The War Of The United States

In the text it stated that the U.S could not give the Philippines back to Spain because it would be cowardly and dishonorable (Rusling, 1903). This is important because the United States is strong, if we gave them back to Spain that would show that the United States isn’t really strong. The U.S won the war against Spain, why would the U.S give something to Spain that they won?! If the U.S just left the Philippines to Spain it would just make them look weak and don’t know how to critical think. In the text it stated “Wonderfully has God guided us…. We can not retreat from any soil where Providence has unfurled our banner; it is ours to save .... for liberty and civilization” (Beveridge, 1898). This matters because the United States has come such a long way for this. It’s been through a war, to get the Philipines. They shouldn’t just lose the Philippines like that, they should take the time to see what will happen which we outcome. With a wrong decision they could easily make the United States seem weak.

Many historians argue that the U.S. took the moral high ground during the war because they set out to end the suffering of the Cuban people at the hands of Spain, citing the crux of McKinley’s War Message. Although this may be true to some extent, the worst of the rebellion had ended by 1898 as the result of a ceasefire agreement and the departure of General Valeriano Weyler; therefore, American interference was needlessly invasive. Some also point to the Teller Amendment as counter-evidence against the imperialistic nature of the war, but, following the war, the Platt Amendment to the Cuban Constitution transformed Cuba from a truly independent nation into a puppet of the U.S. for enforcing the Monroe Doctrine on Europe’s empires. Moreover, the motive to free an oppressed Cuba fails to explain why the U.S. also took action to remove Spain from the Philippines, where no major rebellion was taking place. Although morality may have played some role, its motivational effect was far outweighed by the imperialism and hysteria factors.

The cold, stormy night was all too familiar to the English. A devious plan by Spain's king, Philip II, was being formed to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I of England and rid the world of the English "heretics."1 It was a story of deception, false judgments, and poor planning. What was one king's dream turned into his country's nightmare. While the Spanish had bad leaders, the English had good ones. The Spanish had bigger, but slower ships, while the English had smaller and faster ships. The English knew the weather conditions and how to prepare for them, while the Spanish thought it would not be a problem. The English entered the battle in a calm manner, while the Spanish were overconfident. All of these

President William McKinley agreed with annexing the Philippines. He said it would be bad business and discreditble if we turned them over to France and Germany (doc C). Also we couldn’t

As stated in document C President McKinley wanted to keep the Philippines, because we as a country made a promise to God to help the Philippines and by annexing them we helped keep that promise by protecting them whether it be with our military or help with money. Our country can not say “no” to God. The Philippines as a whole country wouldn't be capable of protecting their country and they were

The Cuban people were in need of dire help, their citizens dying on the streets and in concentration camps. The U.S looked from afar, debating whether it was the right thing to do to get involved in a foreign conflict. Despite the majority of Americans wanting to go to war and defend the rights of the Cuban people, whether it was opinion conceived from yellow journalism, political influences or just a humanitarian responsibility, McKinley did not want any part in this war and he fought barrier after barrier to resolve the matter peacefully. When the extensive negotiations failed with the prideful Spanish, and after the Maine sinking, the De Lôme Letter, and increasing political and social pressure, McKinley finally saw no other way to resolve this matter than by war. Kagan believes that McKinley entered this war on an agenda of helping the Cuban people with their independence from Spain and stopping the brutal concentration camps and cruel policies of Weyler and the Spanish. Although I agree with this, I also believe that a secondary motive of wanting to get involved was because Cuba had many “negro” leaders and people living on the island. Politicians didn’t want colored people taking charge of the country so they deemed them unfit to govern themselves as Kagan puts it “[Cuban people] were unfit for democracy and incapable of establishing a stable and reliable

Another victory through the Treaty of Paris was the possession of the Philippines. Though the Filipino independence leader Emilio Aguinaldo had aided in the defeat of Spain in 1898, USA refused independence to the Islands and a vicious three year war ensued. A civil government was created after the capture of Aguinaldo under William Taft and this showed a drastic change in American foreign policy. They could no longer justify interference with the excuse of the islands being within its sphere of influence but McKinley argued that America had the role to “uplift and civilize and christianize [Filipinos] as our fellow-men for whom Christ also died." McKinley was either unaware or simply chose not to inform the people that, except for some Muslim tribesmen in the south, the Filipinos were Roman Catholics, and, therefore, already Christians. In reality, the annexation of the Philippines was the centerpiece of the "large policy" pushed by the imperialist cabal to enlist the United States in the ranks of the great powers.

