apr 21, 1898 - Spanish-American War: Causes of the War: jingoism; Yellow Press, yellow journalism; Sinking of the Maine; Teller Amendment

Description:

As the United States saw the potential that Cuba had with their sugar, and their mistreatment from the Spanish, they decided that they should try to gain control over this land as it would benefit both sides. Jingoism, which was a strong sense of nationalism which created severe foreign policies, swept the nation during this time. Several Americans had a strong desire to take military action with foreign nations in order to overstep Europe’s imperialism on weaker nations; however, President Cleveland and McKinley were against this as they saw it as morally irresponsible and the terrible economic repercussions that could arise, but many Americans continued to demand to go to war with Spain. Yellow journalism also played a major role in promoting this war as journalists would report scandals that caught the attention of the American people. This yellow press would post false or exaggerated information of how the Spanish government was treating Cuba in order to infuriate Americans even more and convince them that they should go to war in order to help Cuba. One story called De Lôme Letter got leaked and it criticized President McKinley which insulted The United States and made many Americans furious. A couple of days later a ship that belonged to The US government, Maine, exploded in Havana Cuba which killed 260 individuals on the ship. Although there was no direct evidence that Spain was responsible for this, the yellow press printed stories that the Spanish purposely exploded the ship because of their relationship with America. This was the last straw that caused President McKinley to issue a war message to Congress in response to the sinking of The Maine. On April 20th, Congress passed a resolution calls the teller amendment which claimed that America does not want to have full control over Cuba and that they simply wanted peace, and once the war was over Cuba would be able to have control over their government.

Added to timeline:

Date: