A Cartoon History of the Spanish-American War

1. A Cartoon Historyof the Spanish-American War Chapter 17 Becoming A World Power

2. Learning Objectives: • Analyze primary source documents • Describe the origins and events of the war • Match key figures and events

3. Political cartoons and drawings were popular features in 1890s newspapers and the yellow journals of the Spanish-American War era. Before the Spanish-American War began, drawings depicting Spain as evil, Cuba as innocent, and President McKinley as a coward, helped rally sympathy for the Cuban people and fuel a pro-war feeling in America. Illustrations simplified the message that yellow journalists like William Randolph Hearst wanted his readers to buy--Cuba was helpless and the U.S. must intervene

4. Cartoons were popular in 19th Century America just as they are today. Since there was no T.V. or even radio, people got their news from newspapers, and everybody liked the editorial cartoons.

5. Cuban rebels declared Independence from Spain in 1868, but the Spanish quickly and violently put down the revolution. The Cubans rebelled again in 1895.

6. The Spanish sent General ValerianoWeyler to put down this second rebellion. Weyler’s harsh policies earned him the nickname El Carnicero, “The Butcher”. American newspapers portrayed him as a violent and savage brute.

7. Weylerforced Cuban peasants into concentration camps where tens of thousands of people died of starvation and disease. The American cartoons appealed to popular sympathies, and furthered the Spanish reputation as ruthless tyrants.

8. The New York Journal printed a secret letter by the Spanish Ambassador that criticized McKinley for being a weak-willed politician. The de Lome Letter angered many Americans, and was one of the causes of the Spanish-American War.

9. The US battleship Maine blew up in Havana, Cuba shortly after the deLome letter came out. The sinking of the Maine was the major cause of the war. Remember the Maine, To War With Spain!

10. Even after the sinking of the Maine, President McKinley tried to negotiate with the Spanish. The newspapers did not share McKinley’s optimism, and blamed the sinking of the warship on the Spanish.

11. The eyes of the world were on McKinley. He did not want war, but others did. Notable war hawks included Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt, and prominent newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst.

12. The newspapers fueled popular support for the war, and eventually President McKinley caved-in to the overwhelming demand.

13. Many in the U.S. saw the war as a way to expand our borders. Jingoism was a term used to describe extreme nationalism. Spain was portrayed as “weak”, and their colonies were “easy pickings” like “low-hanging fruit.”

14. Theodore Roosevelt resigned as Asst. Sec. of the Navy, and formed a volunteer unit in the army he called the “Rough Riders.” They were a group of adventurers and cowboys eager to fight. They helped win a major battle in Cuba at San Juan Hill.

15. The U.S. also attacked the Spanish in the Phillipines. At first, the Americans were seen as liberators and freedom fighters.

16. The U.S. military fought two wars half a world away, and proved to be remarkably successful. The Americans served notice to the rest of the world that they could play with the big boys in the game of empire.

17. Some cartoons supported the idea of imperialism.

18. After the war, some people, including Mark Twain, began to criticize the administration about the real motives for going to war. Twain and others formed an Anti-Imperialist League.

19. Mark Twain on American imperialism: I wanted the American eagle to go screaming into the Pacific ...Why not spread its wings over the Philippines, I asked myself? ... I said to myself, Here are a people who have suffered for three centuries. We can make them as free as ourselves, give them a government and country of their own, put a miniature of the American Constitution afloat in the Pacific, start a brand new republic to take its place among the free nations of the world. It seemed to me a great task to which we had addressed ourselves. But I have thought some more, since then, and I have read carefully the treaty of Paris [which ended the Spanish-American War], and I have seen that we do not intend to free, but to subjugate the people of the Philippines. We have gone there to conquer, not to redeem. It should, it seems to me, be our pleasure and duty to make those people free, and let them deal with their own domestic questions in their own way. And so I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land

20. The newspapers, and even cartoons, played a major role in America becoming an empire with colonies all over the world.