The Spanish-American War

This event in U.S. history regarding the USS Maine was unfamiliar to me. I knew of the Spanish American War, but never

We chose this topic because America took a stand against Spain when they blew up the USS Maine. On February 15, 1898 the USS Maine was in Havana, when it was blown up killing 260 American sailors. America blamed it on Spain, which they controlled Cuba and Puerto Rico, and declared war. We also chose this topic because we wanted to learn more about the war and also to teach other more about it. The Spanish American war is not taught a lot in school because it only lasted three months.

Opposition to Spanish - American War Following the explosion of the USS Maine in February 15, 1898, while many Americans favored going to war with Spain, some were adamantly against the notion. The few who were against the idea of going to war include President McKinley, a fraction of African Americans, and one significant group, “ The Anti- Imperialism League”. Immediately after the explosion of the USS Maine, President McKinley, who disliked the idea of going to war ordered an investigation of the explosion. Americans claimed that an external force caused the sinking of the ship and the death of 266 crew members while Spain claimed that the sinking was the result of an internal force.

In the late 1800’s, Cuba was fighting for its independence and striving to break free from Spain’s control. On February 28, 1898, the U.S.S Maine mysteriously exploded, which was stationed on the coast of Cuba. This led to the U.S involvement in the Spanish-American War. There were many economic reasons why the U.S joined this war, however, there was nothing significant that would require their involvement. The U.S was already keeping a close eye on the battle between the other two nations; waiting for a reason to intervene.

In 1898, we finally see the United States begin to enforce the rules they before stated in the Monroe doctrine and began exhibiting their hemispheric power. As Cuba struggled to gain independence from Spain eventually America stepped in to help them gain their freedom. On April 24th Spain declared war on the United States and on April 25th America declared war on Spain.7 This war lasted for less than a year and was a big win for the United States. The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris on December 10th, 1898.

Jordan Sledge The Spanish-American War of 1898 was a conflict between Spain and the United States. This war was very popular, having many men volunteering to fight against evil. Americans loved the idea of freeing the oppressed people of Cuba. They saw themselves as a strong nation that needed to liberate the Cubans because they could not do it alone. The war shaped America culturally--it defined who was socially a “true” American citizen, and who wasn’t.

The imperialistic mentality of the American government after the Civil War, led to some degree to the Spanish-American war that would render a great acquisition of land for the United States. However, imperialism would not be the sole factor that led to the war against Spain, but also the sympathy felt by the American government towards Cuba’s efforts in fighting for their independence; additionally, the United States would seek to protect its commercial interests (sugar) in the island. Therefore, after invoking the Spanish to secede from their brutal practices towards Cuban rebels and attain a peaceful end to the situation, the United States arbitrarily sent a navy ship, “The USS Maine” to monitor the area.

After the Mexican-American War came to a close, the United States still continued to run into many different types of conflicts. The new Western territory (California, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, Nevada, and Arizona) granted by the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo caused many disagreements among the North and the South. Many people suspected that the new territory would become slave states which would mean the US would have more slave states than free states. Citizens of the North argued that if the Western territory were to become slave states, it would create an unbalance between slave states and free states. Government officials were debating about whether or not slavery should be extended into those states.

The video The Mexican-American War was interesting to watch. I understand that any country would like to extend its territories, but I think President Polk should not have gone to the extreme of war. I really like how in the video, the U.S. was portrayed as a bully, who technically forced Mexico to give up its territory, something that was, in my opinion, not fair at all. Besides this, I absolutely agreed with the idea of none of the countries winning due to the amount of casualties. It is true that the U.S. “won” the war and got the territory it wanted, but at what cost though?

On February 15 of the year of 1898, a tragedy occurred, the Maine all of a sudden exploded while sailing through Havana harbor. Around 260 Americans were killed because of this explosion. President McKinley and mostly all Americans wanted to prevent war, they just wanted to have a peaceful relationship with Cubans. However, there were some incidents between U.S. and Spain early in 1898. The Americans believed that the more they destroyed Cuba’s mainland, the quicker Spanish would leave Cuba, and Cuba will be able to be free at last.

What was the cause of the Spanish-American War? It is said that there were republicans that wanted to go to war with Spain prior to the explosion of the U.S. warship USS Maine. Theodore Roosevelt hope for a war against Spain in hopes to expand American military presence and power over seas and to gain access to foreign sources. Being as influential as he was on foreign policy he may have help convince President McKinley to send the USS Maine to Cuba to protect American interest and 267 servicemen died when in exploded. Although the was no proof that Spain had anything to do with the explosion the American government use this incident to declare war.

The U.S. was justified in going to war with Spain. In 1898, the USS Maine exploded, killing more than half the crew. Most of Americans believed it was Spain’ fault. After this happened, people wanted revenge.

Both Spain and the United States were truly impacted by the war because the war happened unexpectedly. The Spanish-American War was not started by one event alone, but with the accumulation many events which caused the war to explode. It started with the event surrounding USS Maine, was a "second class" battleship built up for the U.S. Navy. Spain sent General “Butcher” Weyler to control the situation in Cuba, so America sent the navy battleship called

Cuevas y Miguel Atristain y Nicolas Trist, representandtes de los Estados Unidos de Norteamerica, que ponene fin al estado de guerra entre ambos paises”. Which translates to that finally after war the representatives of both countries came to terms and ended the war and peace is restored between both countries. The last battle before the end of the war was the Battle of Mexico City where general Winfield Scott and American troops arrived in Mexico for their final battle, on September 14, 1847 Scott and the Americans troops walked away one final time with a victory. When the war ended Santa Anna who was a Politian who had a great influence on Mexican politics and government quit, resigned his position. After Santa Anna gave his position up the United States waited for a new government who was capable of negotiations to form.

Americans learned more about what happened during the Spanish American War through articles that exposed the violent tensions in Cuba. The Americans then felt the need that we should help Cuba against Spain. The Americans in power wanted to remain neutral, while the public wanted to go to war. The U.S. Maine was a battleship that was sent to Cuba to spy on them and understand the situation in person. While the ship was there, it mysteriously blew up, the blame was put on Spain for the explosion.