2/23
Aim: Was the U.S. justified going to
war with Spain in 1898?
Do Now: Articles
The Spanish Empire at its height
I. The Spanish-American War (1898)
A. Causes:
1. Humanitarian: Help the “poor” Cubans and
Filipinos under Spanish rule
“No man’s life is safe in Cuba. Americans are
imprisoned or slain without cause…Blood on the
roadsides, blood in the fields, blood on the
doorsteps…blood, blood, blood!...Is there no
nation brave enough to aid this blood-smitten
land?”-New York World, May 17th, 1896
2. Jingoism: intense
patriotism
Jingo=war hawk
“You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the
war”
-William Randolf Hearst (newspaper tycoon)
to Fredric Remington (artist/painter)
3. Yellow Journalism:
-sensationalistic, exaggerated journalism
-intent is to sell papers, NOT report the truth
-Joseph Pulitzer-New York World
-William Randolph Hearst-New York Journal
4. The De Lome Letter:
• A letter by a Spanish diplomat that insulted
President McKinley
"... McKinley is weak and catering to the rabble,
and, besides, a low politician, who desires to
leave a door open to me and to stand well
with the jingoes of his party."
On February 9, 1898, the letter was published in
the New York Journal, headlining it "THE
WORST INSULT TO THE UNITED STATES IN ITS
HISTORY".
5. The sinking of
the U.S.S. Maine:
Feb 15th, 1898
(260 of 354 dead)
6. Protect U.S. business interests in Cuba
($50 million in sugar and tobacco plantations)
The War
• May to August 1898
• 300,000 American troops
• 5,000 American deaths, 400 from battle
The Rough Riders
B. Outcome of the War
1. Spain is defeated and stripped of her empire
2. The U.S. Acquires the Philippines, Puerto
Rico, Guam (turning point from nation to
empire)
3. The Platt Amendment (1901):
– Cuba agreed to:
•
•
Give the U.S. a naval base (Guantanamo Bay)
Permit the U.S. to intervene in Cuba’s affairs to
preserve independence and maintain order
President McKinley on the Philippines
• I walked the floor of the White House night after night until
midnight; and I am not ashamed to tell you, gentlemen, that I went
down on my knees and prayed Almighty God for light and guidance
more than one night. And one night late it came to me this way—I
don’t know how it was, but it came:
• (1) That we could not give them back to Spain—that would be
cowardly and dishonorable;
• (2) that we could not turn them over to France and Germany—our
commercial rivals in the Orient—that would be bad business and
discreditable;
• (3) that we could not leave them to themselves—they were unfit
for self-government—and they would soon have anarchy and
misrule over there worse than Spain’s was; and
• (4) that there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and
to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize
them, and by God’s grace do the very best we could by them, as
our fellow-men for whom Christ also died