Essay about Motives Of The Spanish American War

The public was calling for the United States to intervene in the conflict between Spain and Cuba, Cuba was fighting for independence. The United States soon sent the USS Maine to protect American citizens and property. Public outcry reached a new found high when the USS Maine was sunk without any explanation from the Spanish. On April 24th of 1898 Spain officially Declared War on the United States, with the United States following suit a day later on April 25th of 1898. Bits and pieces of the Spanish American war were fought on all of Spain’s strongholds in the Caribbean and Pacific: Guam, The Philippines, Puerto Rico, and most notably Cuba. Of the fighting in Cuba some of the most interesting was by the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry better known as the Rough

America’s support for the ongoing struggle by Cubans and Filipinos against Spanish rule and the explosion of the battleship U.S.S. Maine in Havana Harbor are the major influences that led to the Spanish-American War. The Spanish-American War was a conflict between Spain and the United States in 1898. As Cuba was controlled by territorial expansion by the Spanish, Cubans fight for independence from Spain will arise. Cubans fight for Independence from Spain is what brought the U.S to intervene.

Many historians argue that the U.S. took the moral high ground during the war because they set out to end the suffering of the Cuban people at the hands of Spain, citing the crux of McKinley’s War Message. Although this may be true to some extent, the worst of the rebellion had ended by 1898 as the result of a ceasefire agreement and the departure of General Valeriano Weyler; therefore, American interference was needlessly invasive. Some also point to the Teller Amendment as counter-evidence against the imperialistic nature of the war, but, following the war, the Platt Amendment to the Cuban Constitution transformed Cuba from a truly independent nation into a puppet of the U.S. for enforcing the Monroe Doctrine on Europe’s empires. Moreover, the motive to free an oppressed Cuba fails to explain why the U.S. also took action to remove Spain from the Philippines, where no major rebellion was taking place. Although morality may have played some role, its motivational effect was far outweighed by the imperialism and hysteria factors.

To protect the interests of the nation, the United States sent the USS Maine into Havana Harbor, but on February 15, 1898, the unthinkable happened. The battleship exploded, killing 260 members of the crew. Without a thorough investigation, the U.S. Naval Court of Inquiry stated the explosion was caused by Spain. Doubt from the public was virtually absent and the United States declared war on Spain, beginning the Spanish-American War. The war resulted in a swift American victory, leading to the addition of multiple territories. Although the explosion is now known to have been caused by an internal fire, it caused American intervention and imperialism in both Latin America and islands in the Pacific

The Spanish-American War in 1898 represented what many historians describe as a shift in American foreign policy. The war, perhaps more appropriately called the Spanish-Cuban-American War, occurred in 1898 due to tensions between the Cuban colony and Spain. When War broke out between Spain and Cuba in 1895, Americans rallied behind the idea of Cuba’s right to self-determination and the sentiment of “Cuba Libre!” After the unexplained sinking of the USS Maine, which was sent to Havana harbor to protect American business interests in Cuba, President McKinley asked Congress to declare war against Spain. The war lasted from April to August 1898 and ended with the Spanish defeat at the 1898 Treaty of Paris, largely due to the Cuban efforts before the United States entered the war. The United States had been, until this point in history, a relatively isolated nation in contrast to the imperialist European powers. Following the defeat of the Spanish, the United States annexed Puerto Rico and the Philippines and demanded the passing of the Platt Amendment to the Cuban Constitution to insure American political oversight of Cuban foreign policy. The 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry, henceforth referred to as the Rough Riders, was the volunteer regiment for which former Assistant Secretary of the Navy and future President Theodore Roosevelt served as Lieutenant Colonel. The Rough Riders were one of the volunteer regiments called

The Spanish-American war began when an unknown ship sank the USS Maine in Havana, which was sent to protect U.S. citizens and property after the anti-Spanish riots. Yellow journalism contributed to the U.S. declaring war by using “sensational stories that tugged at readers’ heartstrings to sell papers.” These papers blamed Spain for the sinking of the ship, even though they had no evidence to prove it. Spain declared war on April 24, 1898 and the U.S. declared war the next day. These declarations of war began the Spanish-American war. It lasted only four months.

Americans were caught up in ideas to develop global dominance and when they heard about the tribulations that Spain was causing they used it to take action and start a war that they could easily win and gain veneration and intimidation from.

