Section 2: The Spanish-American War. For a long time Americans had looked enviously towards Cuba, a rich tropical island 90 miles from the coast of Florida.

Section 2: The Spanish-American War

For a long time Americans had looked enviously towards Cuba, a rich tropical island 90 miles from the coast of Florida. In 1823, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams had compare Cuba to an Apple a storm might tear from its native tree, the Spanish Empire, and drop into American hands.

By the 1890, Spain's once vast empire in the Western Hemisphere had been cut back to two islands, Cuba and Puerto Rico. Bitter unrest in Cuba led the United States towards war with Spain.

A growing economic and military strength made American citizens and their leaders confident of the nation's power. Sometimes, however, this conference turned to jingoism, an exaggerated and arrogant national pride.

Jingoists called for an aggressive foreign-policy. In 1891, jingoists demanded war after two American sailors were killed and 17 injured in a fight in Valparaiso, Chile. Chile faced with American threats from the U.S. government offered compensation and the crisis ended.

The trouble in Cuba was different and far more dangerous. Americans had invested in Cuba since before the Civil War, mainly in the rich sugar plantations. They wanted to protect those investments. Some Americans wanted to take Cuba from Spain out right. In 1895, frustration with falling sugar prices exploded into a bloody revolt. Rebels set fire to sugarcane fields and blew up trains.

In response Spain sent a new and ruthless Gov. Gen. Valeriano Weyler to deal with the rebellion. The American press dubbed Weyler “The Butcher,” because of his brutal methods. One such harsh treatment Weyler used was called reconcentration. Weyler’s troops forced to Cuban villagers into detention camps, where it was reported that nearly 100,000 people died from hunger disease and neglect. Reports of reconcentration out raged many Americans.

A group of Cuban patriots who had been exiled from Cuba and were now living in New York City fanned the flames of this anger by publishing stories of Spanish atrocities. José Marti, who himself was exiled by the Spanish government for attempting to lead a rebellion, reported on events in Cuba in his newspaper Patria, trying to gain American support of Cuban independence.

Two rival New York City newspapers Joe Pulitzer’s New York World and William Randolph Hearst’s New York Morning Journal, fed the growing anti-Spanish feeling. They labeled Wyler a mad dog or human hyena, but at the same time the papers played down brutal deeds committed by the rebels.

Pulitzer and Hearst were practicing a style of reporting called yellow journalism. The two sold newspapers by running sensational stories under screaming headlines. Hearst was so sure of his ability to sway public opinion, that he reputedly told one photographer who was heading for Cuba, “You supply the pictures. I'll supply the war.”

Swayed by the yellow press many Americans called for war to free Cuba from Spanish rule. When a fight broke out in Havana, the Cuban capital in 1898, Pres. William McKinley quickly ordered the battleship Maine into Havana harbor to protect United States citizens.

On February 15, 1898 a huge explosion destroyed the battleship killing 260 American sailors. Investigators failed to discover why the Maine blew up. Although a Navy study 78 years later concluded that evidence pointed to an accident, at the time people in the United States made hysterical by news stories angrily blamed Spain.

For several weeks after the sinking of the Maine, the United States teetered on the brink of declaring war. However Pres. McKinley held back and promised that there would be no jingo nonsense in his administration.

In March 1898, he proposed a cease-fire between Spanish troops and Cuban rebels. Spain rejected McKinley's proposal and war fever ran high expansionists such as Capt. Mahan and Theodore Roosevelt saw victory over Spain as the first step towards building an empire. The war spirit became overwhelming. Yielding to public opinion President McKinley presented a series of demands eager to avoid war. The Spanish did agree to end reconcentration but they refused to withdraw from Cuba. On April 11, 1898 McKinley turned to Congress for a formal declaration of war.

Surprisingly the first fighting of the war did not take place in Cuba but on the other side of the world. Spain controlled The Philippine Islands south of China in the Pacific Ocean. Many Americans never heard of them or knew where they were. Even McKinley had to use a globe to locate them. Preparations for Pacific war had begum even before the sinking of the Maine. Theodore Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy, had sent a message Commodore George Dewey commander of United States squadron in Hong Kong if war was declared then his mission would be to destroy the Spanish ships anchored at Manila Bay in the Philippines.

When Congress declared war Dewey’s fleet steamed towards Manila Bay. At dawn on May 1, 1898, Dewey's guns open fire and succeed in sinking the entire Spanish squadron. The only American casualty was the ships engineer who died of a heart attack. The Spanish still held Manila, so Dewey asked McKinley to send troops. By the time 11,000 troops arrived, Dewey had joined forces with Emilio Aguinaldo, the leader of the Filipino rebels fighting for independence from Spain. On August 13, Aguinaldo’s rebels and United States forces took Manila. Back home even non-expansionists thrilled at the stunning victory.