What could drive many countries including the United States? Money and authority, this was true for the late 18th and early 19th century. Having authority was one thing, but combining it with wealth was a lethal weapon that could open many doors. In order to gain wealth at the time, you’d need to expand which you could only do so by taking over another country’s trade routes and their assets. This would enhance the owner’s wealth thus giving them more leeway to gain authority. “The taste of Empire is in the mouth of the people, even as the taste of blood in the jungle” this statement was made by a Washington D.C. newspaper, and it means that the people of the United States tremendously wanted to own and use as many territories outside the mainland of the United States. They compare the “taste of Empire” to that of the “taste of blood” to provoke an image in the reader’s head. In the jungle, you are in an unsafe environment, it’s every man for himself leading you to crave the best for yourself, regardless of who is harmed as long as you come out superior. This shows the great lengths that countries would go to in order to expand and just how much they yearned for this to take place regardless of the many killed along the way. New Manifest Destiny, is justified by many for a number of reasons, those being the amount of cheap or free land available, Social Darwinism, and Militarism in the late 19th century. The Spanish American war happened as a result of who would win Cuba, some factors that influenced this outbreak of war was the Yellow Press, the sinking of The Maine, and Cuba wanting its independence from the Spanish.
There are a number of reasons as to why people justified the American expansion New Manifest Destiny. The first being the large quantity of cheap or free land that was fertile for farmers to harvest their crops on. An example of this would be the Homestead Act, which made the western land very affordable to those willing to harvest it. Since many farmers were buying land and harvesting of them, the United States now had an oversupply of crops which led them to lower the prices of produce so they decided to expand by trading with other nation’s markets overseas to avoid the factories from going out of business and bankrupt along with having a rise in unemployment. The next reason people used to justify the American expansion New Manifest Destiny being Social Darwinism, it was the idea that life is compiled up of competitive hardships in which only the strong minded survived. The United States felt as though numerous nations were intended to govern over second rate peoples and cultures. They presumed that if they stayed withdrawn that the European Nations would dominate them by conquering the rest of the world and lead to their demise. The last reason as to why people justified the American expansion New Manifest Destiny was militarism. In order to keep on expanding, the United States needed protection, but not just any protection, they needed military strength protection for all of their interests around the world. Many foreign bases were established for their ships to recompose at and to also provide protection for American citizens in Cuba like the USS Maine.
The Spanish American war was fought between Spain and the United States in 1898, the war was a result of many things, the first being the Lomes’s letter. The Lome’s letter was written by the Spanish Ambassador (to the US) to the Foreign Minister of Spain and published in the Journal, this would soon come back to haunt the US. The letter was titled “Worst Insult to the United States in Its History.” and after it gained attention in which incited American aggressive nationalism. A result of this publication was the explosion of the USS Maine which Spain was blamed for the wrongdoing almost instantaneously by the Yellow Press which was known for exaggerating their stories. The Cubans were rebelling against the Spanish rule, the US had sought to expand in places that would bring profit so they viewed Cuba as a gold mine for a growing market for American products. Throughout the duration of the war many properties belonging to the US were destroyed and this made them become uncertain about the business related involvement in Cuba and wanted Spain to stop. The Teller Amendement
127 our experts are availableright now
