilean Civil War

• Itata Incident

Sources

• Foreign Relations of the United States of America for the Year 1891. Washington DC: GPO, 1892.
• Foreign Relations of the United States of America for the Year 1892. Washington DC: GPO, 1893.
• "The Itata Incident" Osgood Hardy, in the Hispanic American Historical Review, vol V (1922) pp 195-226.
• John W. Foster. Michael Devine, London: The Ohio University Press, 1981.
• [Histamar sobre el tema]
• [Historia general de las RR.EE. de Argentina]