Spanish American War Research Paper

Words: 668
Pages: 3

The Spanish-American War was a turning point for America’s imperialism. Many factors played into the beginning of this war. The United States and Cuba had a good relationship between them. So much that the U.S. offered to buy island from Spain. Tensions began rising even more between the U.S. and Spain when a civil war began in Cuba between the Spanish and Cubans in 1895. America was well aware of the independence Cuba wanted from Spain. The U.S. invested millions in businesses, traded goods, and even had U.S. citizens residing in Cuba. Yellow journalism was becoming more prevalent as well, especially after the De Lôme Letter was received by the State of Defense and published in newspapers all across America which embarrassed President McKinley. The letter calls President McKinley “...weak and a bidder for the affections of the people...a would be politician who leaves a door open behind himself while at the same time trying to appease the jingoes of his party” (De Lôme, 1898). These reasons helped aid the U.S. to engage in the war but they were not the main cause …show more content…
The main reason for the United States’ declaration of war was because of the explosion of its warship, the Maine, that they sent to Havana to protect all of their economic interests. I agreed with their reasonings behind why they declared war. The Philippine-American war happened right the Spanish-American war and it was largely ignored since the number of citizen deaths were so high, how brutal the war really was which involved concentration camps on America’s part, and due to the fact that many Americans opposed the colonization of the Philippines. The Spanish-American war gave way to a new America. It helped expand America’s imperial empire and helped with giving independence to Cuba and the