Importance Of William Mckinley's Contribution To The Cuban Revolution

From the moment William McKinley was inaugurated into office, a looming Cuban insurrection was of concern. It would take quite a few circumstances to derail McKinley’s original opinion of advocating peace among the Spanish and Cubans into a plea for US involvement in aiding the Cuban rebellion. First and foremost, a major factor that spurred US involvement was the Spanish colonial policy in Cuba. As a response to some small Cuban rebellious upheavals, the Spanish established concentration camps for actively rebellious citizens in Cuba under the tyrannical control of Valeriano Weyler. After failing to provide for the captives, thousands died of hunger and disease which later gave Weyler the nickname “The Butcher.” Upon the exposition of Weyler’s inhumane tactics, many in the US began supporting intervention in order to free the Cuban nationals from the control of the Spanish. Additionally, due to
guerilla warfare tactics in Cuba and it’s detrimental effects on US interests in sugar and mining on the island of Cuba, the US became fearful of losing its investments.
Moreover, another driving factor was the use of yellow journalism in the US. William Randolph Hearst, a Cuban nationalist and journalist, was a strong supporter of Cuban independence and was willing to go to any length to get US aid in doing so. Often times, Hearst would hyperbolize stories of Spanish oppressors in Cuba and the Cuban struggle in “The New York Journal” and Joseph Pulitzer would combat the rival newspaper by exaggerating it’s own stories involving Cuba in “The New York World.” Quickly, the nation grew aware of the issues in Cuba with Spain and a nation-wide support for intervention occurred. One of Hearst’s most significant disclosures was the De Lome letter. The De Lome letter was an intercepted letter written by the Spanish Ambassador to the United States to the Foreign Minister of Spain. It was composed of what is said to be the “worst insult to the United States in History” and in it was a clear derogatory insult towards president McKinley. In response to the publication of this letter by Hearst, the nation grew outrage, only furthering the plea for US intervention. Some might even say that this directly altered McKinley’s personal stance of forming peace between Cuba and Spain, into US aid to Cuba against Spain.
Another significant fabrication made in effort to spur the war was the glorification of the USS Main sinkage.
William McKinley decided to send in the USS Maine to protect US sugar interests, and help the rebel cause in Cuba, however the ship blew up killing 260 crew members on board. What the Naval Court of Inquiry ruled was a mine, quickly became illustrated as a Spanish attack on the US. Although such claims cannot be proven, the public and congress jumped on board, blaming the Spanish for the incident which two months later marked the beginning of the Spanish-American War.
Despite the US’s concern in its sugar interest and its general imperialistic willingness to expand, the Spanish-American War quickly became a war based on morality. Many people saw a reflection of America’s own struggle with Britain within the Cuban willingness for freedom and saw it as a need to intervene. Spain’s blatant disregard for the Monroe Doctrine spurred a US self-entitlement to police over Southern America in case of such occurrences; this later became known as the Roosevelt
Corollary.