WHAT WERE THE CAUSES OF THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR?
The Spanish-American War was basically a movement designed to test the Imperialist powers of Europe and the effect those powers would have if they tried to claim authority over nations on the North and South American continents. History books record the 1898 conflict as a war between Spain and the United States which was caused by demands from Cuban patriots who wanted to be independent from Spanish rule. In fact, there were many reasons the all acted together to create the conflict (Omicinski, 1998, ARC).
The United States had just 30 some years before undergone the Civil War and a painful reconstruction and was trying to unify itself as a nation. In the meantime, Spain, whose naval power had made it one of the world's powerful imperialists, was at the time, undergoing severe governmental reorganization. The Spanish government, when it realized that rebels in Cuba were pushing for freedom, tightened its control of the Island.
One commentator argues that the "United States went off the rails in the Spanish-American War, swept by a hurricane of militant righteousness. With the war, a newly prideful United States began to measure its holiness by what it did, not just by what it was" (Omicinski, 1998, ARC).
The United States applied the Monroe Doctrine, which was a principle of U.S. foreign policy stated that the American continents were no longer open for colonization by European powers and that the U.S. would view with displeasure any European intervention in the Americas. Although never formally recognized in international law, the doctrine was invoked successfully several times and became important in U.S. foreign policy. As imperialistic tendencies grew, the Monroe Doctrine was viewed with suspicion by Latin American countries, which associated it with the possible extension of United States power (Knoles, 1996, Online).
The diplomatic tug of war escala...