In the late nineteenth century the United States of America started to get involved in national affairs, thus becoming a new power on a global scale. They began to gain influence and territories in other places, such as Hawaii, Cuba, and the Philippines. President McKinley defended his decision to support the annexation of the Philippines with the quote, “The taste of Empire is in the mouth of the people even as the taste if blood in the jungle.” The quote means that once you get the taste of blood, there’s no stopping you, when something is commenced people usually want to go the full way not just stop halfway. America justified its New Manifest Destiny with the fact that it wanted to expand its oversea trade, strengthen their naval power, …show more content…
There was a growing importance of oversea trade for the U.S. The country had a surplus of goods and was urged into expanding trade into over sea markets. In order for the prices of crop to not plummet, trade was necessary. Another reason was the need of Naval Power. Alfred T. Mahan called upon America to build modern fleet and acquire bases. In response to Mahan’s sea power theory, new steel plated, steam powered battleships were built. Also, social darwism was important to people, they believed that only the fittest survived. It was the belief that certain nations and races were superior to others and destined to rule. They believed their responsibility was to spread their western values, Christianize and civilize, in order to do that they had to expand and conquer others. A final reason to justify the expansion was the 1890s farm and labor radicalism. In Hawaii, the sugar prices were expensive and Queen Liliuokalani was challenging white planters. The US got involved in order to protect the American planters; in turn they got involved in Hawaii. These four reasons were used to justify American …show more content…
These problems led to the Spanish American War breaking out. One reason for the war breaking out was the American sympathy for the Cuban rebels. It reminded them of their own revolutionary heritage and they favored the rebels. On top of that the brutality of Spanish tactics raised more affection and sympathy for the rebels. Another reason was the United States wanted to protect its own business interest. Business owners worried about the economic interest in Cuba. It was unstable and they had invested $50 million in sugar cane plantation and other ventures, which made them nervous about what would happen. In addition, the Maine, an American ship, was blown up. Spain was accused of blowing the ship up, and many believed they actually did it but there was no proof. Yellow Journalism also played an important part in creating distrust between Spain and the US. The Journal leaked a letter from Enrique Dupuy de Lome to Hearst, where he called McKinley a weak and stupid politician. Yellow journalism also exaggerated Spanish atrocities and compared Cuban rebels to the patriots of the American Revolution. After the war, Cuba got its independence, but the United States could not take control because of the Teller Amendment. The amendment stipulated the US had no intention of annexing Cuba, so it could not control it. Although, the Platt Amendment was passed, this restricted the rights of newly