Spanish-American War

Background

For several centuries Spain's position as a world power had been slipping away. By the late nineteenth century the nation was left with only a few scattered possessions in the Pacific, Africa, and the West Indies. Much of the empire had gained its independence and a number of the areas still under Spanish control were clamoring to do so. Guerrilla forces were operating in the Philippines, and had been present in Cuba for decades. The Spanish government did not have the financial resources or the manpower to deal with these revolts and thus turned to expedients of building concentration camps (in Cuba) to separate the rebels from their rural base of support. The Spaniards also carried out many executions of suspected rebels and harshly treated villages and individuals thought to be supporting them. The war was a total war with both Cuban rebel and Spanish troops burning and destroying infrastructure, crops, tools, livestock, and anything else that might aid the enemy. Nevertheless, by 1897 the rebels had mostly defeated the Spanish. They were firmly in control of the countryside and the Spanish were holed up in urban centers.

Related Topics:
Spain - World power - Nineteenth century - Pacific - Africa - West Indies - Guerrilla - Philippines - Cuba - Concentration camps - Total war

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These events in Cuba coincided in the 1890s with a battle for readership between the American newspaper chains of Hearst and Pulitzer. Hearst's style of "yellow journalism" would outdo Pulitzer's, and he infamously used the power of his press to influence American opinion in favor of war. Certainly, real and documented atrocities were committed in Cuba, and a real rebellion was being fought against Spanish rule. But in addition, Hearst's newspapers often fabricated stories or embellished factual descriptions with highly inflammatory language. Hearst published sensationalized tales of atrocities which the "cruel Spanish" (see Black Legend) were inflicting on the "hapless Cubans". Outraged by the "inhumanity" of the Spanish, Americans were stirred up to pushing for an "intervention", which even the most jaded hawks, like a young Theodore Roosevelt, would treat as a mostly dress-up affair. Hearst is famously quoted in his response to a request by his illustrator Frederic Remington to return home from an uneventful and docile stay in Havana, writing: "Please remain. You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war."

Related Topics:
1890s - Hearst - Pulitzer - Yellow journalism - Black Legend - Theodore Roosevelt - Illustrator - Frederic Remington

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There were, however, very real pressures pushing towards war within Cuba. Faced with defeat, and a lack of money and resources to continue fighting Spanish occupation, Cuban revolutionary and future president Tomás Estrada Palma secured $150 million dollars from a US banker to purchase Cuba's independence, but Spain refused. He then deftly negotiated and propagandized his cause in the U.S. Congress, eventually securing the bill for US intervention.

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There was also strong colonialist sentiment within the U.S.A. The so-called theory of manifest destiny was extended very early from the mainland to Cuba, and from there it was taken across the Pacific. Motivations of material gain for U.S. government and financial interests are made clear in many different ways in the volume represented by the following title page, published in 1899.

Related Topics:
Manifest destiny - Cuba

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Also, the end of western expansion and of large-scale conflict with Native Americans had left the Army with little to do, and army leadership hoped that some new task would come. In the words of Senator John M. Thurston of Nebraska: "War with Spain would increase the business and earnings of every American railroad, it would increase the output of every American factory, it would stimulate every branch of industry and domestic commerce."

Related Topics:
Native Americans - Army - Senator - John M. Thurston - Nebraska

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The United States Navy had recently grown considerably, but it was still untested, and many old war dogs were eager to test and use their new tools. The Navy had drawn up plans for attacking the Spanish in the Philippines over a year before hostilities broke out.

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In Spain, the government was not entirely averse to war. The U.S. was an unproven power, while the Spanish navy, however decrepit, had a glorious history, and it was thought it could be a match for the U.S. There was also a widely held notion among Spain's aristocratic leaders that the United States' ethnically mixed army and navy could never survive under severe pressure.

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