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The Effect Of The Spanish-American War On Terror

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Since the Spanish-American war, the U.S. has adopted the notion that it is the “guardian of freedom” and will defend the concepts of democracy and Christian morality, worldwide. This assumption of power over lesser countries saw its birth in the Spanish-American War, It was disastrously applied to combating communism in Korea and Vietnam, and is one of the platforms of the War on Terror. To implement this strategy the public must be persuaded that sending troops overseas is the only thing that can be done. News is made interesting by showing carnage, and the oppression of people by despotic powers, sowing sympathy and spreading fear and hate. The U.S. also makes every effort to assert that it is doing the “right” thing by sending troops to areas of the world that pose no immediate threat to them. By the time the U.S. is ready to put boots on the ground, it has the backing of the majority of the public. …show more content…

A steady stream of images depicting the Spanish as monsters and the Cuban people as damsels in distress, flooded newspapers. (Insert The War Must be ended here) Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst battled for subscribers by embellishing stories of Spanish led atrocities. This led to the increased sympathy of the American people for the abused Cubans. With the sinking of the Maine on February 15th, 1898, the New York Journal blamed the Spanish without evidence, “Remember the Maine! To hell with Spain!” became the motto. Newspapers unrelentingly continued to excite the masses with thoughts of war with Spain and the American public cried out for

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The themes of Admiral Alfred T. Mahan books were that “great nations had empires which they maintained with great navies” (Fraenkel 45). The second reason why U.S.S Maine was sent to Havana harbor because President McKinley said “to protect American lives and interest”, Americans had invested heavily in Cuba. On the night of February 15, 1898 the Maine explodes and sinks in Havana harbor. 260 Americans sailors were killed. This was another humiliation for the Americans after the De Lome letter, just 6 days before.

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From Liberation to Conquest by Bonnie Miller looks at The War of 1898 through the scope of popular culture during the time. She took political cartoons, newspapers, dramas, and etc. to explain the role the United States media played in gaining momentum for their conquest in Cuba as well as other territories. These media outposts shaped and formed the story that was being told around the country, and gave both true and false, as well as dramatized ideals of what the war really was. Bonnie Miller, an Associate Professor of American Studies, at the University of Massachusetts Boston, earned her PH. D in History.

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These giants of the media world were hard at work using a system of writing called, yellow journalism. Yellow journalism is a writing style that tried as hard as possible to sell Americans the idea that the Spanish were ruthless tyrants and that the people of Cuba suffered under their rule (“U.S. Diplomacy”). Yellow journalism also reached into other global topics, however, most of the stories were targeted at Cuba. Its power came from it’s innate ability to exploit the prejudices that already existed in American society (“U.S. Diplomacy”). This is why writers like Pulitzer and Hearst sensationalized their stories, enhancing the flow of hatred toward the Spanish and eventually causing the Spanish American

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William Randolph Hearst and his newspaper offered a $50,000 reward “for the detection of the perpetrator of the Maine outrage” (Hearst). As many Americans assumed Spain was responsible for the explosion of the Maine, the U.S. public demanded intervention in Cuba, with the rallying cry of “Remember the Maine!” (Danzer). On April 9, 1898, the Spanish agreed to almost all of the United States’ demands, including a six-month cease-fire (Danzer). Despite this, the public still favored war, and on April 20, 1898, the Spanish-American War began

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The letter was published in Hearst’s Morning Journal; in it the letter criticized and insulted President McKinley. This letter increased the anger of the American public toward Spain. On February 15, 1989 USS Maine, which was docked in Havana, Cuba, mysteriously exploded leaving 260 sailors dead. Today, it is believed that the ship most likely exploded due to combustion next to

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655 Words | 3 Pages

Spanish-American war of 1896, Cuba was the last remaining colony of Spain in the new world. Cuban sugar cane workers were rebelling because of poverty and bad conditions. William Randolph Hearst, a sensationalist reporter who was investigating the war, sent an artist to Cuba to sketch the action. Unfortunately for him, nothing violent was happening, so Hearst exaggerated the truth. Pressured into war the president sends the Maine to harbor, but it suddenly exploded.

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The American public was outraged. The American Yellow Press released, “Remember the Maine! To hell with Spain!” Most Americans believed it was Spain’s fault for the explosion. It created tension between America and Spain.