Late spring of 1898, The United States went to war with Spain in Cuba and the Philippines. We attacked the Spanish in the Philippines who had a large military presence there. The United States had an easy victory and suddenly became a major world power. The reasoning for this attack was because of the bad treatment of the Cubans by their Spanish masters.

The rationale behind these tensions were to some degree to free the peoples that were under Spanish rule. The Spanish tended to treat the people in their colonies harshly and this treatment stirred up some of the tensions, but there was also an imperialist attitude among the American people. The Call for war came when an American ship called the Maine went to Cuba to protect American citizens that were over there because a rebellion between Spain and Cuba was occurring. One day the Main blew up and killed over 200 sailors. The Newspapers took the opportunity to evoke war by stating the Spanish blew the ship up with an underwater mine which many U.S citizens believed.Meanwhile in Cuba a new governor was put in office. The new governor put out an order that the most Cubans are to be put into concentration camps until the Cuban rebellion was put to a

On the day of April 25, 1898, the United States declared war on Spain. There had been war scares between the two before but now it had become real. There were many suspicions because of the sinking of the American Battleship Maine in Havana Harbor, which happened on February 15, 1989. The battleship was sent to protect the Americans that were in Cuba. The United States Congress had certain resolutions that would make Cuba independent from Spain, and that authorized United States military intervention to make the Spanish leave Cuba and surrender their control. Not only would that benefit Cuba and allow them to gain independence, but it would also benefit the United States with some sort of profit or power from Cuba. The Spanish didn’t agree to leaving, therefore that started a war, which the United States officially declared. The president at the time, a Republican, William Mckinley, did not wish to go to war, but was pushed to do so.

The War of 1898, also known as the Spanish-American-Cuban War, was a three year long battle for Cuba’s independence from Spain. Before the Cubans could, most likely, win the battle on their own terms, America swooped in and took on Spain with only four months in the war remaining. But America saw another problem after the war with Cubans ruling themselves. So America created the Platt Amendment and inserted them in Cuba’s constitution, saying that it was purely for Cuba’s safety against civil struggles or attacks from other military powers. These are only some of the few historical or historiographical perspectives that ignore Louise Perez Jr arguments that the United States had different motives for involving themselves in the War.

On April 1898, The United States declared war against Spain, an empire that was over 400 years old (GLEIJESES, 2003, p 681) Many factors contributed to the Spanish -American War, but in my opinion, no single event is to blame for this war. Although many credit the destruction of the warship “Maine” as the primary cause for this war it is important to mention several previous events that led to a gradual accumulation of a war spirit in American society. Because of the U.S. intervention in Cuba and winning the war, America became a superpower nation that owned a modern NAVY resembling the UK and France. The primary cause that led to the Spanish American War was the public viewpoint towards Spain and the attitudes toward the

1.The Spanish-American War was fought in 1898. It was a very short war and had very little deaths compared to the previous wars and battles. The Spanish-American War only lasted one hundred and thirteen days. Even though the Spanish American war was a short war, it had many of very useful world-changing outcomes. The conflict began when the Cubans wanted independence from Spain. Spain would not give Cubans their independence. The Cubans go tired of begging so eventually, the United States got involved, and it was an all-out war against Spain. Toward the end of the nineteenth-century, tensions were high between Spain and Cuba. Jose Marti wanted independence from Spain and the only way they believed they could do it was by declaring war in 1895. Many of Americans supported the Cubans who were struggling for freedom because lots of Americans were or still are in their shoes or knew who it felt to not have freedom. The newspaper journalists played a huge part at the beginning of the Spanish American War as well as during the war. The journalists published various articles talking bad about the Spanish government and published exaggerated stories of how the government was treating their citizens in Spain. One publisher wrote a letter to the ambassador in Spain expressing how he felt about him. He said that the ambassador was a weak leader, and he did not know anything about politics. The letter started up Americans aggressive nationalism. Not too long after that incident, an

The United States entered the Spanish-American war in 1898 out of economic interests. After the war ended four months later, American corporations began to flood into Cuba, taking over its infrastructure and plantations, allowing more people to purchase American

The analysis of the end of the Spanish-American War leaves great scope for 19th Century International Relations on the actions of the United States against the Spanish in facing Cuba’s seek for independence. The confrontation that took place in the interwar period with idealism and realism was the one that maintained the international order where realists defended the egoistic behavior of the State and the idealists the consolidation of a security system.