Britain doubles Germany's blockade force

Venezuela's attempt to resist the blockade at sea quickly failed. Britain waited for Germany to announce a four-ship contribution and then sent eight ships, deliberately ensuring that the German contingent could not dominate events. The resulting operation was therefore a great-power balancing exercise as well as debt coercion. An American naval intervention would have faced mobilized British, German, French, and Italian forces, with other European fleets potentially joining. The comparison with the Spanish-American War warns against assuming that victory over Spain made the US Navy capable of defeating a much larger and better-prepared coalition.