{"id":205,"date":"2023-07-18T14:57:32","date_gmt":"2023-07-18T14:57:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/embed.la.utexas.edu\/his-315l-external\/?p=205"},"modified":"2023-07-18T14:57:32","modified_gmt":"2023-07-18T14:57:32","slug":"the-u-s-becomes-a-world-power-activity-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/embed.la.utexas.edu\/his-315l-external\/the-u-s-becomes-a-world-power-activity-4\/","title":{"rendered":"The U.S. Becomes a World Power: Activity 4"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/span>\"\"
\n

Spanish American War<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Spanish American War<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The debate over America’s global role intensified when Cubans began to fight for their independence from Spain in 1895. Americans were sympathetic to Cuba’s struggle for independence, but were divided about how to help. The Republican speaker of the House did not want “to spill American blood,” unless American interests were directly threatened, whereas Theodore Roosevelt, the Republican Assistant Secretary of the Navy, pushed for war against Spain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
“The Duty of the Hour\u2026”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

President William McKinley was deeply ambivalent about war against Spain. The last president to have served in the Civil War, McKinley said he had seen too much carnage at battles like Antietam to be enthusiastic about war with Spain. “I’ve been through one war. I have seen the dead piled up, and I do not want to see another.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, however, the pressure of public opinion forced McKinley into the war that made the United States an international power. Newspaper publishers like William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer worked up war fever among the public with reports of Spanish atrocities against Cuban rebels. Then, Hearst’s New York Journal<\/em> published a leaked letter in which the chief Spanish diplomat in Washington, Enrique Duby de L\u00f4me, described President McKinley as “weak” and “petty politician.” Hearst publicized the de L\u00f4me letter under the screaming headline: “WORST INSULT TO THE UNITED STATES IN ITS HISTORY.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Days later an explosion sank the U.S.S. Maine<\/em> in Cuban’s Havana harbor. A naval court of inquiry blamed the explosion on a mine, further inflaming public sentiment against Spain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Bill of Fare.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Then a respected U.S. Senator, Redfield Proctor, after returning from a visit to Cuba, announced that he had reversed his position from isolationism to intervention “because of the spectacle of a million and a half people, the entire native population of Cuba, struggling for freedom and deliverance.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After ten days of debate, Congress declared war, but only after adopting the Teller Amendment. The amendment made it clear that the United States did not harbor imperialist ambitions, and it announced that the United States would not acquire Cuba. European leaders were shocked by this declaration. Britain’s Queen Victoria called on the European power to “unite…against such unheard [of] conduct,” since the United States might in the future declare Ireland and other colonies independent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But after the United States defeated Spain, it set up a military government on Cuba and made the soldiers’ withdrawal contingent on the Cubans accepting the Platt Amendment. The amendment gave the United States the right to intervene in Cuba to protect “life, property, and individual liberties.” The 144-day war also resulted in the United States taking control of the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Historical Debates<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Realism and Idealism in Foreign Policy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Should American foreign policy seek to promote democratic values across the world, or should it instead seek, first and foremost, to protect the nation\u2019s security and advance the country\u2019s economic interests? This question has dominated discussion of American foreign policy since the 1890s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Idealists believe that the purpose of American foreign policy should be to further the cause of freedom, human rights, and world order. Otherwise, American foreign policy would be no different from that of Europe, which too often combined narrow self-interest with imperialistic ambitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Depiction of U.S. intervention in War 1898.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Realists, in turn, consider the idealists to be profoundly na\u00efve and their foreign policy goals excessively sentimental, utopian, and moralistic. Nations, according to the realists, are constantly jockeying for power, and no nation can transcend self-interest. Rather, foreign policy should be patient, strategic, and unemotional. Policy makers should use power to promote the nation\u2019s well-being and national interests and also to maintain a military balance of power among nation states, since this is the best way to sustain peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around the turn of the twentieth century, a growing number of American politicians began to regard the world as a Darwinian jungle in which only the strongest nations would thrive. With Europe, Russia, and Japan rapidly colonizing large parts of Africa and Asia, the United States, in their opinion, needed to compete. Having settled the western frontier, the United States should now expand outward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A religious-like fervor fueled this view. Senator Albert Beveridge declared in 1900, “God has marked the American people as His chosen nation to finally lead in the redemption of the world.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Americans remain deeply divided over foreign policy. Some believe that the United States, as a beacon of freedom with unique military strengths, has a special obligation protect and advance freedom globally. Others are convinced that as a nation with global interests, the United States needs to be highly engaged in global affairs, actively asserting and defending its interests. Still others feel that the United States should take a less assertive role in foreign affairs: That it should serve as a moral exemplar and, perhaps, use its economic and cultural influence, but otherwise avoid entanglements with foreign nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The debate over realism and idealism in foreign policy has not ended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Spanish American War The debate over America’s global role intensified when Cubans began to fight for their independence from Spain in 1895. Americans were sympathetic to Cuba’s struggle for independence, but were divided about how to help. The Republican speaker of the House did not want “to spill American blood,” unless American interests were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"vec496","author_link":"https:\/\/embed.la.utexas.edu\/his-315l-external\/author\/vec496\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The Spanish American War The debate over America’s global role intensified when Cubans began to fight for their independence from Spain in 1895. Americans were sympathetic to Cuba’s struggle for independence, but were divided about how to help. The Republican speaker of the House did not want “to spill American blood,” unless American interests were…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/embed.la.utexas.edu\/his-315l-external\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/embed.la.utexas.edu\/his-315l-external\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/embed.la.utexas.edu\/his-315l-external\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/embed.la.utexas.edu\/his-315l-external\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/embed.la.utexas.edu\/his-315l-external\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/embed.la.utexas.edu\/his-315l-external\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":210,"href":"https:\/\/embed.la.utexas.edu\/his-315l-external\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205\/revisions\/210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/embed.la.utexas.edu\/his-315l-external\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/embed.la.utexas.edu\/his-315l-external\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/embed.la.utexas.edu\/his-315l-external\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}