Spanish American War Causes

The Spanish American war started in 1898 and was a fight for Cuba’s independence which resulted in 379 American casualties in combat. The Spanish American War was justified because of the Monroe Doctrine, Correspondence between the United States and Spain, and the Platt Amendment, which were all created to protect American morals and freedom.

While public tensions before August 1898 were surely high, nothing turned the public against Spain like the tragic blowing up of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor. The lives of 260 American officers and men were lost. The yellow press and American investigators quickly blamed spanish officials in Cuba for the mysterious wreck. Although it is extremely unlikely that the spanish had anything to do with the Maine’s sinking, the War-Mad American public accepted this conclusion out of rage, overwhelmingly persuading President Mckinley to begin the war. McKinley personally did not want to fight a war against Spain, for he had seen enough bloodshed as a General in the Civil War. But the public, encouraged by the Cuban patriotic cause, yellow journalism, and the sinking of the Maine, clamored for a war. Finally, President McKinley yielded and gave the people what they wanted. He believed that the people should rule, even if they don’t know what’s best for themselves. Public pressure was the main reason we went to war with Spain, and the biggest cultivator of public unrest was the blowing up of “The Maine”.

“War should never be entered upon until every agency of peace has failed; peace is preferable to war in almost every contingency.” (War Message 1898) Those are the words of President McKinley in his inaugural address, on March 4th, 1897. McKinley wasn’t a man of war and certainly didn’t share the same views as Teddy Roosevelt did; even though he was the one who declared war against Cuba, he was led to that decision from the immense pressure from every corner of the U.S. Kagan believes that the Spanish American War took place because American egos were hitting the stratosphere and therefore believed that the U.S were better than most countries and should go and fix less developed ones. Another view Kagan had was that the primary reason for

American War because prior to this war, Spain was one of the richest and most powerful nations in the world (Grabowski 37). However, this led to Spain’s fatal mistake of buying all their necessities instead of producing it. As a result, Spain was left behind in terms of industrialism and stayed as a rural country instead of an industrial one (Payne 46). This became a

There were many causes for the Spanish American War. The first long term cause was the Wilson Gordon Tariff. This tariff ultimately decreased tariff rates for may Europeans nations excluding the commonwealth of Spain. This ultimately angered the Spanish and weakened international relationship between the United States and Spain. This tariff also instilled an anti-American feeling in Spain. This would lay down the groundwork for the next cause the “Delome Letter”

What was the Spanish-American war? The Spanish-American war was a short time period war that left a huge impact in America. They had no idea what it would led it or never thought that it would killing more than 500 lives. In Chapter twenty in the text book “Out of the Many “and the article “American Manhood and Declaring war on Spain”, discusses about the main parts of events that led to the Spanish-American war. The United States became involved with many foreign affairs in the late nineteen centuries.

Late 19th century America, about 100 years since claiming independence from Britain the new idea of imperialism has enthralled the nation. Imperialism, the concept in which a stronger nation spreads their military, economic, and political influence to a weaker nation has become a new world wide sensation. After the annexation of Alaska and Hawaii their interests diverted back to nation of Cuba. Cuba, located 90 miles south of Florida has been in the minds of many Americans for years. In 1854 America attempted to buy Cuba from Spain and failed. Later Cuba tried to pursue independence from Spain and failed, but forced Spain to abolish slavery letting Americans to invest in sugar companies in Cuba. Cuba trying to fight for independence once more got the support of many Americans wanted to join in the fight for the Cuba’s independence. This caused the infamous Spanish American War.

The main causes of the war between America and Mexico was that there was tensions between the American settlers and the Mexican government that continuously grew. This tension resulted from the “continuing ties of the immigrants to the United States” (342) and their desire for legal slavery which Mexico has deemed illegal in Texas in 1830. Americans were divided on how to express and voice their unhappiness with the Mexican control and government. Some wanted to just get to a peaceful settlement where Texas had more autonomy under Mexico while other Americans wanted to be independent and leave Mexico’s rule. Instability in Mexico ultimately led to General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna to become a dictator and obtain power. He imposed an autocratic

There were many reasons as to why this war started but there were two intermediates.

The headlines written by Hearst and Pulitzer fueled America’s passion for the Spanish-American War as well as influenced the attitudes of many Americans and Cubans towards Spain. On February 5, 1898, the U.S.S. Maine exploded at 9:40 p.m. in the Havana Harbor killing 268 men (PBS, 1999). This event, combined with the sensationalized news reports about the explosion is what propelled the United States into war with Spain. This was an opportunity for Hearst and Pulitzer to sell newspapers and gain readers. Yellow journalism was in full swing at this time, the headlines written by Hearst were intended to put the blame on Spain for the explosion, and therefore a war was declared on Spain.

After several years of being suppressed by Spain, in 1895, Cubans began their struggle for independence, rebelling against Spain’s colonial government by forming groups of revolutionaries. This attracted the attention of Americans “because of the economic and political instability that it produced in a region within such close geographical proximity to the United States” (history.state.gov). At this point in time, nations throughout the world were acquiring territories and gaining domain over other countries, and Americans feared that if the United States did not start establishing colonies overseas, they would take the risk of being overpowered. The Cuban revolt highly concerned the then US President William McKinley, and there was no doubt

In April of 1898, America declared war against Spain and this was a result of the sinking of the Battleship Maine in Havana in February of that same year. After months of war and wrangles, the war came to an end after the signing of the Treaty of Paris on the 10th of December in 1898.1 The end of the war saw that the Spaniards had loss complete control over majority of their remaining empires that were aboard including Cuba, Philippines Islands, Puerto Rico, and Guam which was amongst the other islands in South America as well as the Caribbean regions. Majority of experts and historians believed and is convinced that the Spanish-American War was the first media war in the world. This is because the

The Spanish American (1898) was a problem between the United States and Spain. It had ended Spanish colonial rule in America. It also had resulted to U.S acquisition of territories in the western Pacific and Latin America. In the end of the of the 19th century the United States and Spain fought over colonies and territories. It was a military clash between two countries competing for expanding their country. A four month struggle it resulted disappearance of spanish influence in some parts of the world. It made the U.S a bigger influence to the Pacific and Caribbean. Both the U.S and Spain became very selfish and wanted more land. As the 19th Century was ending, Spain had a hand in the running of Cuba and Puerto Rico in the Caribbean, the

. In 1937, following his visit to the Spanish Civil War, W. H Auden wrote a poem entitled Spain 1937 which sought to address both the causes and the history of the Spanish war as well as what might become of its future. The poem was widely celebrated and prompted a response from George Orwell in the essay Inside the Whale. Orwell had also served in Spain and detailed his experiences in the book Homage to Catalonia in which he described the ill ordered state of things in the war. While Orwell considered Auden’s work ‘one of the few decent things’ to be written about the war, he nevertheless objected strongly to Auden’s use of the phrase ‘necessary murder’ in the lines:

With the lives of men and women being stripped from them, were the Americans really at fault for this? The Mexican-American war lasted two years (1846-1848), with countless conflicting acts between both nations before the war occured. Mexico wanted more residents, so they offered land cheaply, and over 30,000 settlers lived in Texas. With over 30,000 people living in Texas, Mexico didn’t have a handle, and later, Texas declared their independence in 1836, asking Congress to annex them into the United States. The war between Mexico and the United States may be thought of as controversial, but the war was just, due to the Texans declaring their independence, the treatment towards the Texans, and the Mexican government’s foolishness.