What really propelled the United States to declare war on Spain?
Overview:
“A splendid little war” is the way John Hay, ambassador to England, referred to the
Spanish-American War in a letter to Theodore Roosevelt. Although the war lasted less than four
months with few American casualties, the results of the war have forever changed the United
States national identity and role in the world as an imperialist power.
The implications of events leading up to the war were not unique to 1898 and analysis of
the role of the major factors provides valuable insight into U.S. history. In 1890, the Bureau of
the Census declared the interior frontier was closed, and many people began looking overseas for
a solution to the mounting surplus of manufactured goods as well as new lands for resources,
export market, and cheap labor. (Zinn, 1) The severe economic depression of 1893, which left
500 banks and 16,000 businesses bankrupt and millions of Americans without jobs compounded
the temptation of pursuing overseas expansion. (Choices, 2) Fueling the political climate, the
1896 elections between William McKinley (R) and William Jennings Bryan (D) revealed how
polarized the nation remained 30 years after the civil war (North vs. South / Populists vs.
Northeast Bankers / Racial). Just ninety miles south of Florida, the Cuban fight for independence
raged again against the Spanish colonial rule and captured public sympathies in the United States
as General Weyler forced Cubans into concentration camps resulting in over 400,000 Cuban
deaths. (Zinn, 3) The U.S.S. Maine was sent to Havana harbor to protect United States interests
and exploded three weeks later on February 15, 1898. Immense public support for the war left
McKinley with no other option than to request a declaration of war from congress in April 1898.
Historian Stephen Ambrose said the United States “had to find some new outlet for our energy,
for our dynamic nature, for this coiled spring that was the United States.”
Through this inquiry, students will examine the underlying forces that led the United
States to war with Spain. Students will examine primary and secondary sources relating to Cuban
sympathies, U.S. economic interests and desire to become a world power, the role racism and
religion played, and the impact of yellow journalism. The Treaty of Paris following the end of
the war resulted in an explosion of opposing views as to the appropriate path for the United
States. The Spanish-American War provides an understanding of how the U.S. emerged as an
imperial power and reveals how the questions of national values of the 1890s are still relevant
today.
Multiple Objectives:
a. Content Objectives
-SW demonstrate knowledge of the changing role of the United States from late nineteenth
century to WWI through the Spanish-American War.
G.L.E. Component 3.3: Understands the geographic context of global issues and events.
G.L.E. Component 4.1: Understands historical chronology.
-Identify changes shaping United States’ international outlook in the 1890s.
G.L.E. Component 4.3: Understands that there are multiple perspectives and
interpretations of historical events.
-Working with primary and secondary sources of evidence
b. Higher Order Thinking Skills Objectives
-Examine multiple causal factors and events leading ultimately to U.S. imperialism
G.L.E. Component 2.4: Understands the economic issues and problems that all societies
face.
G.L.E. Component 1.3: Understands the purposes and organization of international
relationships and United States foreign policy.
G.L.E. Component 4.3: Understands that there are multiple perspectives and
interpretations of historical events.
-Critically analyze the role of competing forces in swaying public opinion and perception
G.L.E. Component 4.2: Understands and analyzes causal factors that have shaped major
events in history.
-Revise hypotheses based on evidence through the process of inquiry
G.L.E. Component 5.2: Uses inquiry-based research.
G.L.E. Component 5.4: Creates a product that uses social studies content to support a
thesis and presents the product in an appropriate manner to a meaningful audience.
Grade Level: 11
Time: (3) 55min periods or (2) 90 minute blocks
Course Placement:
This inquiry will fit into 11th grade curriculum covering United States history 1890present. The inquiry directly addresses the changing role of the United States from 1890 to 1917
and U.S. imperialism. Students will have a working knowledge of the Monroe Doctrine as the
major political foundation for support of Cuban independence from Spain and intervention in
Latin America. Additional prior knowledge includes the shift from agriculture to manufactured
goods and how the surplus of goods during the economic depression of 1893 affected U.S.
economic interests. Students understand race relations in the U.S. and reasons for the polarized
political atmosphere of the 1890s.
