American Spanish war essays

American Spanish war essays The event and country under scrutiny is the United States of America and the 1898 Spanish American War. The concepts relevant to the Event and country chosen are Militarism, Imperialism and traditional diplomacy/war. To explain, Militarism is the desire to use the armed forces of a country in order to make that country more powerful. Imperialism is a system of rule in which a rich and powerful country controls other countries in order to become richer and more powerful and Traditional Diplomacy and/ war is the management of relations between countries or a period of fighting between countries or states. In reference with the concepts Diplomacy and War the immediate origins of the 1898 Spanish American War began with the Wilson-Gorman Tariff of 1894. The American tariff, put restrictions on sugar imports to the United States, severely hurting the economy of Cuba, which was based on production and the sale of sugar. In Cuba, then a Spanish colony, disappointed nationalists known as Insurrectos (Cuban Nationalists who fought against Spain's Colonial regime in Cuba), began to revolt against the ruling Spanish Colonial regime. By the time President McKinley, a diplomat came into office in 1897, the uproar over Cuba was continuing. In 1898, the US dispatched the USS Maine on a friendly mission to Cuba. The ship was to wait, ready to rescue US citizens who might have been endangered by the conflict in Cuba. On February 15, 1898, the Maine mysteriously blew up, causing American feelings toward Spain to turn hostile. Immediately the blame was directed to a Spanish mine. And it was then that McKinley declared war between Spain and America and by April, 1898 war had begun. In order to assure the world that it was fighting only for the good of Cuba and not for colonial gain, the United States passed the Teller Amendment, which provided the US with justification for its actions while allayin ...