American Sympathy For The Cuban Rebels example essay topic

349 words
Many factors contributed to the growth of imperialism in the United States. Humanitarians wanted to spread the western culture such as law, medicine, and Christian religion to other countries. Military and economic factors also played a roll in the growth of imperialism because of our growing navies needed bases around the world and we also wanted to gain new markets to trade manufactured goods. Nationalism, or devotion to one's nation, caused competition with European nations for larger empires.

Americans didn't see themselves ruling people from other countries, but the did want new markets overseas. In the 1890's the American attitude toward imperialism changed. Some people thought that it was a good idea to get our hands into other countries while other thought we should avoid foreign affairs. Section 2-The Spanish-American War The United States looked for expansion in Latin America, the Pacific islands, and China. Cuba first rebelled against Spain in the 1960's. After ten years of fighting rebels, Spain decided to put reforms to calm down the Cuban people.

Cuba rebelled again so Spain sent troops to end the rebellion. Cuban exiles in the United States wanted the United States to get involved. The United States didn't want to so Cuban guerrillas destroyed American sugar plantations and mills in Cuba. This caused a conflict between Cuba and the United States.

American sympathy for the Cuban rebels grew causing U.S. intervention to grow. President McKinley moved the ship U.S.S. Maine into Havana to protect American citizens. The ship exploded a few weeks later and was blamed on the Spanish. This incident caused America to go to war with Cuba. The war was short and simple. United States Navy sank every Spanish ship and only 400 Americans died in battle.

After the war, Spain signed a treaty recognizing Cuba's independence. After the Spanish-American War, war erupted against the Philippines. American forces killed 16,000 Filipino rebels and 200,000 Filipino civilians. The Philippines didn't gain complete independence until 1946.