Materials: Film - “Crucible of Empire” PBS 2007, Overhead Transparencies of Data Sets or
Projector, handouts of the data sets, recording of “Remember the Maine”, white board markers
Procedure:
I. Engaging the students in the inquiry – “the hook”
Show images of 9/11 attack and have students recall memories and reactions within
themselves and from the United States. Have students raise hands and describe how the United
States responded. Follow up by showing images of the U.S.S. Maine explosion in the Havana
harbor and subsequent newspaper headlines.
Give background information of the Maine while images are displayed. Ask the students
to draw parallels between September 11th and the blowing up of the Maine.
Analyze the documents for what the author/ photographer is trying to convey.
(Alternate Hook: Play intro to the film “Crucible of Empire.” Engage students in questioning
images and statements heard.)
Explain to students that we are going to began an inquiry into the underlying causes of the
Spanish-American War – a war that put the United States on a path to becoming a dominant
imperial world power.
II. Elicit Hypothesis
A. Refer back to inquiry question: What really propelled the United States to declare war on
Spain? Rephrase question if necessary to ensure all students understand we are looking for
specific reasons – economic, societal, and historical, etc.
B. Ask students to formulate hypothesis as to why the U.S. engaged in war with Spain. Have
them raise hands and record their reasons/hypothesis on the board. After a good list has been
recorded, take a straw poll to see which hypothesis have the most support. Ask students to
discuss support for different hypothesis, and then write down their own hypothesis. Provide a
stem if students are having difficulty. The main reason the United States declared war on Spain
was…
Let students know you will ask some of them to read their hypotheses out loud.
(Play song “We Have Remembered the Maine” while students are formulating hypotheses)
Randomly select 7-10 students to read their hypothesis to get an idea if students are grasping the
objectives properly.
III. Data Gathering and Processing
Break students into groups of four to analyze the data sets. This will give students an opportunity
to share their thoughts of possible ways the new evidence might alter their previous hypotheses.
Be explicit that there is no single correct answer to the question and not all evidence is
necessarily equal in value. Take a moment to revisit the differences between primary and
secondary sources and that the data presented by no means reflects everyone’s values or thoughts
in the U.S..
-As the data sets are presented, guide students through the evidence after some time has been
given for them to discuss the evidence with their groups.
After the data set has been analyzed and discussed, revisit the hypotheses on the board and ask if
students would like to add, delete, or highlight hypotheses. Have students discuss reasoning if
there are any disagreements.
Repeat this process after each data set.
-Handout timelines to students
Data Set 1 – Cuban Sympathies
-Show images portraying Cuba
-Hand out data set 1 evidence.
Data Set 2- Economic Interests and World Power
As maps are displayed, ask students to identify Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines along with
major cities. Have students make initial observations of their relationship geographically to the
United States and the implications this may have economically and strategically.
-Display map of Caribbean – note that Cuba is only 90 miles from the tip of Florida and in the
route to the Panama Canal zone
-Display map of Southeast Asia – note the proximity to China (access to markets)– Dewey’s
squadron left Hong Kong for Manilla; 600 miles away
-Distribute handout for Data Set 2
Data Set 3- Racism / Religion
Before displaying images or distributing handouts, briefly discuss as a class two key concepts:
Social Darwinism and Scientific Racism
-Display images from data set 3
-Distribute evidence for data set 3
Data Set 4- Yellow Journalism
Note-the term yellow journalism has nothing to do with race.
-Distribute evidence for data set 4
-Display images
IV. Conclusion / Revising Hypotheses
After all data sets have been presented and discussed, students will finalize any hypotheses on
the board. For homework, students will write a paragraph including a topic sentence (revised
hypothesis) followed by at least three pieces of supporting evidence. The evidence can be drawn
from the data sets or students can access additional sources (as long as sources are properly
cited). The paragraph must address specific causal factor(s) driving the U.S. to war with Spain.
