...territory through wars and the struggle for independency in the colonies. They did manage however, to keep their main sources of power such as Puerto Rico and Cuba. During the 1890s, the United States became a world power itself. They sought out to deem nearby assets which included Cuba and Puerto Rico. The U.S had millions of dollars invested in business in Cuba. They had investments in the islands, sugar, tobacco and mining industries and public utilities. The U.S needed to maintain a strong political presence in Cuba in order to protect its economic interest. In 1895, Jose Marti and the Cuban Revolutionary Party lead a revolt against Spain. Sympathy rose high for the Cubans through the use of yellow journalism which documented what was occurring in Cuba. William Randolph Hearts, who dominated the newspaper in American, exploited and exaggerated the Spanish oppression of poor Cuba. The American public demanded that President McKinley do something about the situation, so he sent a naval fleet to Havana. A submarine mine exploded in Havana Harbor in Cuba, sinking the U.S. battleship Maine. Although it was never proven, America placed responsibility on Spain. “Remember the Maine!” became the war’s most famous slogan. Another incident that led to the increase of intensity between Spain and the U.S was the publication of a stolen letter in the New York Journal. The Spanish ambassador sent a letter which referred to President McKinley as “weak” and insulted him. Americans were outraged...
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..."The Spanish-American War of 1898 transformed the United States into a major overseas power" (Schultz, 2014). The major reasons for the Spanish-American War of 1898 were for a variety of humanitarian, geopolitical, and commercial causes. The Cubans strived for independence from the harsh treatment by the Spanish and in 1895, violence erupted, provoking an interracial rebellion between the Cubans and the Spanish government. The three-year-long war devastated the Cuban economy, which had impacted the Americans that were heavily invested in the Cuban sugar plantations. Despite the lack of support from the Cubans for the U.S. to enter the war, it became inevitable in February of 1898 after the U.S. intercepted a letter from Spain's U.S. Ambassador...
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...is over that the relationship we have seek that we have worked on fostering is not the U.S declaration on how it will intervene in the affairs of other American states. It’s all of our countries viewing one as equals, sharing responsibilities, cooperating on security issues, and adhering...
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...aimed towards creating a global presence on the world stage. The U.S.’s military interests to extend their control lead to their intentions of assimilating foreigners into the “best” culture because of the influence of the Progressive Movement that was taking place. Based off the idea of Social Darwinism and Anglo Saxon, this lead people to believing that the U.S. should civilize these “savages” through spreading Christianity and democracy. They assumed that they were the best race and that everyone else was uncivilized. Document C mentions that “the highest civilization will spread itself over the earth” and “this competition of races will be the survival of the fittest.” Josiah Strong arrogantly says this because he is a part of the American Home Missionary Society. He supports the fact of bringing their culture and religion to convert people of the “weaker” races. Document A also supports this idea because the uncivilized people are depicted as animals instead of human beings; however, they are also trying to show the negative effects of this process by the guy on the ground with his boots sticking out. This political cartoon shows that America is taking pride and patriotism in something that shouldn’t represent who we are. In order to protect commerce and maintain control of territories, the U.S. had to strengthen their military and naval power to compete with other powerful nations. Document D says, “if we are to hold our own in the struggle for naval...
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...center of Spanish-American conflicts. Since 1895, Cubans had been in open revolt against Spanish democratic rule. The next year, Spain sent General Valeriano Weyler to Cuba to put an end to the rebels. Citizens suspected in supporting independence were sent to concentration camps. Many people died in the concentration camps from malnutrition and disease however, not many were executed. When the new reached the American public they were outraged. At this time American’s received there headlines from publishers like William Randolph Hearst or Joseph Pulitzer know as yellow journalist. In February 1898, the relationship between the United States and Spain became even more strained, when a letter from the Spanish minister Dupuy de...
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...In the United States past, there was a policy called the Monroe Doctrine. The policy’s main goal was to limit Europe to invading our country. One reason to make this policy is to not interfere with Europe and it's concerns. Another is about Europe trying to extend their country to North and South America, and we’ll defend those countries. The last reason is that if Europe tries to come to our countries, we will see it as a threat. The one reason that the Monroe Doctrine was made is so we don’t interfere with any of its concerns, because we are it's enemy and heroes don't help enemies, do they? “..which is, not to interfere in the internal concerns of any of it's powers… (Excerpt, Monroe Doctrine)”. This quote from the excerpt tells us that...
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...Pulpit is a way Theodore Roosevelt used presidency to influence legislation and laws. The square deal is a program designed to protect the common people against big business. The Panama Canal was apart of this because Theodore Roosevelt gave $20 million dollars to Panama but the people of Panama disagreed. The United States wanted to spread their capitalism and market. The United States used imperialism to gain control of Panama from the French. The American-Spanish war started when the USS Maine explosion killed over 1000 americans, but the explosion was accident in the boiler room in the ship, the country believed it was a Spanish sabotage. President William McKinley reacted by demanding that among other things Spain give Cuba its independence but Spain did not comply. When McKinley approached Congress to declare war against Spain they agreed only if Cuba was promised independence. Simpson 2 The war lasted for six months, the Treaty of Paris ended the Spanish-American War. Which resulted Puerto Rico & Guam falling under American control, Cuba gained it’s independence and the Platt Amendment was passed as part of the Cuba Constitution. This gave the United States Guantanamo Bay as a military base....
