The Main Causes and Factors of The Spanish American War

Historians’ viewpoints about the factors that lead to the Spanish-American War changed over time because different presidents, professors, naval officers and even journalists had different takes on it at different time periods. Like anyone would have different point of views on the topic, the documents being used for this topic have views specifically from presidents, history professors, a naval officer and publishers.

In document A, Grover Cleveland’s view on the war was that there were “... inevitables entanglements”, “… the existing internecine strife in Cuba should be terminated by our intervention,” and “... United States is not a nation to which peace is a necessity,”. So his view is that we should intervene and that it would be best, even if it ends in blood and death for not only on the Cuban side but the US side as well. In document B, McKinley’s view on the war was, “cause of humanity, … barbarities, bloodshed, starvation, horrible miseries” nations of conflict are against mitigating, “... therefore none of our business”. So to conclude his view on this is that it is not our business so we shouldn’t get involved.

In document C, the political cartoon used by Joseph Pulitzer who was the owner of The New York World, and William Randolph Hearst who owned The New York Journal was used to sell the headlines on the war with Cuba, they did this to get more readers and more sales because cartoons draw attention more than articles, they fought over the character in the cartoon known as “The Yellow Kid” in the late 1890’s. In document D, the view on the war written by naval officer Chadwick was that the “... struggle for supremacy between Anglo-Saxons and men of the Latin race in North America”, so this article is saying that the war was the last act between the two race groups.

In document E, the view on the war written by a former history professor at Cornell University by the name of Walter LaFeber was “ … that U.S. officials had a special sympathy for indigenous nationalists,” “... those opposed European imperialism,” “William McKinley was ruthless in destroying indigenous nationalist movement”. So his view on the war was that McKinley was too cruel towards Cuba and that the U.s officials showed special kindness towards the indigenous nationalists. In document F, the last document professor Louis A. Pérez at the University of North Carolina’s view on the war was “Spanish sovereignty was untenable.” “Cuban pretension to sovereignty was unacceptable.” as well as “Cuba was far too important to be turned over to the Cubans.” So his view on the war was that the Cubans supreme power was unacceptable because it posed as a threat.

In conclusion Historians’ viewpoints about the factors that lead to the Spanish-American War changed over time because the people who wrote the documents had different backgrounds, upbringings and different opinions on the topic. From the late 1890’s people took to making political cartoons to try and bring some humor into the situation, from 1893 to 1898 people thought that we should intervene in the war, in 1909 the view on the war was that is was the final act between the men of the Latin race and the Anglo-Saxons in North America, in 1995 the view was that the US officials were sympathetic to the indigenous nationalists and that McKinley was too harsh and then in 1998 it went back to where Cuba had too much power to the point where it was unacceptable again. So the view on the war went from being really bad to okay to really bad again, and it will probably change many times again in the future.