The paragraph will be graded via a scoring rubric.
Assessment: This inquiry utilizes both formal and informal assessments. The informal
assessments are reached through hypotheses presented by students in class. A formal assessment
will be addressed through the homework assignment. Formative assessments are achieved
through possible hypotheses and questioning, and summative assessments will be accompliched
through homework.
Introduction Photos:
– U.S.S. Maine sent January 1898 to Cuba to protect U.S. interests and citizens. Exploded
February 15, 1898.
C. G. Bush. "The Star in the East." Drawing for cartoon published in The World, [April
1898].
NYPL, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, Print
Collection
This original drawing expresses the angry end of restraint on the part of U.S. authorities and
the public at the war's outbreak. Once again, the two dominant causes for war intervention are
depicted as Cuban freedom and the destruction of the Maine.
Sheet Music Cover for “We Have Remembered the Maine.”
TIMELINE
The Spanish American War (1898-1901)
Timeline
1895: Cuban nationalists revolt against Spanish rule
1896: Spanish General Weyler (the "Butcher") comes to Cuba.
1897: Spain recalls Weyler
Early 1898: USS Maine sent to Cuba
February 9, 1898: Hearst publishes Dupuy du Lome's letter insulting McKinley.
February 15, 1898: Sinking of the USS Maine
February 25, 1898: Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt cables
Commodore Dewey with plan: attack the Philippines if war with Spain breaks out
April 11, 1898: McKinley approves war with Spain
April 24, 1898: Spain declares war on the US
April 25, 1898: US declares war on Spain
May 1, 1898: Battle of Manila Bay (Philippines)
May, 1898: Passage of the Teller Amendment. July 1, 1898: San Juan Hill taken by
"Rough Riders"
July 3, 1898: Battle of Santiago Spain's Caribbean fleet destroyed. July 7, 1898:
Hawaii annexed
July 17, 1898: City of Santiago surrenders to General William Shafter
August 12, 1898: Spain signs armistice
August 13, 1898: US troops capture Manila
December 10, 1898: Treaty of Paris signed US annexes Puerto Rico, Guam,
Philippines.
January 23, 1899: Philippines declares itself an independent republic Led by
Emilio Aguinaldo, the self-declared Filipino government fights a guerilla war against the
US that lasts longer than the Spanish-American War itself.
February 6, 1899: the Treaty of Paris passes in the Senate
1900: Foraker Act Some self-government allowed in Puerto Rico.
1901: Supreme Court Insular Cases
March 1901: Emilio Auginaldo captured.
1901: Platt Amendment
1902: US withdraws from Cuba
1917: Puerto Ricans given US citizenship
http://www.sparknotes.com/history/american/spanishamerican/timeline.html
DATA SET 1
Note: Examine the way Cuba is portrayed.
Note: Unlike the Ten Years' War (1868-1878), the Cuban Independence Movement of the 1890s
was not ignored by the United States. This was partly due to sympathies resulting from the many
Cuban nationalists living in the United States.
“In 1896, General Weyler of Spain implemented the first wave of the Spanish "Reconcentracion
Policy" that sent thousands of Cubans into concentration camps. Under Weyler's policy, the rural
population had eight days to move into designated camps located in fortified towns; any person
who failed to obey was shot. The housing in these areas was typically abandoned, decaying,
roofless, and virtually unihabitable. Food was scarce and famine and disease quickly swept
through the camps. By 1898, one third of Cuba's population had been forcibly sent into the
concentration camps. Over 400,000 Cubans died as a result of the Spanish Reconcentration
Policy.”
“Crucible of Empire” PBS 2007.
“Weyler is a fiendish despot, a brute, a devastator of haciendas, pitiless, cold, an exterminator of
men. There is nothing to prevent his carnal brain from inventing torture and infamies of bloody
debauchery.” The New York Journal, February 1896. (crucible of empire)
“I think Hearst took up the Cuban independence movement as a jingoistic way to bring America
together. We were a nation in that period that was at each other's throats. North was still angry
at South. Populist farmers didn't like East Coast bankers. We had economic depression which
created a panic. And Hearst saw that the way to pull everybody together was with some war.”
