Imperialism: The Spanish American War

US History: Spiconardi

Underlying Causes• Economic

– Spain increased taxes on Cuba– U.S. placed tariff on Cuban sugar

• Cuba’s economy suffers• Cuban revolutionaries destroy American

sugar plantations and mills in Cuba

Underlying Causes• Humanitarian

– Spanish military mistreats Cubans• Civilians detained in camps by Gen. Weyler

– 30% die from disease and starvation

Underlying Causes• Expansionist

– War offered an opportunity to seize territory from Spain, a nation in decline

– Senator Henry Cabot Lodge’s speech to the Senate:• What are three specific reasons Lodge

provides to justify American involvement?• How does Lodge attempt to persuade people

to adopt his argument?

Immediate Causes• Jingoism super patriotism & demand for aggressive

actions• Yellow Journalism exaggerated and sensationalized

news– Competing publishers William Randolph Hearst and Joseph

Pulitzer print stories about atrocities of the Cuban Revolution• Often distorted events for garner an emotional response from

the American public

Immediate Causes

• What are four (4) arguments the New York World uses to subscribe to their argument?

Yellow Journalism Headlines

Immediate Causes• The DeLôme Letter

– A personal letter from Spanish Minister to the United States from published in the New York Journal

– “Besides the natural and inevitable coarseness with which he repeats al the press and public opinion of Spain has 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 me and to stand well with the jingoes of his party.”

Immediate Causes• Sinking of the Maine

– US battleship mysteriously explodes and sinks in the harbor of Havana Cuba

• 266 Americans killed• US blames Spain for planting a bomb

Results• Treaty of Paris

– Spain grants Cuba independence

• US controls Cuban politics and economy

– US acquires Philippines for $20 million

– US gains Puerto Rico & Guam

• Sparks debate: Imperialists vs. Anti-Imperialists

• Increases American involvement in Latin America