During his presidency William McKinley said, “War should never be entered upon until every agency of peace has failed.” His message never fully reached the American people because in the late 19th century the people were longing for an opportunity to keep up with other empires and they took the first chance they approached. They saw war with Spain as a quick way to prove supremacy and saw plenty of benefits. The Spanish American war was inevitable for America because the people had a strong drive for global power and influence and although it was not completely necessary it resulted in positive outcomes and later greatly helped progress the country.
THESIS : “ The United States didn’t want to get involved in the Spanish-American War, but was dragged into it due to yellow journalism, they wanted to control the seas, and wanted complete control over Cuba.”
April 15, 1898, was a pivotal movement in American history. The United States declared war upon Spain, and forever changed the lives of people in both countries. The war between the United States and Spain was preceded by three years of fighting by Cuban revolutionaries attempting to gain independence from Spanish colonial rule. Throughout these three years, many causes for a declaration of war were created adding fuel to a growing fire of outrage throughout the nation.
For four hundred years Spain ruled over an immense and profitable global empire that included islands in the Caribbean, Americas, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. After the Napoleonic Wars (1808-1815) many of Spain’s colonies followed the US’s lead, fighting and winning their independence. These revolts, coupled with other nations chipping away at Spain’s interests, dwindled Spain’s former Empire. By 1860, only Cuba and Puerto Rico were what remained of Spain’s former Empire. Following the lead of other former Spanish colonies, Cuban fighters started their campaign for independence, known as the Ten year war (1868-1878). This war developed into a Cuban insurgency which fought a guerilla war against the Spanish occupation.2
This act made the United States and the Cubans relationship tangled. By 1925, the United States began to command the Cuban banks, mines, rail transport and tobacco, dairy cattle and sugar ventures. As Cuba was changing, Cuba was put in the spotlight of gambling which was extremely gainful for American organizations. The U.S claimed a great deal of organizations inside Cuba. Now, the U.S had officially had 40% of the Cuban sugar industry, half of Cuban railroads, 80% of Cuban open administrations, 90% of Cuban mines and the majority of the oil organizations. The American impacts had begun to make a great deal of pressure with numerous Cuban natives. These announcements gave a considerable measure of cases from the American impact inside Cuba. This cases gave a lot of purposes behind the Cuban citizens to revolt. Support was then sent from the U.S to quiet down the uprisings. This swing of American support against Batista's legislature gave a major shot for a revolution to
The Spanish American War started in 1898 and lasted about four months. Although the war might have seemed focused on freeing Cuba from Spain and gaining independence for Cuba and the Philippines, it was actually stimulated by nationalism and commercialism. Commercialism was a major factor when declaring war because the United States depended on Cuba and the Philippines for trade and business with other countries, especially in Asia and Latin America. Another major factor for the war was that the United States wanted to spread its Anglo-Saxon culture around the world and emerge as a world-wide power. Other minor motives for the war include the United States coming to the aid of the Cubans in their revolt against Spain and the feeling that the United States had the right to go into the Philippines because it had a superior culture.
The struggle of Cuba to gain its independence from Spain, which began in 1895, has captured the attention of many Americans. Spain’s brutal repressive measures to halt the rebellion were graphically portrayed for the U.S. public by American newspaper publishers, William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer which caused to shape the national mood of agitation against Spain. Hearst and Pulitzer exaggerated the actual events in Cuba and how did Spanish brutally treated their prisoners by adding sensational words to catch the emotions of readers. However, publishing stories against the atrocities of Spain did not convince President Cleveland to support the intervention with Spain. When President McKinley held the office in 1897, he wanted to end the revolt peacefully, and he tried to avoid the involvement of America to the conflict between Cuba and Spain. McKinley sent Stewart Woodford to Spain to negotiate for peaceful Cuban autonomy and it all went smoothly and the independence of Cuba was supposed to be awarded after the negotiation. However, the peaceful settlement suddenly vanished after the incident of February 1898 when a private letter for a Cuban friend written by the Spanish minister Enrique Dupuy de Lome was stolen by a Cuban age...
The U.S.’s relationship with Cuba has been arduous and stained with mutual suspicion and obstinateness, and the repeated U.S. interventions. The Platt agreement and Castro’s rise to power, served to introduce the years of difficulty to come, while, the embargo the U.S. placed on Cuba, enforced the harsh feelings. The two major events that caused the most problems were the Bays of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis.
The United States had invested in Cuba slowly since Spain was still ruling Cuban. During the 1920’s Cuba platters were left in debt due to the collapsed of the price of the sugar during the 1920’s. However as years past the same investment in Cuba by the US became a billion dollar business. The majority of Cuban exports went to America during 1950s and by that time the United States had almost absolute controlled of the transportation, electricity, banks etc. of Cuba. This economic control took a tool on Cuba. It is also important to mention the significance of “western invasion” in 1895 because politically, United states had a heavy influence on what a civilization nation is (White), as such, political leaders set boundaries to prevent Afro Cuban mobility within political rhetoric to allow Cuba to be autonomous in the eyes of the United States. Socially, the United States presence created tension among Cuban Americans. One was the socially mobility of rural workers from their countryside to urban cities. Because the United States owned 60 percent of land, which most was used for Hershey and the Fruit Company. Work became scarce forcing rural working to seek jobs within the cities. Economically, the U.S held economic power for foreign trade and the ability to fluctuate the sugar prices. As such, the great depression was a perfect example that left the country in economic ruin. One of the advantages
The Spanish-American war was the first and biggest step that the United States of America took toward imperialism. It was the war that secured the US as the most powerful country in the world. This war was a benefit to the USA because we gained land, gained respect, and taught a lesson to one of our enemies. In addition to this, the losses that we suffered were almost nothing compared to other conflicts or wars. The Spanish-American war was by no means for the sole purpose of gaining land and respect, the United States freed an oppressed country and took pieces of land that were better off under US control.