Douglas Brinkley – Crucible of Empire
On March 17, 1898, Vermont Senator Redfield Proctor (1831-1908) delivered one of the most
significant speeches of the Spanish-American War era. After an observation visit to Cuba,
Senator Proctor returned to the United States and told Congress about Cuba's bleak situation: "I
went to Cuba with a strong conviction that the picture had been overdrawn. I could not believe
that out of a population of one million six hundred thousand, two hundred thousand had died
within these Spanish forts...My inquiries were entirely outside of sensational sources...What I
saw I cannot tell so that others can see it. It must be seen with one's own eyes to be realized...To
me the strongest appeal is not the barbarity practiced by Weyler, nor the loss of the Maine...but
the spectacle of a million and a half people, the entire native population of Cuba, struggling for
freedom and deliverance from the worst misgovernment of which I ever had knowledge..." –
Crucible of Empire
“No man’s life, no man’s property is safe. American citizens are imprisoned or slain without
cause. American property is destroyed on all sides… Cuba will soon be a wilderness of
blackened ruins. This year there is little to live upon. Next year there will be nothing. The horrors
of a barbarous struggle for the extermination of the native population are witnessed in all parts of
the country. Blood on the roadsides, blood on the fields, blood on the doorsteps, blood, blood,
blood! Is there no nation wise enough, brave enough to aid this blood-smitten land?” – New
York Journal (Choices, 9)
DATA SET 2: Economic Interests and World Power
Map Caribbean
*A New Manifest Destiny
This new manifest destiny first took the form of vigorous efforts to expand American
trade and naval interests overseas, especially in the Pacific and Caribbean. Thus, in the Pacific,
the United States took steps to acquire facilities to sustain a growing steam-propelled fleet. In
1878 the United States obtained the right to develop a coaling station in Samoa and in 1889, to
make this concession more secure, recognized the independence of the islands in a tripartite pact
with Great Britain and Germany. In 1893, when the native government in Hawaii threatened to
withdraw concessions, including a site for a naval station at Pearl Harbor, American residents
tried unsuccessfully to secure annexation of the islands by the United States. Development of a
more favorable climate of opinion in the United States in the closing years of the century opened
the way for the annexation of Hawaii in 1898 and Eastern Samoa (Tutuila) in 1899. In the
same period the Navy endeavored with little success to secure coaling stations in the Caribbean
and Americans watched with interest the abortive efforts of private firms to build an isthmian
canal in Panama. American businessmen promoted establishment of better trade relations with
Latin American countries, laying the groundwork for the future Pan American Union. And
recurrent diplomatic crises, such as the one with Chile in 1891–1892 that arose from a mob
attack on American sailors in Valparaiso and the one with Great Britain over the Venezuelan–
British Guiana boundary in 1895, drew further attention to the southern continent.
Stewart, Richard W. “The United States Army and the Forging of a Nation, 1775-1917.”
American Military History. Volume 1. Center of Military History. Washington, D.C. 2005
*ALFRED THAYER MAHAN
“As a nation launches forth, the need is soon felt for a foothold in a foreign land, a new outlet for
what it has to sell, a new sphere for its shipping. The ships that thus sail must have secure ports
and the protection of a navy.”
*“In the interests of our commerce…we should build the Nicaragua canal, and for the protection
of that canal and for the sake of our commercial supremacy in the Pacific we should control the
Hawaiian islands and maintain our influence in Samoa….and when the Nicaragua canal is built,
the island of Cuba…will become a necessity….The great nations are rapidly absorbing for their
future expansion and their present defense all the waste places of the earth. It is a movement
which makes for civilization and the advancement of the race. As one of the greatest nations of
the world the United States must not fall out of the line of march.” –Senator Henry Cabot Lodge
of Massachusetts (Zinn, 3)
*“There was already a substantial economic interest in the island, which President Grover
Cleveland summarized in 1896: ‘It is reasonably estimated that at least from $30,000,000 to
$50,000,000 of American capital are invested in the plantations and in railroad, mining, and
other business enterprises on the island. The volume of trade between the United States and
Cuba, which in 1889 amounted to about $64,000,000, rose in 1893 to about $103,000,000.’”
