The Spanish-American War was a conflict between the United States and Spain that last only four months. The war was a result of the provocation of the Spanish against the Cuban people. The United States involvement in this conflict was brought about not only as a means for freeing people oppressed by the Spanish government but also to appeal to the expansionist ideal of broadening Americas economic outreach. The hope for this war was for the United States to emerge victorious as a world power.
During the late nineteenth century America’s economy was booming. [2] Between 1870 and 1890 the gross domestic product actually quadrupled. The only issue with this was the fact that 90 percent of this was consumed on home soil. Since exports were only 10 percent of Americas income the country started to look towards foreign markets for expansion. At the present time 80 percent of the United States small export went to Europe and Canada already. In order to broaden their outreach, America started too looked to Asia and Latin American markets to boost their export trading. [2] To do this, America starting looking at places such as Hawaii, Guam and the Philippines as places of interest to set up trade outpost. The problem with this is that most of these areas were controlled by Spain. These places would play a key role in the outcome of Spanish-American War.
At the beginning Europe’s expansion to the Americas, Spain play a significant role in colonizing much of the new land. However, by 1825 much of what used to be Spain controlled land fell to the hands of other nations. The only remaining presence that Spain had in the Western Hemisphere was control of Cuba and Puerto Rico and in the Pacific region the Philippine islands, Guam and a few other small islands.
In order keep their presence in the Western Hemisphere Spain had to deal with an indigenous population of