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“The US fought the Spanish-American War of 1898 to obtain Cuba’s freedom from Spain.” To what extent do you agree with this statement?
Originating in the Cuban revolutionary movement beginning in 1895, Cuba fought against Spain for perceivably causing the severe social and economic difficulties faced during the time. However, the question remains of why the US entered such a war. While some justification for the war may have been in self-interest, it was ultimately fought to free Cuba from Spain for humanitarian reasons.
It is impossible to deny that there were direct business interests in the United States for entering the Spanish-American war.
The worsening conditions substantially impacted American-led agricultural companies in Cuba such as the American Sugar Refining Company, as well as other tobacco companies in Cuba, in addition to shipping companies transporting goods between the two. The continued failure of diplomatic relations between Spain, America, and the revolutionaries led to great uncertainty, plummeting their assets and putting their property in danger of destruction.
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American leaders such as Theodore Roosevelt recognized this problem and included it as one of his many reasons for promoting the war. He also recognized the issue of the Panama Canal, which was a large economic interest of the United States. If Cuba were to continue to be led by an unstable and unwieldy government, or by a belligerent Spain, the proximity and offshore regional hegemony in the area near the Isthmus of Panama would be deleterious to US goals in the region. In addition, it is important to consider the Monroe Doctrine, a widely held foreign relations policy held by Congressmen and McKinley himself, despite initially being against the war.
Although the Spanish had not established a colony on previously independent land (during America’s existence, at least), America had a general distaste and distrust for European powers in the Western hemisphere as it threatened America’s control over the Western hemisphere and promoted non-democratic states, which went against the ideological objectives of political leaders at the time.
Finally, there is evidence that the war was not promoted politically for humanitarian reasons but was rationalized for the eventual goal of essential control. In fact, the Secretary of State James Blaine directly stated in 1881 that Cuba was strategically important for America’s commercial ventures, and that “if ever ceasing to be Spanish”, America would fight for it to be inaccessible from other powers through claiming it themselves. While Congress and McKinley passed the Teller Amendment of 1898 to ensure Cuban independence after the war, it was discarded in 1901 with the Platt Amendment which gave the US the ability to control every important decision made by the local government, proving this idea may have some merit.
While the US may have had some direct interests to fight the Spanish-American War, it was primarily fought for humanitarian reasons. During the Cuban struggle for independence from Spain, the relationship between the revolutionaries and the United States were peculiar from the many reasons America was interested in Cuba. The newly installed general Weyler used unethical policies to stifle rebellious thoughts in the Cuban population, particularly with the establishment of concentration camps closely monitored by the Spanish military. Yellow journalist newspapers led by Joseph Pulitzer of the New York World and William Randolph Hearst of the New York Journal were quick to pounce on this issue, and exaggerated the conditions of Cuba, and placed all the blame upon the colonial government. Both sources used sensationalized reports with shocking headlines like “Spanish Murderers”. After continued political pressure, McKinley eventually made a statement in 1897 that if Spain failed to end its human rights violations and negotiate with revolutionaries that the US would have a duty to humanity to intervene forcefully. This issue represents the first of the concerns of the US, however, my second example is the USS Maine. Despite Spain replacing the problematic general Weyler and achieving some reformations, the public opinion of America had not changed. In fact, a loyalist riot in 1898 led to the destruction of the printing presses of pro-revolution news companies, both furthering the distaste for Spanish control of Cuba, and leading McKinley to send the USS Maine to Havana Harbor in 1898 to oversee and gain more control over violence in the region.
However, it later exploded in February of the same year, making further diplomatic progress impossible to reach. Yellow journalists continued to fabricate details of the event and accused Spain of blowing up the ship, and the straw that broke the camel’s back resulted from an internal investigation by the US Navy that corroborated this idea as the result of a mine explosion. While this may be considered an issue that would better fit in self-interest, the American public was not particularly attached to the USS Maine but was mobilized against the Spanish because of the loss of life to the order of hundreds of crew members that died in the explosion. With Spain painted as a brutal dictatorship destroying everything in its path, the US was bound to engage in war from mounting political pressure and did so in 1898 with a joint resolution allowing military force to promote Cuban independence.
In conclusion, although there were direct benefits to the US in the Spanish-American war of 1898, Spanish human rights violations primarily drove the war. While this investigation used a method only looking to evidence from before the Treaty of Paris, ending the war, a future investigation is warranted in analyzing the US’ behavior towards Cuba afterward as a method of discovering the true intentions of the United States.
Reasons for the Spanish American War. (2021, Aug 04). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/reasons-for-the-spanish-american-war-essay
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