The Cause Of The Spanish-American War

The simple explanation as to the cause of the Spanish-American war is that it was due to the way the Spanish were treating the Cuban people. But things are rarely that simple and the war between Spain and America is no exception. Leading up to the war American’s began to feel that we did not have enough room to grow and American journalists fed the desire for foreign adventure by romanticizing it, much the way the frontier had been romanticized. Huge Naval ships were built and Darwinism convinced politicians that the earth belonged to the strongest country.
When the Cuban people began to rebel against the Spanish the American people were outraged by their treatment. The fact that America had millions in investment and trade with Cuba added
to the concern, Journalist fed the outrage by making things seem even worse than they were and even making up stories. The United States sent the Naval ship Maine to Cuba in order to protect Americans and evacuate if necessary and an accidental explosion aboard the ship would cause Americans to cry for war, believing that the explosion had been an attack. Diplomatic agreements would be cast aside due to popular opinion and President McKinley’s believed that the Spanish would uphold their part of the agreement.
The majority of the consequences and results from the war would be unexpected. In fact, the only thing that was expected was the freeing of Cuba. One happy and unexpected consequence was unifying effect the war had on the United States. It helped to bring a divided North and South together. The rest of the consequences were not as good. The United States suddenly found itself in control of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. The Philippines created the largest problem, it was too far away and the people wanted to be free. Their fight for freedom would actually lead the United States to behaving much the way Spain had against the Cuban people, the very behavior we had fought against.