The Main Causes Of The Spanish American War

The Spanish American war started in 1898 and was a fight for Cuba’s independence which resulted in 379 American casualties in combat. The Spanish American War was justified because of the Monroe Doctrine, Correspondence between the United States and Spain, and the Platt Amendment, which were all created to protect American morals and freedom.

On April 19th, 1898, The United States impulsively waged a war with imperialist Spain that would forever change our country for better and for worse. There are many different factors that led to the war, but in my opinion, one key cause is of much greater importance than the others. As a result of the war, American became known as an imperialistic nation and a world power. How could such a “little” war have such a large impact on American society at the turn of the 20th century?

War of 1812 and industrialization- The british blockade forced the united states to develop its own industries

“War should never be entered upon until every agency of peace has failed; peace is preferable to war in almost every contingency.” (War Message 1898) Those are the words of President McKinley in his inaugural address, on March 4th, 1897. McKinley wasn’t a man of war and certainly didn’t share the same views as Teddy Roosevelt did; even though he was the one who declared war against Cuba, he was led to that decision from the immense pressure from every corner of the U.S. Kagan believes that the Spanish American War took place because American egos were hitting the stratosphere and therefore believed that the U.S were better than most countries and should go and fix less developed ones. Another view Kagan had was that the primary reason for

During the twentieth century the United States of America became involved with three major conflicts that resulted in the nation shifting from a regional power into a global power. Through these conflicts the United States grew territorially, economically and industrially. Foreign policies were altered to allow the United States to gain ground on the world stage and to make their mark on the world. Through careful analysis of primary sources and scholarly document s it is clear to see that the United States involvement in the Spanish American war was the first step for the United States to grow on the world stage. The American victory in the war led to the acquisition of island territories and expanded economic and military capabilities in the both the western and eastern hemisphere as well as an increased involvement in Asia. World War I ended with American democratic ideals to be spread all across Europe. Led by President Woodrow Wilson, the United States led a one sided foreign policy that used intervention, peace treaties and military intervention to endorse international order. Despite a limited role in the war President Wilson was able to outline the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations and both of their presences can be found today.

The Spanish American War started in 1898 and lasted about four months. Although the war might have seemed focused on freeing Cuba from Spain and gaining independence for Cuba and the Philippines, it was actually stimulated by nationalism and commercialism. Commercialism was a major factor when declaring war because the United States depended on Cuba and the Philippines for trade and business with other countries, especially in Asia and Latin America. Another major factor for the war was that the United States wanted to spread its Anglo-Saxon culture around the world and emerge as a world-wide power. Other minor motives for the war include the United States coming to the aid of the Cubans in their revolt against Spain and the feeling that

During the start of the battle in 1846, when James K. Polk declared war against the Mexican’s, the nation was divided. One part of the war and the other half against. While slave owners saw it as “ a place to extend slavery,” others such as Frederick Douglas saw it as “robbing Mexico of her territory.” The Mexican American War rose out of the desire of expansion and resulted in new discoveries.

During the mid 1840’s there was very high tension between the well established and rapidly developing United States and the more unorthodox and less equipped Mexico. The United States was confident in it's growing with help from the much inspiring Manifest Destiny and they ultimately looked to migrate more U.S territories westward. However Mexico was at more of a struggle by not really being able to take authority of the land in which they gained from Spain following their fight for independence also not being able to settle that land successfully. So in result of this the two forces would end up going to war better known as the Mexican-American war.The war lasted two years from 1846 through 1848.Various battles and attacks would occur throughout these two years but the Americans got the best of the Mexicans and would end up winning the war ultimately making the Mexican territory decrease in half its original size and their territory would now be considered apart of U.S territory. The main causes and effects of the Mexican-American War would be the annexation associated with Texas and the Manifest Destiny which both would led to the effects of U.S growing in size and slavery buzzing around longer.The word justified means a validation for a certain situation that occurs. In saying this I believe the war was justified.

The quote "A Splendid little war" by Secretary of State John Hay summarizes the Spanish American War in 1898. While this war could be seen as an act of aggression by the 20th century standards this war was beneficial to the United States of America while being deviating to the Kingdom of Spain for many reasons.

The Mexican-American was very important to our country. We not only annexed Texas but, gained other states what is now modern day California, Utah, and Nevada. Mexico also obtains from the war which was debt relief. This paper explains how America and Mexico went from enemies to allies.

The Spanish-American War served to epitomize the imperialist sentiments inherent to American society of the late 19th century, as it was driven nearly entirely by jingoism and a large degree of sensationalism. When examining this war, many often conclude that it was the result of the pressure placed on McKinley by multiple expansionists within Washington - that such men as Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge were, perhaps, the primary cause for this imperialist endeavour. However, upon deeper inspection it appears to be that such men can not be noted as the sole, or even most responsible, factors in initiating the conflict. For it seems that the evidence is more supportive towards the notion that the general attitudes of the public were mostly to blame, and therefore, the cause of the war must lay with the sensationalistic “yellow-journalism” - which had grown rampant in that period - as the underlying cause of the Spanish-American War. Basically, as shall soon be demonstrated, it appears to be illogical for one to deduce that the pressure expressed onto President McKinley by his imperialist counterparts should be held accountable for the Spanish-American War.

In the early years of America there was a feeling of Manifest Destiny in the nation. Manifest Destiny was the feeling that Americans were the chosen people of God and were meant to expand America to all of North America including Mexico and Canada. Of course this caused many problems with those areas along with many others, it also granted America new territories as well. One of those major conflicts was the Mexican-American war.

The Mexican-American war, also known as the Mexican war happened between 1846 and 1848 with the participants being United States of America and Mexico. Texas, previously a Mexican state, was the primary cause of the war. A series of disagreements had occurred between Texans and the Mexican government leading to Texas declaration of its independence in 1836. Later, Texas decided to join the United States as the 28th state and this infuriated Mexico. Additionally, border disagreements came up with Mexico claiming the border was at Nueces River while Texas claimed it was at Rio Grande River. James K. Polk, the president, sent his army to protect the border which ended up in shooting between Mexican and American troops. It is after this that

12.) A main cause was that way too much was being produced. Since people already had something, they no longer would purchase it. Since the companies had a lot of stockpile product because nobody was buyingit, they laid off workers since they were being less profitable and didn't need to make so much. As a result of the companies' decreasing profits, stock traders sold stocks and it then fell into panic selling, and as a result the value of stock decline greatly. Since all of this was happened it caused the economy crash.

"American imperialism in 1898 was not a sudden abandonment of anti-colonial tradition but was a logical extension of commercial expansion, something the US had been doing throughout its history" (SparkNotes: The Spanish American War, 1898-1901,: Effects of the Treaty). President McKinley was not interested in wars of conquest or of territorial aggression. His interest in expansion was "to make the United States first in international commerce and as a means to implement its humanitarian and democratic goals" (Faragher, J., Buhle, M. J., & Armitage, S. H. ,2008, Out of Many, A History of the American People, 6th ed., Vol. 2, p. 561). McKinley would eventually be forced to act in a humanitarian effort for the people of Cuba and to protect