(Zinn, 8)
*“By the 1890s, Spain was considered very low in the estimation of many, many Americans.
Spaniards had been looming around our country through our formation years, and somehow we
always felt a threat from them. They were not part of the either the Anglo-Saxon culture or
French culture. And so we always saw Spain as being almost, ah, a sub-human European
peoples.” –Douglas Brinkley (Crucible of Empire film)
DATA SET 3: Role of Race and Religion
Social Darwinism, Scientific Racism, Ethnocentrism
*“It seems to me that God, with infinite wisdom and skill, is training the Anglo-Saxon race for
an hour sure to some in the world’s future….The unoccupied arable lands of the earth are
limited, and will soon be taken…. Then will the world enter upon a new stage of its history – the
final competition of races, for which the Anglo-Saxon is being schooled…. Then this race of
unequaled energy…will spread itself over the earth.” - Reverend Josiah Strong
*“It is a glorious history our God has bestowed upon His chosen people; a history heroic with
faith in our mission and our future; a history of statesmen who flung the boundaries of the
Republic out into unexplored lands and savage wilderness; a history of soldiers who carried the
flag across blazing deserts and through the ranks of hostile mountains, even to the gates of
sunset; a history of a multiplying people who overran a continent in half a century; a history of
prophets who saw the consequences of evils inherited from the past and of martyrs who died to
save us from them; a history divinely logical, in the process of whose tremendous reasoning we
find ourselves today.”
“Shall the American people continue their march toward the commercial supremacy of the
world? Shall free institutions broaden their blessed reign as the children of liberty wax in
strength, until the empire of our principles is established over the hearts of all mankind?”
“Hawaii is ours; Porto Rico is to be ours; at the prayer of her people Cuba finally will be ours; in
the islands of the East, even to the gates of Asia, coaling stations are to be ours at the very least;
the flag of a liberal government is to float over the Philippines…”
“The rule of liberty that all just government derives its authority from the consent of the
governed, applies only to those who are capable of self-government.”
“…We will not renounce our part in the mission of our race, trustee, under God, of the
civilization of the world. God has marked us as His chosen people, henceforth to lead in the
regeneration of the world…We are not dealing with Americans or Europeans. We are dealing
with Orientals. They are not capable of self government…Savage blood, Oriental blood, Malay
blood, Spanish example- are these elements of self-government?...The Declaration of
independence applies only to people capable of self-government.”
Senator Albert Beveridge of Indiana – from “March of the Flag” September 16, 1898
(Choices p.23)
*Rudyard Kipling –excerpt from “White Man’s Burden”
Note: a few years later Kipling won the Nobel Prize for literature
Take up the White Man's burden-Send forth the best ye breed-Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild-Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.
Take up the White Man's burden-The savage wars of peace-Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.
Take up the White Man's burden-Have done with childish days-The lightly-proferred laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!
*Senator Henry Cabot Lodge
“…What makes a race are their mental and, above all, their moral characteristics, the slow
growth and accumulation of centuries of toil and conflict. These are the qualities which
determine their social efficiency as a people, which make one race rise and another fall….it is on
the moral qualities of the English-speaking race that our history, our victories, and all our future
rest. There is only one way in which you can lower or weaken those characteristics and that is
by breeding them out. If a lower race mixes with a higher in sufficient numbers, history teaches
us that the lower will prevail…the lowering of a great race means not only its own decline but
that of human civilization…” (Annals, p. 88-92)
Data Set 4: Yellow Journalism
Spanish-American war sometimes referred to as the first “media war.”
The American press had no doubts about who was responsible for sinking the Maine. It
was the cowardly Spanish, they cried. William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal even
published pictures. They showed how Spanish saboteurs had fastened an underwater mine to the
Maine and had detonated it from shore.
