Transcript Spanish American War Notes

The Spanish American War, 1898
Spanish Empire in the Caribbean:
Background
• Beginning in 1492, Spain was the first European
nation to sail westward across the Atlantic Ocean,
explore, and colonize the Amerindian nations of
the Western Hemisphere.
• At its greatest extent, the empire that resulted from
this exploration extended from Virginia on the
eastern coast of the United States south to Tierra
del Fuego at the tip of South America excluding
Brazil and westward to California and Alaska.
Across the Pacific, it included the Philippines and
other island groups.
• By 1825 much of this empire had fallen into
other hands and in that year, Spain
acknowledged the independence of its
possessions in the present-day United States
(then under Mexican control) and south to
the tip of South America.
• The only remnants that remained in the
empire in the Western Hemisphere were
Cuba and Puerto Rico and across the Pacific
in Philippine Islands, and the Carolina,
Marshall, and Mariana Islands (including
Guam) in Micronesia.
Spanish Empire in the Caribbean:
Cuba
• Following the liberation from Spain of
mainland Latin America, Cuba was the first
to initiate its own struggle for
independence.
• As early as 1868, Cuban rebels fought
against Spanish rule
• 1895: Cuban revolutionary / poet Jose
Marti dies
Spanish Empire in the Caribbean:
US interests
• Economic interests extend well before 1898
– 1878: American sugar interests bought up large
tracts of land in Cuba
– 1898: the U.S. had more than $50 million
invested in Cuba and annual trade, mostly in
sugar, was worth twice that much
• 1896: Sp. Gen. Valeriano Weyler (the
“Butcher”).. Reconcentration
Spanish Empire in the Caribbean:
Yellow Journalism
William
Randolph
Hearst
New York
Journal
Joseph
Pulitzer
New York
World
Vs.
Led by newspaper owners William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, journalism of the 1890s used
melodrama, romance, and hyperbole to sell millions of newspapers--a style that became known as
yellow journalism.
The term yellow journalism came from a popular New York World comic called "Hogan's Alley," which
featured a yellow-dressed character named the "the yellow kid." Determined to compete with Pulitzer's
World in every way, rival New York Journal owner William Randolph Hearst copied Pulitzer's
sensationalist style and even hired "Hogan's Alley" artist R.F. Outcault away from the World. In
response, Pulitzer commissioned another cartoonist to create a second yellow kid. Soon, the
sensationalist press of the 1890s became a competition between the "yellow kids," and the journalistic
style was coined "yellow journalism."
http://www.pbs.org/crucible/journalism.html
With so much competition between the newspapers, the news was over-dramatized and
altered to fit story ideas that publishers and editors thought would sell the most papers and
stir the most interest for the public so that news boys could sell more papers on street
corners.
Jingoism - An attitude of wildly enthusiastic, often excessive
nationalism. Often, jingoists or jingoes push for war with other
countries.
Spanish Empire in the Caribbean:
US interests
USS Maine
(Feb 15, 1898)
Spanish-American War:
Results
• A “Splendid little war!” -Ambassador John Hay
• Treaty of Paris: December 10, 1898 established the
independence of Cuba, ceded Puerto Rico and Guam to the
United States, and allowed the victorious power to
purchase the Philippines Islands from Spain for $20
million.
• The war had cost the United States $250 million and 3,000
lives, of whom 90% had perished from infectious diseases.
Essential Question:
To what extent is American expansionism characterized by a series of
incidents and not the pursuit of a foreign policy?
• Argument: Series of Incidents
– Rationale?
– Supporting Argument?
– Evidence?
• Argument: Pursuit of Foreign Policy
– Rationale?
– Supporting Argument?
– Evidence?