America’s Involvement In the Spanish-American War Essay

In the late 19th century the united States began to dramatic each(prenominal)y reshape their foreign policies, and they shortly found themselves in a bloody war that would shape the future of the country for years to come. When the linked States was premiere created George cap recommended limited foreign involvement, this solely changed in 1823 with the Monroe Doctrine. This document set out the entire western hemisphere as the United States sphere of influence. However, at the conviction the Unites States did non confirm the index finger or the navy to back up this demand, until the late 1880s when support for imperialism began to take off.People began to support imperialism because all new(prenominal) great powers had empires, strategic objectives became important, expanding the foreign market would support the economy, and social Darwinism was applied to nations, which have in mindt that only the countries with the greatest wealth and largest empires would survive. As the 19th century came to a close, the United States saw an opportunity to put the Monroe Doctrine and a new sense of imperialism into action. At the time, Cuba was under going serious change, and was in the middle of a cultivated war with Spain.In 1895 a war escalated in Cuba to the point that 500, 000 Cubans were put into camps because of the reconcentracion policy.1 This policy had disastrous consequences causing nearly 200, 000 mass in the camps to die because of the wishing of professionalper food, sanitary conditions, and medical care.2 The policy generated severe anti-Spanish sentiment in the United States. As anger continued to rise among the American people, short-tempers eventually burst into a gruesome war. The United States own President McKinley said that he had no desire to go to war with Spain, thus one must get hold of what were the overwhelming factors that pushed the American nation into another war?3Historians have suggested numerous reasons for the United S tates to enter into war. Many authors, such as Ivan Musicant4 and Frank Friedel5, commit the Yellow wardrobe and their extraordinary stories pushed the American public to their limits, forcing the McKinley administration to finally intervene in Cuba. However, writers such as Wayne Morgan suggested that the United States pursued a tranquil policy toward Cuba, attempting to force Spain to reform the island, and the Spanish failure to do so provoked American intervention.6The overwhelming causes of the Spanish-American War can be attri only ifed to a combination of five factors listed in order of importance. The Yellow Press, American economical interests, McKinleys political agenda, and the sinking of the Maine. With these four factors in mind, the American motives for war testament be accurately examined.When the American people saw an opportunity to make money by investing in Cubas scar plantations, they adjacently took prefer of the opportunity. However, once they saw thei r economic interests were endangered by the civil war in Cuba, American people wanted to nurture their valuable investments. sensation of the primary(prenominal) reasons Cuban Nationalists revolted against Spain was because they thought the U.S. would likely come to their aid. They had good reason to think this because at the time the United States was investing increasing amounts of money into Cuban dirty money production, $50 million by 1895 and conducted trade with Cuba worth $100 million annually. The United States also had a strangle hold on the Cuban economy with 87% of all Cuban exports going to the United States in 1890.7 This newly found American-Cuban relationship also had its negative sides it brought with it an increasing concentration on sugar production.As the Cuban revolution continued, more and more sugar plantations were being destroyed, disrupting trade, and seriously hurting the American investments. Not only would Americans be able to protect these investment s if they went to war, but they would be able to acquire other Spanish colonies, for example the Philippines, and expand their foreign market. As Massachusetts Senator Henry Cabot Lodge said, Free Cuba would mean a great market for the United States it would mean an opportunity for American capital it would mean an opportunity for development of that splendid island.8 Freeing the malcontent nation would not only protect the withstanding American investments, but would also allow Americans to spread their influence around the Caribbean nations and capture the foreign market. Americas future as an industrial power depended on foreign markets for American products.One of the major causes of the Spanish-American War was the American public opinion, which was extremely negative towards the Spaniards. The articles compose by the Yellow Press drastically swayed this public opinion. The Yellow Press was a