Target Objective

Cuba being colonized by Spain, declared its first war of independence during 1890’s (Pbs.org, 2018).After 1800 Spain already lost all its earlier colonies except Cuba and Puerto Rico. Citizens of Cuba fled to parts of Florida and U.S in order to protect themselves from the Spanish invasion. However, they waged their war of independence against Spain under the leadership of Jose Marti, the great Cuban leader (Loc.gov, 2018). This war was not fought by Cuba alone rather the U.S joined hands in 1898 in order to help Cuba win the war of independence (Pbs.org, 2018). Due to America’s economic interest in Cuba, it helped to fight the war of independence. However, the war was not fought in Cuba, and most of the war took place in the capital of Manila. Spain responded to the war by sending 100000 soldiers to Cuba (Loc.gov, 2018). After the U.S joined the war, Spain was crushed to defeat, as it was its ultimate reality. Cuba was independent from the clutches of the colonial masters even though it made America’s present in Cuba permanent. Spain and U.S signed the peace treaty of “Pearl” in 1898 and Cuba became an independent nation under the “protection” of U.S (Pbs.org, 2018). Even though Cuba was victorious with the help of America, America’s role has remained questionable and unanswered.

The geographical proximity of Cuba and economic and social instability in Cuba along with its long-standing interest is Western hemisphere led America participate in war as it generated sympathy for the Cubans. The significance of America’s domestic opinion was that it has to take up the situation in its own hand. Similarly, the congress passed a resolution and called for the establishment of the “Stable government” In Cuba, which forced the Spanish to accept its defeat and withdraw from the Cuban territory (History.state.gov, 2018).

The Spanish-American war is often termed as the “Media War” (Pbs.org, 2018). It is important to understand the issue of “yellow journalism” to understand the war. A war started with the media and journalism because of usage of cartoon and headlines in yellow color to promote the cause of U.S in Cuban struggle. Media owner Hearst and Pulitzer realized that this usage of yellow cartoon and exposing the real image of Cuba during war would raise them in national prominence. Historians today argue that this war of Spanish-American-Cuban-Filipino was the first one driven by journalism and media (Pbs.org, 2018).

During the crisis of 1898, President McKinley responded in support of Cuba and ordered the Spanish power to “get out” of Cuba (Herring, 2008). President McKinley ordered the Congress to declare war on Spain and passed a resolution for the same. The Spanish forces reverted with brutal force (Pbs.org, 2018). McKinley even used words like “Remember the Maine, to hell with Spain” (Herring, 2008).Due to uncertainties in Congress, the President decided to take up the issue in their own hands. However, McKinley decided to declare the war against Spain due to the incident of U.S.S Maine explosion (Loc.gov, 2018).According to Perez (1998) the explosion of the battleship “Maine” was one of the prime reasons for the destructive response of President McKinley. He discussed the step taken by the Congress and the President actually denied Cuban to participate in their own struggle for independence. This is also because of America’s interest in Cuba and its changing foreign relations with Spain (Merill et al, 2006).

Brief Indicative Content

However, the reasons for U.S intervention in Cuba was to put an end to the barbarities, bloodshed, killing, torture of the Cuban population. A large number of Americans were already living in Cuba which inculcated a feeling of apathy for the American citizen in Cuba, an unstable satiation in Cuba would mean instability in U.S as well(Merill et al,2006). The rationale behind waging the war was a multiplicity of factors. However, this was escalated due to the explosion of the battleship.

Cuba’s economy was closely ties to the interest of the U.S during and before the war years. After the Ten years war of Cuba, its economy was disintegrated and its thriving sugar industry was declining. During 1898, almost 90% of the tobacco industry was partially transferred to North America (Loc.gov, 2018). Moreover, this situation was best suited for U.S to penetrate itself into the economy of Cuba. Major mining rights and production rights transferred to the hands of U.S. (Loc.gov, 2018). The domestic sugar industry was equally declining which led to Cuba’s dependency on America for its sugar imports. Even the percentage of imports of Cuba from U.S rose from 6% to 38 %( Loc.gov, 2018).

America’s thriving economy was based on the imports and exports with the Cuban market. This worked as a major reason for America’s participation into the war as a protector of Cuba’s interest at the loss of its own revenue because the interest remained in its economy, which U.S could not lose at any chance.

The Spanish-American war of 1898 made America the victorious power while Spain suffered defeat and lost all its colonies (Paterson, 1998). The victory declared U.S all-powerful in the Western hemisphere. However, U.S did have certain strategic interest here. The Western hemisphere was strategic to its interest and stability. Moreover, the Latin American market was very crucial for the prosperity and development of the U.S economy (Paterson, 1998). The main motive was to evict the European influence from the Western hemisphere because Latin America proved to be a fertile ground for implanting the ideas and values of democracy that U.S preached. This victory over Spain proved to be a boon for U.S. According to Heiss (2002), this attitude on part of America proved its imperial behaviors, which saw itself as a protector of the smaller nations. This shaped its imperial ideas and its national identity, which portrayed the image of the country as a power hungry and imperial nation always trying to “protect” the smaller nations.

