Notes on The
Spanish American War
Strange
as it may seem, the birth of U.S. imperialism was related to a newspaper comic.
In 1895, Richard Felton Outcault, a cartoonist for
the New York World, introduced a single panel comic that featured as its
main character a slum child costumed in a garment that was tinted yellow by a
brand-new color process, of which the paper was very proud. The World's publisher,
Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911), was delighted with "The Yellow Kid of Hogan's
Alley," the popularity of which allowed him to close the gap in his
circulation race with The New York Journal, published by rival news
magnate William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951). Not to be outdone, Hearst lured Outcault to the ranks of the Journal, whereupon
Pulitzer hired George Luks (who would go on to become
a major American painter) to continue the original comic as simply "The
Yellow Kid."
The battle over the
comic was but one episode in an ongoing, high-stakes circulation war between
Pulitzer and Hearst, both of whom were intent on building great publishing
empires. The papers continually strove with one another to publish sensational
news stories that
would attract readers. But it
was the yellow ink of the slum kid comics that gave this style of newspaper
publishing its name when newspaperman Ervin Wardman
made reference to the "yellow press of New York."
"I’ll Furnish the War... “
Sometimes
the quest for sensational news led the likes of Pulitzer and Hearst to publish
muckraker material that exposed social injustice, corruption, and public fraud.
Indeed, for all its faults, the age of yellow journalism contributed greatly to
the cause of reform and introduced onto the American scene the tradition of the
crusading journalist. But, noble motives aside, the circulation war kept
escalating. Both Hearst and Pulitzer, hoping to bag the Big Story, dispatched
reporters to cover a developing situation in Cuba, a colony of Spain that was a
mere 90 miles off the Florida coast. At considerable expense, Hearst hired the
great painter of life in the American West, Frederic Remington (1861-1909), and
dispatched him to Cuba. When combat failed to materialize, Remington cabled
Hearst: "Everything quiet. There is no trouble. There will be no war. I
wish to return." The newspaper tycoon cabled in reply: "Please
remain. You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war."
It was true that Cuban
hostilities were slow to brew. The island had long been rebellious, and in
February 1896, Spain sent General Valeriano Weyler (dubbed "Butcher Weyler"
by Hearst) as governor. He created outrage not only in Cuba, but in the United
States, when he summarily placed into "reconcentration
camps" Cubans identified as sympathizing with or supporting the rebels.
Although both President McKinley and his predecessor, Grover Cleveland, stoutly
resisted intervening in Cuba, U.S. popular sentiment, whipped up by atrocity
stories published in the papers of Pulitzer and Hearst, at last moved McKinley
to order the battleship Maine into Havana Harbor to protect American
citizens and property there.
Remember the Maine!
The temperature of
America's war fever was not raised by sentiment alone. United States companies had
made major investments in the island, especially in sugar plantations. Not only
did revolution threaten those investments, but, to put the situation in more
positive terms, a pliant puppet "independent" government in Cuba (or
better yet, a Cuba annexed to the United States) would be very good for
business. On February 9, Hearst scored a journalistic coup by publishing a
purloined private letter in which the Spanish minister to the United States
insulted President McKinley. Having for so long avoided "foreign
entanglements," America was now propelled to the brink of war.
On February 15, 1898,
the nation held hands and leaped over that brink. An explosion rocked Havana
Harbor, and the U.S.S. Maine blew up, killing 266 crewmen. The Hearst
and Pulitzer papers vied with one another to affix blame on Spain, and cries of
"Remember the Maine...to hell with Spain!" echoed throughout
the nation.
President McKinley,
himself still reluctant, waited until April to ask Congress to authorize an
invasion of Cuba. Congress not only complied but voted a resolution recognizing
Cuban independence from Spain. In response, Spain declared war on the United
States on April 24. However, the first action took place in the
Spanish-occupied Philippine Islands, not Cuba. U.S. Admiral George Dewey
(1837-1917) sailed the Asiatic Squadron from
Hong Kong to Manila Bay, where, on May 1,
he attacked the Spanish fleet, sinking al110 ships in the bay. This action was
followed by a landing of 11,000 U.S. troops, who, acting in concert with the
guerrilla forces of Filipino rebel leader Emilio Aguinaldo,
quickly defeated the Spanish army in the islands. In July, Spanish Guam also
fell, and the U.S. gathered up previously unclaimed Wake Island. Most
importantly, Congress passed a resolution annexing Hawaii.
Action on Cuba was
equally swift and decisive. On May 29, the U.S. fleet blockaded the Spanish
fleet at Santiago Harbor, and in June, 17,000 U.S. troops landed at Daiquiri
and assaulted Santiago. The war's make-or-break land battle, at San Juan Hill
on July 1, included a magnificent charge by the volunteer Rough Riders, led by
Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt. In the meantime, Admiral Pasqual Cervera sailed into the
harbor of Santiago de Cuba, where he was blockaded by the U.S. fleet. On July
3, after the U.S. victory at San Juan Hill, Cervera
decided to run the blockade. Within four hours, his fleet was almost completely
destroyed. The battle claimed 474 Spanish sailors and only two U.S. sailors. On
July 17,24,000 Spanish troops surrendered, and Madrid
sued for peace nine days later. U.S. Secretary of State John Hay (1838-1905)
summed it all up by dubbing the ten-week conflict a "splendid little
war."
Spain withdrew from Cuba
and ceded to the United States Puerto Rico and Guam; it sold the Philippines to
the U.S. for $20 million. The U.S. established a territorial government in
Puerto Rico but temporized on Cuba, first establishing a military government
there and then allowing Cuba to draft its own constitution, albeit with U.S.
supervision and with provisos. The provisos included the right to establish
American military bases on the island and to intervene in Cuban affairs
"in order to preserve [Cuban] independence." Until the revolution
spearheaded by Fidel Castro in 1959, Cuba would exist as the often less than
willing puppet of the United States.
Theodore Roosevelt, who
assumed office after the September 5, 1901, assassination of McKinley and who
was subsequently elected to a presidential term in his own right, promulgated
the so-called “Roosevelt Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine. In effect,
this policy made the United States a kind of international police force in the
Western Hemi- sphere. The policy was a major step toward establishing the
nation as a world power.