On February 15, 1898, the USS Maine exploded in Havana Harbor, resulting in the deaths of 250 American sailors. This explosion marked the turning point in American foreign policy towards Spain, and would eventually lead to the start of the Spanish American War.
Ever since the Cubans began to fight for their independence from Spain, Americans had been interested in the conflict because Cuba contained potential economic opportunities if absorbed by the U.S. At the time, President McKinley, aware of the political factors surrounding Cuba, wished to end the revolt peacefully, but as the revolt got more and more intense, public support for war started to pop up all over America. Many newspapers, using what was called yellow journalism, started to publish one sided, non-objective articles that pushed for war against the Spanish. President McKinley began to negotiate with Spanish officials in the hope that the conflict could be resolved peacefully, but after the American warship, the USS Maine was sunk, all hopes of a peaceful resolution disappeared. After the sinking of the ship, yellow journalism publishers concluded that the Spanish were to blame for the tragedy, and began articles blaming Spain for the incident, and stating this theory as a fact. The U.S. government had no choice but to declare war, and on April 21, 1898, the war began.
The fighting only lasted 10 weeks, on three fronts, Cuba, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico. At all three locations, American troops defeated the Spanish army, resulting in an extremely short, and seemingly cheap war, both in American lives and money. John Hay, a US ambassador, declared that it had been a “splendid little war”, and indeed it was in the minds of the American public.
The end of the war was marked by the Treaty of Paris, signed December 1898 which gave Cuba independence, ceded Guam and Puerto Rico to America, and then sold the Philippines to America for $20,000,000. After the war, America was recognized as a world power, with overseas colonies and increased political power in European politics. This marked the start of American imperialism, with its new stakes in the Philippines, and totally shifted the balance of worldwide power.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish%E2%80%93American_War
https://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/intro.html
http://www.history.com/topics/spanish-american-war
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish%E2%80%93American_War
https://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/intro.html
http://www.history.com/topics/spanish-american-war
I think it was very interesting to read about how the president was attempting to resolve things peacefully and calmly, but the biased newspapers managed to rile up the public enough that they would not accept a simple treaty and wanted to go to war instead. I think it's strange that in a war fought over Cuba that the US would accept Cuba's independence as a term of the treaty. Considering that "The United States had millions of dollars invested in businesses in Cuba and there were many U.S. citizens in residence there," I am surprised they gave up so easily (https://fcit.usf.edu/florida/lessons/s-a_war/s-a_war1.htm). I was really interested to learn more about this war I've never heard of before this year.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I like the coincidence between your name and the president at the time. Beyond that though, I think it is very interesting that something that on the surface appears as very quick and inconsequential war actually had such a large impact on the balance of power. I think it is also interesting that this was the first time we took action towards acquiring Cuba, after a long held affinity for it; a place we were pretty involved in through the Cold War. I do wonder though about the dynamics of it all. Did the US essentially fight and win the war for Cuba? Because if so, how come Cuba became an independent nation afterwards?
ReplyDeleteI like your title a lot, and think that it is quite interesting. I thought that it was interesting that the president wanted peace, while so much of the public wanted to wage war. I am also curious as to why the journalists all wanted to declare war on spain, because gaining the extra land from cuba and the philippines doesn't really benefit them.
ReplyDelete