America wanted to dominate as a world power, which was traditionally a European position. So they needed to control an imperial empire in order to take its place in power. This empire would be a perfect market for our goods. Spain’s imperial holdings were the target, and they were a much weaker nation than the United States.
The relationship between the United States and Spain from the 1870’s until the late 1890’s was an issue because the Cubans wanted independence from Spanish rule, and the Americans were sympathetic to this. Thousands of Cubans were dying from disease and starvation in concentration camps.
McKinley wanted to settle the Cuban conflict with Spain by peaceful means. However, there was a series of incidents in 1898. First there was a publication of a stolen letter, in which the Spanish minister expressed contempt in McKinley.
Then the U.S. battleship Maine was sunk in the Havana Harbor. There was an …show more content…
The Spanish American War received a lot of media coverage; William Randolph Hearst had antagonized the United States with trying to make Spain look guilty in the battleship Maine incident, so that his publication could report on the war, and that it did. The war built the American Navy and its presence in the Western Hemisphere. The Civil War had taken its toll on America. It was a nation divided, and this war brought unity to a nation that was still healing. African Americans were divided on this war. Some enlisted, hoping to gain respect as a race. Others would not, because they would not fight for the very people that had oppressed them. This war also broadened the powers of our President, both in the war and foreign