why did the US declare war on Spain?

Answer 1

A number of factors contributed to the U.S. decision to go to war against Spain. These included the stated objective of aiding the Cuban struggle for independence from Spain

In reality, American imperialism and the prevailing conceptual ideal of Manifest Destiny.[ A term combining a belief in expansionism with other popular ideas of the era, including American exceptionalism, Romantic nationalism, and a belief in the natural superiority of what was then called the "Anglo-Saxon race". .Advocates of Manifest Destiny believed that expansion was not only good, but that it was obvious ("manifest") and certain ("destiny").] were the main drivers for the war, using as a the pretext the public reaction to the sensationalistic reporting style of key influential American newspapers and their dubious assertion that Spain was responsible for blowing up and sinking the U.S. warship Maine in Havana Harbor.

Answer 2

Us War Against Spain

Answer 3

For two reasons:

1) Cuba wanted to break away from the Spanish Empire, and the U.S. feared another rebellion like the one that had taken place on Haiti nearly a century before. The Monroe Doctrine virtually guaranteed that only the United States could interfere in the Americas, and they were determined that Cuba would fall under American influence.

2) the United States was NOT acting out of humanitarian concern. It only wanted power. The destruction of the Maine was rigged by the Americans to make it SEEM as if the Spanish had attacked it.

Answer 4

According to a ex-Jesuit priest testimony the Spanish Civil War was in reality the Spanish Inquisition II. Spain rebelled against the Church and legalized Protestant churches. In time a civil war ensued caused by the communists, nationalists, and other elements. This is war on the surface while secretly underneath Rome helped Roman Catholic, nationalist Franco to establish a Fascist government. America sent some men to fight in Spain in the Spanish Civil War. Russia sent her soldiers to support the communists. Roman Catholic Nazi Germany aided Franco and won. In time when the Axis were losing the war. Spain remained neutral in order to preserve her Fascist government...She won.

Answer 5

In America there were protests by the American people that lived and owned businesses in Cuba that the treatment was brutal by the Spanish to the Cubans, and that they were afraid of a bigger problem so we sent a battle ship named the Maine of which was only there in the harbor Dec. 1897, to guard and protect the American citizens and their businesses. The ship was sabotaged and sunk Feb 1898. We then sent to Manila in the Philippines a battleship with Commodor Dewey at the helm that sunk all those Slave trading brutal Spanish Buffoons with all their Doubloons, and sent them packing home with their tails between their legs, so we could liberate, Cuba to be a state of its own, along with the Philippines, Puerto Rico and the Ladronas ( the Marianas). And thus we could sit back for a while as well and not worry here in America because Cuba is only about 50 miles off the coast of Florida, and we have had nothing but trouble with them and their attacks on the innocent. Say what about the Spanish Inquisitors they were a brutal bunch as well.

Answer 6

The main reason for the American declaration of war was Spain's inability to guarantee peace and stability in Cuba. Repeatedly promising to do better, little changed. The explosion of the Maine did not cause the war but it focused American attention on Cuba; the call was for an immediate solution. Spanish minister Práxedes Mateo Sagasta did try to compromise, including withdrawing obnoxious officials in Cuba, and making yet another proposal for Cuba's autonomy sometime in the future.

The other reason was sinking of the USS Maine.
On February 15, 1898, an explosion sank the American battleship USS Maine in Havana harbor with a loss of 266 men. Evidence as to the cause of the explosion was inconclusive and contradictory. It may have been an accident, or a Spanish mine or a Cuban mine. Although Hearst and Pulitzer published inflammatory articles in New York City, major papers elsewhere remained cautious. Americans remained unsure of the cause; most blamed the Spanish for not controlling their harbor.

There were, however, very real pressures pushing toward war within Cuba. Faced with defeat, a lack of money, and resources to continue fighting Spanish occupation, Cuban revolutionary and future president Tomás Estrada Palma, then Head of the Cuban Revolutionary Junta, offered $150 million to purchase Cuba's independence, but Spain refused, as the money did not exist. The Cubans then deftly negotiated and propagandized their cause in the U.S. Congress.

Humanitarian interests dominated American opinion. President William McKinley and House Speaker Thomas Reed worked hard to calm the mood, as did many Republicans, but the pressure from Democrats across the country steadily increased. (The Republican and Democratic parties were idelogically different than today's parties - in effect, reverse. The modern day political affiliation is due to the 1912 presidential election).[citation needed]

Spain couldn't back down without creating a crisis at home. Spain was on the verge of civil war and surrender to American demands would be politically dangerous. Much more acceptable to the Spanish was fighting a war (even though they expected to lose). That way the albatross of Cuba could be shed without civil war at home. The U.S. government had considered purchase of Cuba over the years but had always decided against making an offer. No major American leader proposed annexing the island because none thought Cuba could be assimilated into the American political system. Much of the island's export business and high technology was already in American hands, and most of Cuba's trade was with the U.S. Thus there was no economic need for acquisition of the island, and no major business interests proposed acquisition. Senator John M. Thurston from the farm state of Nebraska did argue that a war would bring more government spending so that, "War with Spain would increase the business and earnings of every American railroad, it would increase the output of every American factory, it would stimulate every branch of industry and domestic commerce." However most businessmen opposed war and supported McKinley, according to historians' analysis of the business press and statements by business leaders across the country.

The United States Navy had recently grown considerably and been reorganized, but it was still untested, and Navy leaders hoped war would help it prove itself. To this end, the U.S. Navy drew up contingency plans for attacking the Spanish in the Philippines over a year before hostilities broke out.

In Spain, the government was not entirely averse to war. The U.S. was an unproven power, while the Spanish Navy, however decrepit, had a glorious history, and it was thought it could be a match for the U.S. The De Lôme Letter was an example of the doubts of Spain as to whether the U.S. was powerful enough to defeat them. There was also a widely held notion among Spain's aristocratic leaders that the United States' ethnically mixed army and navy could never survive under severe pressure.

Answer 7

the reason that the USS Maine exploded is that the ammunition was way too close to the furnace and it blew up

Answer 8

the Uss maine blew up in havana in 1898 and our first strike was in the phlippines.

Answer 9

You raise some good points in your question.

Answer 10

This has already been answered