Empire Lust, Yellow Journalism, and a "Splendid Little War"

The causes of wars are seldom what they are made out to seem, and their conclusions almost always have unintended consequences for which the belligerents have not prepared and that cause continuing headaches afterwards. Such was certainly the case with the Spanish-American War of 1898.

Since the days of George Washington's administration, the United States had been isolationist in its foreign policy, paying strict heed to his warning against foreign entanglements. But as America grew, some people began looking abroad and saw other nations developing lucrative and ever-expanding colonial empires. They also saw one colonial power, Spain, slowly declining and facing problems within its empire. They thought that the United States should have a piece of the empire pie and viewed Spain's decline as their opportunity to achieve it.

Two of Spain's remaining possessions, Cuba and the Philippines, were rebelling against her, itching for their independence. The civil wars that had erupted in those two Spanish colonies raged from February 1895 to 1898, and Spain felt compelled to take harsh measures to quell them.

The Spanish government forces rounded up dissidents whenever and wherever they could capture them and put them into camps and prisons, where disease, poor sanitation, and inhumane treatment killed thousands more than were killed in the fighting.

Ever on the lookout for stories that would boost their circulation, American newspapers picked up on these events and began running sensationalized and often grossly exaggerated accounts of atrocities committed by the Spanish. Such tactics, which became known as "yellow journalism," plucked the heartstrings of their sympathetic American readers. They equated the rebels' cause with Americans' own War for Independence, thereby stirring readers' and political officials' patriotic fervor for the downtrodden and oppressed. Public opinion was whipped to a fever pitch against Spain, and calls for America to "do something about it" began to be heard.

The USS Maine entering Havana Harbor

Ostensibly to protect American interests and citizens in Cuba, the United States sent the battleship USS Maine to Cuba. It arrived in Havana Harbor on January 25, 1898. An explosion on February 15 sank the ship at its anchor. Yellow journalists immediately blamed Spain even before the incident could be investigated, and tensions increased to near breaking between the two countries.

"Yellow journalism at its best" (note the last small headline on the left that plants the critical question in readers' minds)

On this date--April 24, 1898--Spain had had enough of American interference and declared war on the United States. The next day, Congress reciprocated, declaring war on Spain and making it retroactive to April 21. They also passed the Teller Amendment, denying any intention of taking over Cuba. They later passed the Platt Amendment, by which they asserted the "right" of the American government to diplomatically, militarily, and economically intervene in Cuban affairs.

Dewey's fleet engaging the Spanish fleet in the Battle of Manila Bay

On May 1, Commodore George Dewey led a flotilla of warships into Manila Bay, where they destroyed the entire Spanish fleet and silenced shore batteries. Accompanying Dewey was Emilio Aguinaldo, who led the insurgent army. By August, the rebels and U.S. troops occupied and controlled Manila.

Meanwhile, the United States was raising an army of 125,000 volunteers to go to Cuba. A substantial number of the volunteers who responded to the call were Southerners. Tennessee, living up to its nickname as the "Volunteer State," alone contributed more than 4,000 men, Georgian and former Confederate general Joseph "Fighting Joe" Wheeler commanded U.S. cavalry troops, including the "Rough Riders" of former assistant secretary of the Navy and future president Theodore Roosevelt, in Cuba.

Theodore Roosevelt (in center wearing pistol and just to the left of the flag) and his Rough Riders after their charge up Kettle Hill, often mistakenly referred to as San Juan Hill

The Navy instituted a blockade of the island. It also chased down and destroyed another Spanish fleet off the coast of Cuba.

Although a "Protocol of Peace" was signed by the warring parties on July 16, and a formal peace treaty was signed on December 10, the war had serious consequences. First was the cost of the brief war, which Secretary of State John Hay flippantly described as a "splendid little war." It had cost the United States $250 million (nearly $10 billion in today's dollars) and its families 3,000 lives, 90 percent of them from disease rather than combat. Second, according to the terms of the treaty, the United States paid Spain an additional $20 million (about $800 million in today's money) for control of the Philippines.

And what else did the United States gain from the war?

It gained not only the Philippines but also Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a permanent military base; Puerto Rico; and Guam. In short, they gained an imperial system of colonies and all the responsibilities and worries that accompany an empire.

Part of what they gained was an unintended consequence. They got a headache that led to a tougher and longer war that the yellow journalists virtually ignored and that is generally unknown to the average American today. The Filipino insurgents, who were no longer fighting the Spanish colonialists, quickly realized that they had traded one master for another, and they turned their guns on the American imperialists. They still yearned for independence and were willing to continue fighting for it. The resulting war, known as the Philippine Insurrection, raged for two more years, finally ending in 1901.

America's experiment with imperialism and foreign entanglements would only get worse in the coming years. With imperial possessions came the responsibility to defend its far-flung empire during two world wars, costing vastly more American lives and resources.

Have we learned anything from these experiences? They certainly give us food for thought, especially regarding good intentions and unintended consequences. They should make us think twice before getting entangled in other people's wars. And if we're bent on getting into those wars, we must ensure that we're prepared for what will be required of us and have a workable exit strategy at hand.