Source A

This primary source in an excerpt from the letter of a Spanish minister in Washington, which gives an insight into Spain’s response to the issue of U.S intervention in Cuba. This is a critique of the U.S activity in Cuba and the erratic decision of the President. This source is particularly important because it is a primary resource from the letter of the minister and hence data is authentic. Moreover, this gives a detail insight into the propaganda that was being planned against the U.S government within Washington by provocation of the parties in opposition against the government of McKinley. However, this gives only a one-sided picture of the matter and portrays only the Spanish response and not the response of America. If the viewpoints of each are included, it will be helpful for a historian to have a balanced view of the topic.

Cuba’s War of Independence

It is a depiction of the causes of war and justification in form of a cartoon, which was published in the “yellow journalism cartoon gallery” in 1898(Loc.gov, 2018).According to Caswell (2004), representation of images and cartoon actually depicts the ideas and causes of a war of a country. This source is primary data that is published and portrayed in the gallery. This source is important because it gives an insight into the ideas that were bothering the intellectual environment in U.S during the war period. This source is important and valuable for a historian because it offers him a large amount of information. However, it is only a pictorial representation in form of a cartoon that has limited information.

The third source is taken from an article by Albert Shaw “The Bowing up of the Maine” which gives an insight into the issue of the explosion of the U.S.S battleship “Maine”. This source makes it clear that blowing up of the Maine battleship by Spain was not an ordinary incident rather there are certain nuances to it. This source is important from a historian’s point of view because it highlights the issue of the battleship explosion that was a major reason behind the occurrence of the Spanish-American war. This source also gives information about the bitter relationship that Spain and America shared prior to the war (Wegner, 2001). The explosion issue has indeed remained an important matter. This source shows the strained relationship has forced Spain to do harm to U.S in form of an explosion. However, this source is inadequate because it does not speak about the rationale behind Spain’s explosion of the U.S battleship. Unless both the information is presented, it would be a biased understanding of the issue.

This is an excerpt from the original dialogue of President McKinley’s message, which clearly discusses the rationale behind America’s intervention in Cuban war of independence. This states the four main reasons for its involvement. This source is crucial for a historian because it portrays the idea and reason for America’s role in the war. America’s involvement in the war and its initiation of the war has always been questioned and it never had any clear answer. However, this source is a primary source that answers this long-standing question and rationale of America’s intervention in to the Cuban war of independence. This source is an insight into President McKinley’s tactfulness in handling the situation of war and the information about how the Congress is working. This source is the most vital of all the other sources. However, this is limited in nature because more insight is required on the working of the Congress.

This source is taken from the original document of the Platt Amendment of the U.S and Cuba treaty that was signed between the two after U.S successfully overthrew Spain from the territory of Cuba and made it independent. This source is important from the point of view of a historian because it will be helpful in understanding the future prospects and interest that America might have in Cuba. This source is important because it clarifies Cuba’s stand on different matters for example Cuba’s consent in letting America intervene and take part in different governance issues and multiple other issues. However, this is an excerpt from the original document, which is a long document of articles, and provisons.This is just an insight into the few articles, which are not giving a clear picture about Cuba’s future prospects and its stand on the matters of international importance.  

References

Caswell, L. S. (2004). Drawing swords: War in American editorial cartoons. American Journalism, 21(2), 13-45.

Dennis Merill and Thomas G. Paterson (eds), Major Problems in American Foreign Relations. Documents and Essays, Concise Edition (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006).

Heiss, M. A. (2002). The evolution of the imperial idea and US national identity. Diplomatic History, 26(4), 511-540.

Herring, G. C. (2008). From colony to superpower: US foreign relations since 1776. Oxford University Press..

History.state.gov. (2018). Milestones: 1866–1898 – Office of the Historian. Retrieved from https://history.state.gov/milestones/1866-1898/spanish-american-war

Krenn, M. L. (2006). The color of empire: Race and American foreign relations. Potomac Books, Inc..

Loc.gov. (2018). Cuba in 1898 – The World of 1898: The Spanish-American War (Hispanic Division, Library of Congress). Retrieved from https://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/hernandez.html

Loc.gov. (2018). Introduction – The World of 1898: The Spanish-American War (Hispanic Division, Library of Congress). Retrieved from https://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/intro.html

Loc.gov. (2018). William McKinley – The World of 1898: The Spanish-American War (Hispanic Division, Library of Congress). Retrieved from https://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/mckinley.html

Paterson, T. G. (1998). US Intervention in Cuba, 1898: Interpreting the Spanish-American-Cuban-Filipino War. OAH Magazine of History, 12(3), 5-10.

Pbs.org. (2018). Crucible of Empire – PBS Online. Retrieved from https://www.pbs.org/crucible/tl3.html

Pérez, L. A. (1998). The war of 1898: the United States and Cuba in history and historiography. Univ of North Carolina Press.

Shaw, A. (1901). The American Monthly Review of Reviews: An International Magazine.

Wegner, D. (2001). New interpretations of how the USS Maine was lost. In Theodore Roosevelt, the US Navy, and the Spanish-American War (pp. 7-17). Palgrave Macmillan, New York.