1. Spanish-American War
What caused the Spanish-American War? Why was the Spanish-American War a turning point in American Foreign Policy?

2. Intro: Context Building
The following are slides that might be useful for you as you consider writing context in your introductory paragraph.

3. Context: 1895 Cuban Revolution
Political causes:
Spain’s oppressive colonial (mis)rule
Economic causes:
American tariff of 1894 severely hurt export of sugar, which hurt Cubans more than white plantation owners
Insurgents adopted “scorched earth” policy, torched canfields and sugar mills; dynamited passenger trains
Spanish crackdown
1896 General Weyler crushed rebellion, herded civilians into barbed-wire re-concentration camps
U.S. sympathies
$50 million invested in Cuba
Annual trade of $100 million
Spanish misrule disrupted shipping routes of West Indies and Gulf of Mexico
U.S. sympathetic to the Cuban cry for independence and freedom

4. Context: Yellow Journalism
Journalism that exploits, distorts, or exaggerates the news to create sensations and attract readers
Joseph Pulitzer (New York Journal) vs. William Randolph Hearst (New York World)
Yellow Kid—popular cartoon that Pulitzer and Hearst fought over, spawned

5. Context: Industrial Revolution
The complex of radical socio-economic changes, such as the ones that took place in England in the late 18th century, that are brought about when extensive mechanization of production systems results in a shift from hand manufacturing to large-scale factory production.
1898—U.S. is the world’s leading manufacturer and foremost industrial power
How did this influence imperialism?
The U.S. sought new markets for its goods
The U.S. sought to exploit foreign nations for natural resources to fuel its industry.

6. Conclusion
The following slides will be useful as you answer the concluding question, “Why is the Spanish American War a turning point in American history?”

7. U.S. Foreign Policy,
Washington’s Farewell Address (1796)—avoid “entangling” alliances
Intent:
Established a tradition of political neutrality and a foreign policy of isolationism.
Allow time to militarize
Bolster economy: Encouraged trade so long as it didn’t compromise neutrality.

8. U.S. Foreign Policy
Monroe Doctrine (1823)—ordered Europe to stop colonizing western hemisphere.
European colonization would be viewed as an act of aggression, requiring U.S. intervention
U.S. would neither interfere with existing European colonies nor meddle in the internal concerns of European allies.
Intent:
Free newly independent colonies of Latin America
Avoid situations which could make New World a battle ground for Old World powers
Allow the U.S. to exert its own influence undisturbed

9. U.S. Foreign Policy, 1898
Treaty of Paris signed December 10, 1898, ending the Spanish- American War
Cuba went “free”
Context: Teller Amendment (1898) promised that U.S. would set Cuba free
However, the Platt Amendment was written into the Cuban Constitution (1901):
Cuba cannot form treaties with foreign countries that compromise its independence
U.S. can intervene in Cuba to restore order and provide protection.
U.S. granted right to build a coaling and naval station, twenty-eight-thousand-acre beachhead (Guantanamo Bay)
Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines were ceded to the US, and the US agreed to pay Spain an indemnity of $20 million
Significance: America becomes a world power