In 1898 the United States defeated Spain, and the Philippine Islands were suddenly free of Spain’s tyranny. The Filipinos had been fighting for their freedom from Spain for several years. When the United States arrived to conquer Spain they landed in the Philippines, and the Filipinos thinking that the United States was there to set them free, sided with them. But instead of the independence the wanted, the Filipino people found themselves in the position of exchanging one colonial power for another. The United States gained a foothold in the Pacific, and “The United States had suddenly become a major world power” (Background Essay).

The Filipino people had helped the US fight the Spanish-American War in hope to gain independence in return. However, instead of gaining independence the Philippines was annexed to the United States on December 10, 1898. When the Filipino’s had found they were going to be ruled over once again they were very unhappy, after all they had helped the US. When Aguinaldo had found out that the Philippines were going to be controlled by the US, he had declared war on the United States.

Accordingly, William McKinley was a great leader. He helped America win the Spanish-American War, which gave America: Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. According to,The Assassination of William McKinley”Spain proved little challenge though, as American forces easily defeated the outnumbered and outgunned army and navy of the old world power.”(Kingseed 1)The statement from Kingseed’s article described how McKinley’s leadership, let American Forces to be able to outgun Spain. Furthermore, William McKinley sent forces to Spain in the first place because the USS Maine suddenly

The Battle of Manila Bay was a singular demonstration of the daring and decisive application of sea power. In a few hours, Dewey had eliminated any threat that the Spanish Navy might pose to U.S. Far Eastern commerce and placed Spain's centuries-long rule of the Philippines in great jeopardy. A few days later, with the capture of Cavite arsenal, he also gained a repair and refueling base, essential for maintaining his squadron under wartime conditions thousands of miles from home.

The President at that time of was McKinley. Like many other presidents, McKinley wanted to gain more popularity so he decided to implement the Monroe Doctrine. McKinley along with Congress began the Spanish-American War for merely just that, to gain popularity with the American public, since they were ok towards the idea of war. The Monroe Doctrine is in no way justified going to war with Spain, as Spain had nothing to due with motivating the conflict politically and it began simply due to greediness held by political officials.

The Spanish-American war was brought on by Cuba struggling to gain independence from Spain. U.S newspapers used propaganda to lead citizen’s sentiments to side with Cuba. Spain had been portrayed as brutal and repressive against the Cuban rebels with their use of concentration camps and such. American opinion of Spain was already low, and this further enhanced that opinion. To make matters worse, a letter written by Spanish Minister Enrique Dupuy de Lome that spoke of President McKinley in an unfavorable way was published in U.S Newspapers. These events swayed public opinion of Spain in a very bad direction. On February 15th, 1898, the U.S.S Maine was blown up in the Havana Harbor killing over 200 men. Though it was never determined what actually caused the sinking of the ship, blame was placed on the Spanish. Newspapers used stories and drawing to enrage the American public even

However, Dewey did not have enough manpower to capture Manila so Aguinaldo's guerrillas maintained their operations until 15,000 U.S. troops arrived at the end of July. On the way, the cruiser Charleston stopped at Guam and accepted its surrender from its Spanish governor who was unaware his nation was at war. Although a peace protocol was signed by the two belligerents on August 12, Commodore Dewey and Maj. Gen. Wesley Merritt, leader of the army troops, assaulted Manila the very next day, unaware that peace had been declared.

General Douglas Macarthur was the commander of the Philippine army after being appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt because of his successful contributions in the past. General MacArthur initiated War Plan Orange , which was the retreat of the United States and the Philippine Army troops to the Bataan Peninsula if the japanese could not be held back. General Macarthur began moving the supplies to the Bataan Peninsula and General George M. Parker was in charge of preparing the defenses of the peninsula. As the week passed, Wainwright’s men were getting gradually