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...The Sinking of the Maine 1. In 25 words or less, identify the event – date, place, and importance. On February 15, 1898, the U.S. Battleship Maine sank in the harbor of Havana, Cuba. This event kindled the war between Spain and America. 2. What long-range causes led to the event? Signed by President Monroe in 1823, the Monroe Doctrine “held that the New World would no longer be a target for colonization” (Dent 12). Spain would not acknowledge the signed Doctrine and comply with its writings. Years later in 1873, a freighter flying the American flag and captained by an American, Joseph Fry, was caught by a Spanish gunboat for smuggling arms to the Cuban rebels. Fry, along with the other two hundred and seven men, were found guilty of piracy. Five days later, he and fifty two of the crew were executed by a firing squad. In addition, some of the now deceased men were decapitated and put on pikes for public display. American citizens were outraged by the brutality of the Spanish people and wanted revenge but the country was still recovering from the losses incurred during the American Civil War and at the time did not have the Navy ships required for war. Furthermore, Presidents Cleveland and McKinley shied away from any major conflict with Spain. 3. What immediate causes led to the event? Prior to the sinking of the battleship Maine, the island of Cuba was in a revolution against their highly oppressive rulers from Spain, which at that time claimed Cuba as a province, for...
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...several different types of information that newspapers distribute; therefore, there are many kinds of imagined communities that they have created in the past and have the potential to construct in the future. By definition according to Anderson, a nation is “an imagined political community”—a widespread consciousness shared by its members who may never come into contact with one another. Consequently, the first way newspapers built an imagined community was by sparking the emergence of a national identity amongst American citizens. Alexander Ziegler conducts a study on the involvement of newspapers in the development of an American national identity in which he states: “The hypothesis of this study is that colonial newspapers, the primary media for mass communication, must show some evidence of the emergence of American national identity.” Furthermore, waking up each morning and knowing that everyone else was reading about the same news that they were gave many Americans a sense of belonging in their communities. Anderson uses the example of the daily ritual...
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...A war started because Cuba wanted to be Independent from Spain. United States didn't like how Spain was treating the Cubans. The harsh manner and use of concentration camps. An explosion of the USS Maine, and the defeat of the Spanish navy. The future president who fought in the first U.S Army Cavalry. How did all this play out? Because of Napoleon's meddling with Spain's New World's territory, Cuba became neglected and to fend on it's own. Cuba wanted Independence from Spain, but it got a war out of it instead. The Cuban's had a small force of badly-trained, poorly-armed, rebels, compared to the army that Spain had. Spain were not merciful, they put the Cuban's in concentration camps. About 200,000 – 400,000 Cuban's died in the camps, which had little food and not the cleanness place ever....
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...Monroe Response Monroe’s written statement included mostly opinion based information that lined up with the neutrality that was planned for America. This statement was created to keep the European nations from not settling on America’s land and colonizing it. His main points behind this reasoning were to make European nations fully settle their land first and stay away from political sides. Monroe pulls the ‘we didn’t touch your stuff, so you shouldn’t touch ours’. In a way it could count as convincing, however it does not have much ground for support to back up why he chose this policy. Monroe also uses a reason stating, “The citizens of the United States cherish sentiments the most friendly in favor of the liberty and happiness of their...
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...After the U.S. battleship Maine exploded and sank in Havana harbor under mysterious circumstances on February 15, 1898, U.S. military intervention in Cuba became likely. struggle of Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines for independence against Spanish rule. Cuba was then made an independent country. Pre- In the late 1800’s, A wildly popular character “The Yellow Kid” was featured in almost every newspaper for making fun or mocking events. The artist R.F Outcalt created the comic which then flooded the newspapers all across New York. The sensational comic is what led to the exaggerated style of reporting called “Yellow...
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...Throughout his entire presidency Theodore Roosevelts ultimate goal was to make the United States a dominating power house. In 1904 the Roosevelt Corollary was created in addition to the Monroe Doctrine. This particular warned Europeans to stay out of issues involving those of the western hemisphere. The Hay-Bunau-Varilla treaty reflected this type of imperialism in the way that the United States comes in a takes over. The treaty provided the United States with the majority of control when it came to Panama and the Canal. For example, in Article VI, “The rights of the United States shall be superior.” This is just one of many examples of the many ways the United States used its dominating power to control. While reading Make the Dirt Fly and...
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...soon began to develop into a world power through the acquisition of states and dominance in the Spanish-American war of 1898, were both President Roosevelt and Taft fostered an aggressive national foreign policy to create an independent and naval empire. Although some agreed, many remained isolationist, but soon after Woodrow Wilson became President, he pressed the necessity to work for new reforms that especially aimed income tax towards the rich. Upon Wilson's entry to presidency, European powers dominated the world through military...
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...William Mc Kinley led the nation into war with Spain for Cuban independence in 1898. It was the first worldwide war with a European leader since the war of 1812. One of Mc Kinley's quotes before going into war with Spain was "War should never be entered upon until every agency of peace has failed." Mc Kinley pushed a joint resolution through congress to join the Hawaiian slands together. Mc Kinley also saw the Philippines as a main focal point in the war and increased the ground troops to 10,00+. McKinley's strong position in the Philippines was not well received by its inhabitants. McKinley believed that American citizen in cuba needed support and help during the war and he worked to send food and medicines to Cuba. McKinley was frustrated...
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