Spanish American War Dbq

Contrary to popular belief in America, the framers of the constitution did not establish a democratic system of government. The utmost that can be said is the framers established a government of, by, and for white males who owned a fairly substantial amount of property. Blacks and Indians were excluded from participation, as well as all women. It was not until the reforms of the Jacksonian Era, during the 1820’s and 1830’s that the states removed property qualifications for voting and holding public office. In 1870, the fifteenth amendment barred the state and federal governments from denying a person the right to vote based on race, while the Nineteenth amendment prohibited women from being denied the right to vote. This is because in America, economic factors (capitalism) are the driving force of politics. Political and military power are the direct result of underlying economic strength of the dominant class. The capitalist world economy perpetuates uneven development between advanced capitalist states and poor, less developed states. To answer the question of is America an empire and if it is, when did it happen, it is imperative to define what an empire actually is. According to Merriam-Webster an empire is an extensive group of states or countries under a single supreme authority. In America’s case, the United States of America (U.S.A) is a political organization that incorporated previously existing states. Using the loose definition of empire, the creation of the American empire occurred on independence day when the U.S. Constitution was adopted, simply because the individual 13 states gave up sovereign powers to the central government. In reality, even though technically the empire was created in 1776, an empire isn’t really an empire until it is widespread and powerful. The real rise of the American empire did not begin until the late 1800’s; 1890 was a watershed year for the United States (U.S.) in terms of its international view of the world past the continental boundaries of North America. In the thirty years preceding 1890, Americans were mainly indifferent to foreign affairs and the conduct of international relations. Americans prior to this time were not yet terribly interested in or prepared for an overseas empire. Of course, all of this would change dramatically during the 1890s. In only thirty years, the United States would partake in two wars, acquire territorial possessions in all areas of the globe as it created an empire for itself, and American presidents began playing a dynamic role on the global political stage. “Until the 1890’s, American expansion had for the most part taken place on the North American continent. Ever since the Monroe Doctrine, many Americans had considered the western hemisphere to be an American sphere of influence. There was persistent talk of acquiring Cuba, and president Grant had sought to annex the Dominican Republic, only to see the senate reject the idea” The expansion west and acquisition of California and the southwest were the first obvious symptoms of empirical expansion. It 's a common misconception that the United States was not very active militarily before the 1900’s. Textbooks for …show more content…
In early April 1898, Congress passed four resolutions that declared Cuba was and should be independent from Spain. Furthermore, Congress demanded, not requested that Spain withdraw instantaneously from Cuba, even going as far as to authorize the president to use lethal military force. In 1898, utilizing yellow press, America was able to start a war with the very weak Spanish at the time. Secretary of state John Hay called the Spanish-American war “a splendid little war”, merely because it only lasted four months and resulted in American imperial expansion and fewer than 400 deaths. In late December 1898, Spain and the US signed the Treaty of Paris, forcing Spain to agree to Cuba 's independence, as well as gave the U.S. control over Cuba 's Guantanamo Bay. Not only did the U.S obtain Guantanamo Bay, Spain gave up Puerto Rico and Guam and sold the Philippines to the U.S. for $20 million. The Spanish-American war of 1898 truly showed that America was not to be taken lightly anymore. Before the American victory in World War I, America was a second-rate country and was not taken seriously by the other actual