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The Bombing Of The Uss Maine

Decent Essays

February 15th, 1898, the USS Maine was hit with a mine as it sat in the Havana Harbor. There is large speculation to whether that is the truth or not. Over the years it is still a topic of debate as of what caused the explosion. Some believe that the Spaniards did it, others believe it was a clumsy mistake of misplaced ammo, others believe it was a spontaneous coal fire that caught a box of ammunition on fire. No matter the cause, the loss of the ship and 260 of her crew was devastating to America at the time and led to strong feelings of dislike towards the Spaniards, leading to the Spanish-American war of 1898. The theories behind the explosion of the USS Maine is mainly focused around two ideas, there are many angles that can be viewed for the cause of this disaster and its fueling of the war that will be examined in this paper.
The Spanish-American war was a short war in which America won in three months, two weeks and four days. The fights were extremely unbalanced as America dominated Spain in all of the battles. At Manila Bay in the Philippines the American fleet, under command of Commodore Dewey, destroyed the Spanish fleet and took over the Philippines on May 1st, in which total America only had several wounded soldiers at the end of the battle. In June, American forces landed outside of the Cuban city of Santiago where their heavy woolen winter uniforms caused them to sweat profusely in the intense Spanish heat. Amidst the heat they’re provisions consisted of

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