As one of the few sources of public information, newspapers had reached unprecedented
influence and importance. Journalistic giants, such as Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer of the World,
viciously competed for the reader's attention. They were determined to reach a daily circulation
of a million people, and they didn't mind fabricating stories in order to reach their goal.
They competed in other ways as well. The World was the first newspaper to introduce
colored comics, and the Journal immediately copied it. The two papers often printed the same
comics under different titles. One of these involved the adventures of "The Yellow Kid," a little
boy who always wore a yellow gown. Since color presses were new in the 1890s, the finished
product was not always perfect. The colors, especially the Yellow Kid's costume, often smeared.
Soon people were calling the World, the Journal, and other papers like them "the yellow press."
"They colored the funnies," some said, "but they colored the news as well."
A minor revolt in Cuba against the Spanish colonial government provided a colorful
topic. For months now the papers had been painting in lurid detail the horrors of Cuban life
under oppressive Spanish rule. The Spanish had confined many Cubans to concentration camps.
The press called them "death camps." Wild stories with screaming headlines -- Spanish
Cannibalism, Inhuman Torture, Amazon Warriors Fight For Rebels -- flooded the newsstands.
Newspapers sent hundreds of reporters, artists, and photographers south to recount Spanish
atrocities. The correspondents, including such notables as author Stephen Crane and artist
Frederick Remington, found little to report on when they arrived.
"There is no war," Remington wrote to his boss. "Request to be recalled."
Remington's boss, William Randolph Hearst, sent a cable in reply: "Please remain. You
furnish the pictures, I'll furnish the war." Hearst was true to his word. For weeks after the Maine
disaster, the Journal devoted more than eight pages a day to the story. Not to be outdone, other
papers followed Hearst's lead. Hundreds of editorials demanded that the Maine and American
honor be avenged. Many Americans agreed. Soon a rallying cry could be heard everywhere -- in
the papers, on the streets, and in the halls of Congress: "Remember the Maine! To hell with
Spain."
Buschini, J. “Yellow Journalism.” Small Planet Communications. 2000
http://www.smplanet.com/imperialism/remember.html
*On February 9, 1898, the contents of a seized Spanish letter caused an international scandal that
fueled anti-Spanish and pro-war feelings in the United States. While in Washington in the middle
of December, Spanish ambassador Enrique Dupuy de Lôme wrote a personal letter to his friend
José Canalejas who was in Cuba. The letter contained these derogatory comments about
President McKinley and his policies concerning Cuba: Besides the natural and inevitable
coarseness with which he repeats all that the press and public opinion of Spain have said of
Weyler, "It shows once more that McKinley is weak and catering to the rabble and, besides, a
low politician who desires to leave a door open to himself and to stand well with the jingos of his
party."
“The New York Herald needed a day, at least, to authenticate the letter. The Cubans said, ‘You
don't have a day.’ They took it to Hearst. Hearst published it immediately, with huge, huge
headlines, ‘Greatest Insult Ever to America: Spanish Insult Our President.’ And the Hearst
papers now demanded, and other papers as well, that war was the only recourse.” – David Nasaw
(excerpt from Crucible of Empire)
Images:
-Some images were completely fabricated-
Resources:
“Reluctant Colossus:America Enters the Age of Imperialism.” The Choices Program. Watson
Institute for Internation Studies: Brown University. 2004
Zinn, Howard. “The Twentieth Century – A People’s History.” HarperPerennial. 1998
Williams, William Appleton. “The Tragedy of American Diplomacy.” W.W. Norton & Co. 1972
Perez Jr., Louis. “The War of 1898.” University of North Carolina Press. 1998
Ninkovich, Frank. “The United States and Imperialism.” Blackwell Publishers. 2001
Hoganson, Kristin L.. Fighting for American Manhood: How Gender Politics Provoked the
Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars.” Yale University Press. 1998
Film:
“Crucible of Empire.” PBS. 2007
http://www.pbs.org/crucible