Causes Of The Spanish American Civil War Dbq Essay

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the U.S. was rapidly changing, in more ways than one. The Civil War had ended in 1865 with a victory for the North. The zipper was developed in the United States in 1891. In 1893 women are granted the right to vote in Colorado, and the U.S economy is benefitting from the sale of agriculture to europe. In 1896 the Supreme Court decided that “separate but equal” public facilities are legal. The Spanish American War ends in 1898, resulting in a treaty in which the United States acquires Spanish colonies, including the Philippines. This treaty leads to a great debate amongst the U.S. citizens as to what should be done with these countries obtained. While political leaders, such as William McKinley

From the earliest times of expansion, Native Americans had been massacred for occupying the land the United States felt entitled to. Following the Spanish American War the country was forced by its people to examine how they would handle countries obtained overseas, especially Spanish countries. Some argued a positive change at home could be brought about, especially for African American war supporters as it was thought it may undo “the bondage of racial prejudice” (Doc 1) since they would be fighting side by side with white soldiers for a common cause in the Spanish American War. This thought was shared by an African American editor for the newspaper the Colored American, E. E. Cooper, in hopes that African Americans may get some of the same rights as white soldiers, and racial tensions minimized after tensions left following the Civil War. Imperialists, like Theodore Roosevelt, advocated that the United States must control other countries, like the Philippines, as “if we now let it be replaced by savage anarchy, our work has been for harm and not for good” (Doc 5). His views from his speech given to business owners and local leaders, translated into his presidency advocating for the idea of speaking softly and carrying a big stick, known as the “Big-Stick” policy. This policy is echoed into recent efforts against Iraq and

He argues that it would be dishonorable to give them back to Spain, it would be bad for business to give them to another big country, they cannot be left with no ruling government, and so there is no other option than “to take them all.” As McKinley, a powerful voice to the public, argued for expansion, more simple people came forward in opposition. A Yale University professor, expressed the same views as several Americans for anti-imperialism in a speech in 1899, believing that the U.S. would ultimately suffer the same fate as Spain, as at the “first touch of the test we throw the doctrine away and adopt the Spanish doctrine” (Doc 2). The professor, William Graham Sumner, was skeptical about the idea of using military force as a way of spreading American values. Some felt as though expansion was spreading the U.S too thinly, as expressed in Document 7. When the symbol of our nation cannot seem to cover all the nations it needs to it provides a sense of clear understanding that the government could not monitor all the nations at once. Questions about expansion, are still argued in modern society in relation to Puerto Rico and whether it should become the 51st state or remain as it is. Things have not changed as drastically as one may think in the past 100