countersignpaper war in New York City between William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pul itzer. These writers sensationalized the news and often exaggerated the truth and provoked a demand for intervention in Cuba. The American public used these newspapers as their information center for all events that were occurring in Cuba. Hearst and Pulitzer were able to greatly benefit from influencing Americans, increasing their readership from400, 000 in 1897, to over 1 million readers during the Spanish-American War in 1898.9 Whatever Hearst or Pulitzer had to say was current by Americans without thought to the informations validity. A good example of the Hearsts Journal exaggerating the truth is an article on the Spanish General Weyler, at that place is nothing to prevent his carnal animal brain from running riot with itself in inventing tortures and infamies of blood debauchery.10 Biased information like this would be pass on to the American public day after day, forcing the people to believe that the situation in Cuba required intervention. On February 8, 1898, Hearst onc e again added fuel to the fire with the issue of the de Lme letter.The Spanish Ambassador wrote the letter, which was published in the Journal, to a friend, in which the diplomat called U.S. President William McKinley a weak man and a bidder for the admiration of the packbesides being a common politician.11 The letter enraged the American and drove them to a new level of hysteria.12 Although the letter did not have major economical or political impact, besides on McKinleys ego, the social implications were enormous.Hearst and Pulitzer were not the only people who wrote about the conditions in Cuba, thither was also E.L. Godkin who was the editor of the weekly Nation. Godkin frequently spoke out against Hearst and Pulitzer accusing them of gross misrepresentation, deliberate invention and un requirement recklessness. He said They were firebrands, tossed into the American lot in an attempt to ignite a war.13 No matter how much Godkin spoke out against Hearst and Pulitzer, they con tinued to dominate the American public with their embellished stories and pro war slants. The American publics humanitarian concerns came into play after reading these articles. They soon believed how terrible the Cuban conditions were and began to plead the government to take offensive steps towards Cuban independence.When the U.S. naval ship, the Maine, exploded in Havana Harbor, the American people, and their government were confused about what had happened and who had done it. Many fingers began to point at Spain, but even if Spain had not committed the crime, the suspicion alone by the American people was enough to push the war envelope a bit further. One of the final peaceful solutions to the problems in Cuba, presented by McKinley, was autonomy. This granted the country the right of self-government, however, a large portion of the Cuban population opposed autonomy and soon riots broke out. The battleship Maine simply arrived in Havana for a friendly visit on January 25, 1898 in response to pro-Spanish mobs.14 Suddenly, on the evening of February 15, 1898, at 945 PM, the Maine blew up, killing 268 of the crew.15 The explosion was an enormous blow not only to the American people, but to the Spanish and Cuban people as well. Immediately capital of Spain authorities as well as McKinley wanted to know what had happened and began thorough investigations.On March 21 the U.S. court determined there were two explosions the first was of a mine under the keel of the Maine, and the second touched off by the initial blast.16 The court however did not fix responsibility for place the mine. The Spanish board of inquiry, however, had a contrary conclusion, which said that the blast had been sparked by spontaneous combustion of coal.17 The American people were not told about the contrary deductions, but instead were heavily influenced by the Yellow Press who placed the fault of the incident solely on the Spaniards. The public was up in flames and was in cartel that t he U.S. would get their revenge on Spain for taking American lives. The Maine explosion, combined with the anti-autonomy riots in Havana effectively changed the American publics demands from Cuban autonomy to smash independence, which could only be achieved through war.When McKinley was inaugurated as president in 1896 his main political goals were to improve the United States economy and avoid war at all costs. However, McKinley found himself in a tough situation weighing peace against winning the upcoming 1900 election and the strategic benefits of acquiring Cuba. As McKinley was well sensitive of, the Yellow Press had misconstrued the situation in Cuba, causing the majority of the American population to become eager for war. If McKinley expected to win the upcoming election, he would have to give in to the peoples demands. McKinley