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In the late nineteenth century, yellow journalism, exaggeration of news in order to sell papers, was coined by Erwin Wardman, editor of the New York Press. The term originated during the American Gilded Age of the late nineteenth century with the circulation battles between Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and William randolph Hearst’s New York Journal. Both papers were accused by critics of sensationalizing the news in order to drive up circulation, although the newspapers did serious reporting as well. In 1898, the United States assisted Cuba in its fight for independence against Spain in order to protect its citizens and businesses in Cuba, and the war became known as the Spanish American War. The United States declared war on Spain after the U.S. warship, the Maine, exploded and sank on February 15, 1898 while visiting Havana, Cuba.

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In the cause of humanity and to put an end to the barbarities, bloodshed, starvation, and horrible miseries now existing there [in Cuba], and which the parties to the conflict are either unable or unwilling to stop or mitigate…”(President McKinley's call for war against Spain, 1898) Which led some Americans to rebel resulting anti-imperialist. In order to protect the Americans from those who became anti, imperialist McKinley and Roosevelt thought of a plan to help protect the truth behind imperialism. “To keep the brutal nature of the war hidden from the American public, the McKinley and Roosevelt administrations engaged in censorship, official denial, media spin, glittering generalities, and intimidation of war critics.” (The United States Foreign

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Essay One: Imperialism Flies circle great black lumps as the moist air ravages the corpses. Dried blood soaked into the ground after faceless soldiers brutally destroyed its owners’ lives. These were the stories in the newspapers, the movies, and the films. Horrified by these crimes against humanity, the American public was spurred into action against the Spanish oppressors. the United States invaded Cuba in 1898 to pursue humanitarian efforts.

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This week, we had a variety of readings discussing the relations between certain Latin American countries and the United States, the Panama Canal, and the explosion of the American battleship Maine. Following the explosion of the battleship Maine, there was an outcry for war, with the declaration of war against Spain being approved by congress on April 22, 1898, a little over a month after the explosion. From reading the various news articles, one thing I find quite interesting is the role yellow journalism played in shaping American public perception of the event. Specifically, two articles, the one about the Maine survivor, and the article from Hearst’s Journal. The article about the Maine survivor outlines the tragedy that occurred and

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The event which truly set the stage was the Spanish-American War. One of the key tools utilized to gain the public’s support of the war, especially by William Randolph Hearst, was yellow journalism, involving the use of sensationalism with little to no research behind the stories. Without it, the American public would have likely never heard of the explosion of the USS Maine, nor would they have thrown their support behind the war in the mindset that the ship has been attacked by the Spanish. From this conflict, and with the help of Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders, the United States gained control of Cuba, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. Of course, the inhabitants of these islands were not given a choice in this matter, which is indeed a recurring theme in the story of American imperialism.

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1355 Words | 6 Pages

Most people found out through the headlines and topics of newspapers that were printed daily for the people and found that they could understand them in their fight for their freedom. Another cause that helped fuel this war was thanks to yellow journalism in newspapers, it caused many people to feel anger and hatred for spain, making Americans more thirsty for war. People making newspapers realised that all these made up stories helped make them more money, all of the fabricated, lies, and over-exaggerated headlines and stories could bring them more profit, thus initiating the start of Yellow Journalism to an extreme extent. Some of the main people that practiced Yellow Journalism was Joseph Pullitzer and William R. Hearst. These two men were enmeshed in a vicious public war.

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Some Americans opposed New Mexico statehood because they questioned the loyalty of many New Mexico citizens. They also feared that New Mexicans might side with Spain, their former mother country, in the Spanish American War. Many Americans saw similarities between the Cuban struggle for independence and their own struggle for independence from England during the American Revolution. On February 15, the battleship exploded in Havana Harbor. More than 250 American sailors were killed The United States declared war on Spain for this and other reasons in April 1898.

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928 Words | 4 Pages

Americans learned more about what happened during the Spanish American War through articles that exposed the violent tensions in Cuba. The Americans then felt the need that we should help Cuba against Spain. The Americans in power wanted to remain neutral, while the public wanted to go to war. The U.S. Maine was a battleship that was sent to Cuba to spy on them and understand the situation in person. While the ship was there, it mysteriously blew up, the blame was put on Spain for the explosion.

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