Kenneth Wong 1 Mr. Hackett Section 001 Spanish­American War

Wong

Throughout the spanish american war and even before it began, until the end of the spanish­american war the newspaper had the power to heavily influence the choices people made. It started with industrial revolution at the turn of the 19th century as the United States became the number one leading manufacturer and foremost industrial power in the world, jobs became harder to do and competition for their jobs grew. There were two people who controlled the newspapers at the time, Joseph Pulitzer of New York World and William Randolph Hearst, the editor of the New York Journal and they competed in the Newspaper business. Their competition lead to yellow journalism, which is an exaggerated way of reporting news in order to gain readership, profits, and influence. The conflict between spain and cuba for cuban independence and yellow journalism grew during this period allowing the influence of newspapers to once again grow. The USS Maine, in havana harbor on February 15th, 1898 caused the Spanish­American War. To protect American citizens, the USS Maine was sent to cuba to keep out the cuban revolution or in order words, national security. When the explosion happened, the immediate question for Americans was whether or not this was done by spain. Joseph Pulitzer, the editor of the New York World published in February 17, 1898, a newspaper under the headlines “USS

Maine explosion caused by bomb or torpedo?” The question is asking attack or be attacked. The paper implies that this is all perhaps spain's fault and we either need to attack now or be eventually be attacked. This was false Wong 2 actually, in 1976 the navy researchers concluded that the explosion was caused by an underground mine. The competition for readership fueled up this yellow journalism. It pushed the United States towards the war against Spain further with exaggerated news so they could get readership, profits, and influence. According to the headlines it was published in “explosion caused by bomb or torpedo”, Joseph pulitzer is only giving the readers two choices and they’re both for pro­war reasons. The headline was a rhetorical question and the language was as if it had already made up the mind of the readers. Joseph Pulitzer’s claim that this was either an accident by bomb or on purpose by torpedo contradicted what the actual reason of the explosion was as concluded in 1976. He did this because he would be having an advantage in the competition between the New York Journals by getting more readerships. Joseph Pulitzer, editor the New York Journals rhetorical claim of “USS Maine explosion caused by bomb or torpedo”, was significant because the influence of yellow journalism grew during this period and it heavily influenced the minds of the people. The Spanish­American War was also majorly triggered by the De lome letter.This was a letter that was not meant to be published but since it was published under the title of “ The first and last page of Enrique DuPuy de Lome’s letter to Don Jose Canalejas, the foreign minister of spain” by the New York Journals in February 1898, the letter made the people enraged with this for mocking the countries president. The language used by Enrique de Lome called Mckinley

weak, catering to the rabble, and a lowly politician. The language is hostile and even though the people sometimes thought of that themselves, hearing it from someone from a foreign nation like spain only added fuel to the fire within the people. The tone was direct and insulted Mckinley by calling him weak and catering to the rabble. When reading this letter it would have instantly made up the minds of the readers and increase the call Wong 3 for war with spain. War fever began throughout the nation and along with public insult and an upcoming election for presidency, this pushed Mckinley to also reconsider his view of the conflict in cuba. Another significant trigger for the Spanish­American war were the yellow journalism and the yellow cartoons. One of them was by Leon Barrit “The big time war of the yellow kids,” published on June 29, 1898 portrays the war with spain literally in hands of the editors. The competition for readership between the two newspaper was fueling up the use of yellow journalism by exaggerating the news they published. What these two newspapers published had a lot of influence on the people’s choices since they depended on the newspaper for news in the year 1898. Whenever something is published in the year 2014, the editors carefully makes sure not to influence something bad and that the news were news. The yellow journalism that Joseph Pulitzer and Hearst were publishing affected everyone and their opinions of war with spain. In February 15, 1898, Joseph Pulitzer, the editor of the NY World, published a newspaper under the headlines “ Maine explosion caused by bomb or torpedo” and this was another example of yellow journalism. They use what happened and implied this was all spains fault and no one considered to research what happened until the year 1976 because these were the newspaper and

it was all they expected to be the truth. The use of yellow journalism pushed on the war with spain. The Spanish­American war was a significant point in history because this was when the United States first and formally decided to abandon all of Isolation and built onto Imperialism. When George Washington stood down from presidency he announced the “farewell address of 1796 which established the principles of neutrality which states that we should avoid entangling ourselves in political alliances. The United States continued to stick to this farewell address until 1823 when the monroe Wong 4 doctrine was established and decided they want to colonize Latin America themselves and threatened Europe to stay out of our business and we’ll stay out of theirs too. In 1898, the year of the Spanish­American war, the United States became the number one leading manufacturer and foremost industrial power in the world and stabilized our nation as a whole. This gave the United States some power to take and exploit other nations resources and since Spain had all these resources the United States decided to intervene with cuba and spain in order to get these resources. When the conflict was over the United States established the treaty of paris, ending the Spanish­American war. In the treaty of paris of 1898, the teller amendment promised that the U.S. would set cuba free, however the United States having won the war with Spain decided to exploit the results of the war. The platt Amendment of 1901 states that cuba could not form treaties with other nation, that the U.S. can intervene in cuba for national security, and granted the United States the power to build naval station in cuba.