also saw the beneficial strategic implications if the U.S. were to acquire Cuba and the Philippines through war. The United States would gain massiv e sea power by setting up naval bases, and Cuba would be the key to the future security of a U.S. canal in the Caribbean. With this political agenda in McKinleys mind, he came up with two peaceful courses of action before he would have to declare war.McKinleys first course of action was a purpose to buy Cuba for $30 million, but Spain quickly rejected this offer.18 Next, on March 29, 1898, Ambassador Stewart Woodford presented the final United States proposal on Cuba, requiring Spain to abandon the reconcentracion policy, proclaim an immediate armistice, and finally accede to Cubas independence.19 The Spanish government offered to withdraw the reconcentracion policy and to grant a cease-fire at the insurgents request, but refused to grant Cuba its independence.20 The American people were furious with the news, but McKinley, following through with his ultimatum asking Congress, on April 11, 1898, for permission to intervene directly in Cuba. The request was passed once the Teller Am endment, an agreement make disclaiming any intention of annexing Cuba, was adopted.21 The United States had finally entered a war that McKinley had feared, while the American people had been pushing for it all along.There were many factors that created the atmosphere necessary for the Spanish-American War to occur. No one event in itself was enough. But rather, it was the culmination of a sequence of events that created an atmosphere leading to war. The contributing factors that led to the Spanish-American War were economic interests, McKinleys political agenda, and the sinking of the Maine. The major factor that eventually pushed the United States into war was the Yellow Press and its influence on the American people. The Yellow Press conveyed the facts to the American people in a negative manner, prompting the American people to plead for Cuban intervention through any means necessary. However, historian Wayne Morgan suggests, war would have come without the Yellow Press.22 Once t he nine-month war had ended, with only three months of fighting, the war concluded with the Treaty of Paris, 1898. This treaty gave the United States the colonies of Guam and Puerto Rico, along with the Philippines in return for $20 million.23 Although the Cubans did receive independence from Spain, in 1902 the U.S. created the Platt Amendment, which put Cuban foreign policy under U.S. control and all Cuban economic decisions under subject to U.S. approval.24 Life for Cubans was better, but they still did not have complete independence.Because the United States received the new colonies from Spain, they began to accomplish their imperialistic goals, and plus their national status to compete with the other world powers. President McKinley had tried his best to avoid a war, but the American public left him no choice, nevertheless McKinley succeeded in winning the 1900 elections.25 The Spanish-American War provided the United States with both opportunities and challenges. In 1899, whe n the United States occupied its new empire, Assistant Secretary of State John crop out Moore observed that the nation had become a world powerWhere formerly we had only commercial interests, we now have territorial and political interests as well. 261 Michael Golay, America At War The Spanish-American War. (New York Facts on File, Inc., 1995), 5.2 The Spanish American War, 1898, May 2, 2007.3 Golay, America At War, 13.4 Ivan Musicant, conglomerate By carelessness The Spanish-American War and the Dawn of the American Century.(New York Henry and Company, Inc., 1998), 81-83.5 Frank Burt Freidel, The Splendid Little War. (Toronto Little, Brown and Company Limited, 1958), 5-8.6 Wayne Morgan, Americas Road To Empire The War With Spain and Overseas Expansion. (New YorkJohn Wiley and Sons, 1968), ix-x.7 The Spanish American War, May 2, 2007.8 Golay, America At War, 14.9 The Spanish American War, May 2, 2007.10 Golay, America At War, 7.11 Irving Werstein, 1898 The Spanish-American War. ( New York Cooper Square Publishers, 1966) 10.12 Musicant, Empire By Default, 152.13 Golay, America At War, 12.14 Freidel, The Splendid Little War, 8.15 Albert Nofi, The Spanish-American War, 1898. (Conshohocken Combined Books, Inc. 1996), 4216 Nofi, The Spanish-American War, 43.17 Causes of the Spanish American War. May 2, 2007.18 Causes of the Spanish American War, May 2, 2007.19 Nofi, The Spanish-American War, 44.20 The Spanish American War, May 2, 2007.21 David Goldfield et al, The American Journey A History of The United States. (Toronto Prentice-HallCanada Inc., 2002), 427.22 Morgan, Americas Road To Empire, 14.23 The Spanish American War, May 2, 2007.24 Goldfield, The American Journey, 430.25 Goldfield, The American Journey, Appendix A-1526 Goldfield, The American Journey, 427.