On 10 October, the Xinhai Revolution against the Qing Dynasty broke out, which caused a great deal of tension amongst the Europeans, who recalled the attacks on foreigners during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900–01. The rest of the East Asia Squadron was placed on alert to protect German interests and additional troops were sent to protect the German consulate. But the feared attacks on Europeans did not materialize and so the East Asia Squadron was not needed. By late November, Scharnhorst was back in service and Krosigk returned to the ship. She cruised to Shanghai by way of Tientsin and Yantai, arriving on 12 December. From 14 to 24 January 1912, Scharnhorst toured the ports of the central China coast and returned to Tsingtao on 9 March, where the rest of the squadron had assembled. On 13 April, the ships went on a month-long cruise to Japanese waters, returning to Tsingtao on 13 May. From 17 July to 4 September, Scharnhorst went on another tour of Japanese ports and during this period she also visited Vladivostok in Russia and several ports in the Yellow Sea.
On 30 July, the Meiji Emperor died; Scharnhorst escorted Leipzig, which carried Prince Heinrich, Wilhelm II's brother, to the Meiji Emperor's funeral and the coronation ceremony for the Taishō Emperor. The ships remained in Japan from 5 to 26 September. After returning to Tsingtao, Prince Heinrich conducted an inspection of the entire East Asia Squadron. On 4 December, Krosigk handed over command of the squadron to Konteradmiral Maximilian von Spee. On 27 December, Spee took Scharnhorst and Gneisenau on a tour of the southwest Pacific, including stops in Amoy, Singapore, and Batavia. The two cruisers reached Tsingtao on 2 March 1913. From 1 April to 7 May, Scharnhorst took Spee to Japan to meet the Taishō Emperor. Starting on 22 June, Spee began a tour of Germany's Pacific colonies aboard his flagship. The ship stopped in the Marianas, the Admiralty Islands, the Hermit Islands, Rabaul in Neupommern, and Friedrich-Wilhelmshafen in German New Guinea.
While in Rabaul on 21 July, Spee received word of further unrest in China, which prompted his return to the Wusong roadstead outside Shanghai by 30 July. After the situation calmed, Spee was able to take his ships on a short cruise to Japan, which began on 11 November. Scharnhorst and the rest of the squadron returned to Shanghai on 29 November, before she departed for another trip to Southwest Asia. Spee met with Chulalongkorn, the King of Siam, and also visited Sumatra, North Borneo, and Manila. Scharnhorst returned to Tsingtao on 19 March 1914. In early May, Spee, by now promoted to Vizeadmiral, took Scharnhorst and the torpedo boat SMS S90 on a visit to Port Arthur and then to Tianjin; Spee continued on to Beijing, where he met with Yuan Shikai, the first President of the Republic of China. He came back aboard Scharnhorst on 11 May and the ship returned to Tsingtao. Spee thereafter began preparations for a cruise to German New Guinea; Scharnhorst departed on 20 June, leaving only Emden behind in Tsingtao.
Gneisenau rendezvoused with Scharnhorst in Nagasaki, Japan, where they received a full supply of coal. They then sailed south, arriving in Truk in early July where they would restock their coal supplies. While en route, they received news of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary. On 17 July, the East Asia Squadron arrived in Ponape in the Caroline Islands. Spee now had access to the German radio network and he learned of the Austro-Hungarian declaration of war on Serbia and the Russian mobilization against Austria-Hungary and possibly Germany. On 31 July, word came that the German ultimatum that Russia demobilize its armies was set to expire. Spee ordered his ships be stripped for war.[c] On 2 August, Wilhelm II ordered German mobilization against Russia and its ally, France.
World War I
When the First World War broke out, the East Asia Squadron consisted of Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Emden, Nürnberg, and Leipzig. At the time, Nürnberg was returning from the west coast of th