(Institute/University)
The USS Maine and US intervention in Cuba
The battle cry “Remember the Maine and to hell with Spain” was a potent rallying point for American war hawks to intervene in Cuban affairs starting 1895. History lessons in America’s schools proffer that the attack and destruction of the American warship USS Maine is the reason that justified American military intervention in the country. However, though the instance is inarguable, the reasons as to why the US declared war on Spain as well as the hoped for objectives are ambiguous; these areas of US historical foreign policy remains an issue of intense debate even to the present day (Nojeim, Kilroy, 2011, p. 1).
In justifying the need to intervene in the country, George Bryson (1898) noted the grounds cited by former US President William McKinley in asking for powers to declare war against Spain over the destruction of the Maine. Among the reasons McKinley cited are to “end the bloodshed, barbarities, and horrible miseries in Cuba” and that the destruction of the American warship is “patent and impressive proof of a state of things in Cuba that is intolerable.”
In this light, it seems that there is another reason that prompted the United States in launching an invasion against the Spanish territory. When Cuban nationalists demanded self-rule from Spain in 1895, the American government was placed in a rather troublesome position. The American press began to fabricate the events occurring in Cuba given the strategic position of the country to the United States; with the rising sensationalism being imputed by American newspapers, the sentiment of the American public soon rallied behind the nationalists. Senior foreign affairs officials and even President McKinley called on their Spanish counterparts to effectively step in and quash the outbreak before the uprising becomes uncontainable predicting that if the Spaniards failed to quell the revolt, the US will be forced to intervene on the issue (Kowaleski, 2013, p. 152).
American fascination with Cuba started earlier than the Maine crisis. Owing to it strategic proximity to the US and the fact that Cuba was the world’s biggest producer of sugar at the time, Cuba was a highly attractive prospect for the United States to annex. In fact, there were numerous instances when the US government did attempt to annex the country. Among the attempts were those under the administrations of John Quincy Adams (1825), James Polk (1847), Franklin Pierce (1854), and James Buchanan (1858).
In one meeting between the Brutish minister and Buchanan who at the time was still aspiring for the presidency, the 1854 Ostend Manifesto was established wherein the aims of the United States to annex Cuba was evinced noting that as long as Cuba was not a territory of the United States, the country will never be completely secure. Though Buchanan was not able to achieve this goal, various laws such as the 1871 Sugar Act were established that further linked the Cuban and Puerto Rican economies into that of the US (Miller, 2011, p. 7).
The parties directly responsible for the US media frenzy on the alleged misdeeds of Spanish officials in Cuba were members of the so-called “Cuban Junta” based in Washington and New York. The organization gave American newspapers with narratives regarding Spanish abuses and forming the concept of Spanish tyranny that fueled the “yellow journalism” in the eastern United States. These initiatives led to a number of stonewalling activities that provided arms to Cuban revolutionaries. American as well as Spanish officials turned a blind eye to these actions, fearing that the nationalists will launch retaliatory attacks if these were suppressed or interdicted (Miller, 2011, p. 7).
Officially, the reason that the Maine steamed for Cuba was to safeguard American trade and commercial interests in Cuba; American businesses invested some $50 million in the highly profitable cigar business in the country. The actual reason that the Maine was ordered to make an incursion in Cuban waters was to coerce the Spanish leadership into war and enforce its influence in the country. The destruction of the Maine allowed American publisher William Randolph Hurst to “cook his war” and provide the momentum for Theodore Roosevelt’s campaign for the US presidency. Roosevelt used his influence as the Secretary of the Navy to stimulate the US war hawks to plot out the invasion of Cuba (Mirza, 2010, p. 96).
As McKinley pounced upon a conflict with Spain to expand American global objectives and policies, McKinley was at the same time quickening a deeply embedded imperialist policy. The early part of US history was primarily anchored on extending US influence within their territory. It was also during this time that the international powers then-Japan, Spain, France, and Belgium-were expanding their “empires” and stocking up on their respective arsenals. The war with Spain constituted the succeeding phase in the expansion of the United States’ ‘geo-political’ and trade interests abroad that was followed by Secretary of State John Hay’s “open door notes” that preceded the country’s trade with China (Miller, 2011, p. 9).
Roosevelt’s “splendid little war,” as termed by Hay, lasted 3 months; however, the conduct of the war thrust Roosevelt to prominence, earning a Nobel Prize as well as the US presidency. In the aftermath of this military adventure, the United States was able to plunder the biggest and wealthiest Caribbean island, and the intervention in Cuba was only the start of the expansionist policy the Unites States in the region, acquiring former colonies of the prevailing powers then and then annexing the same into the territorial United States (Mirza, 2010, p. 97).
References
Bryson, G (1898) “Destruction of the war ship Maine was the work of an enemy.” The New York Journal
Kowalewski, A (2013) Hispanic Americans in Congress, 1822-2012. Washington, D.C: Government Printing Office
Miller, B. M (2011) From liberation to conquest: the visual and popular cultures of the Spanish-American War of 1898. Amherst, Mass.: University of Massachusetts Press
Mirza, R.M (2010) American invasions: Canada to Afghanistan, 1775 to 2010. Bloomington, IN: Trafford Publishing
Nojiem, M.J., Kilroy, D.P (2011) Days of decision: turning points in US foreign policy. Lincoln, Nebr.: University of Nebraska Press
