The Spanish American war was a product of Frederick Jackson Turner’s frontier thesis and the urbanization of America. In 1895, a rebellion broke out in Cuba, as Cuban patriots wanted independences from Spain. Through the yellow journalism, reports of Spain’s cruel military tactics lead to a public uproar in the U.S. However, most of these stories were exaggerated as a form to promote war. After an American battleship, the USS Maine, was destroyed, America was “forced” to start war and stop Spanish occupation. The war lasted from April 1898 till August 1898; through this war we took control over Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the islands of the Philippines. The end result of this war comes to show that the reasoning behind the war has more to do with
Being a Cuban immigrant has provided me with a unique bicultural perspective that has become my support system in the United States. For the first eleven years of my life, my culture was composed of music and dancing. In every street corner of my hometown, there was a group of seniors playing domino and close by, their grandchildren dancing to the Salsa music being played on the radio to pass the time. The hardships created by the communist regime are overshadowed by memories of my mother teaching me how to sew and by my paternal grandmother teaching me how to enjoy a strong Cuban coffee.
The Cuban Revolution had many lasting impacts. One area that was greatly influenced from 1959 to 1990 was gender relations. From the start to the end of the revolution women in Cuba faced many difficulties in gaining civil rights, some people were against it while others fought fiercely for equality, but in the end the quality of these women's lives were changed for the better.
Wright continues the telling of this historical event, under the topic of Fidelismo and the radicalization of Latin American politics. The combination of Castro’s actions and Che Guevara’s calls for revolution in the western hemisphere had a direct and profound effect on Latin American politics. This powerful force came to be known as Fidelismo and broken down to its core “it was simply the attitude that revolution should be pursued immediately” (Wright p. 39). On of the most noticeable symptoms of Fidelismo was an intense growth of demands for change. Wright notes that during this time, the intensity of political activities in many other Latin American countries increased, especially after Castro’s victory. This dynamic came about as new
The imperialistic mentality of the American government after the Civil War, led to some degree to the Spanish-American war that would render a great acquisition of land for the United States. However, imperialism would not be the sole factor that led to the war against Spain, but also the sympathy felt by the American government towards Cuba’s efforts in fighting for their independence; additionally, the United States would seek to protect its commercial interests (sugar) in the island. Therefore, after invoking the Spanish to secede from their brutal practices towards Cuban rebels and attain a peaceful end to the situation, the United States arbitrarily sent a navy ship, “The USS Maine” to monitor the area. The ship and 250 American lives
America’s entrance in the Spanish-American War was primarily due to the random explosion of the USS Maine on February 15, 1898, which killed 267 service men aboard. This attack leads to Congress’s vote to go to war against Spain. The United States’ desire to expand military overseas also played a part in the American entrance to this war. Economically speaking, the U.S. wanted Cuban crops to come to America, and not only Spain. “The war enabled the United States to establish its predominance in the Caribbean region and to pursue its strategic and economic interests in Asia” (“Spanish-American War”). The United States wanted sole control over the island of Cuba in order to grow the American economy, and the congress stated that President William
January of 1959, Cuba welcomed the first of the Cuban Revolution, and had become a communist country under the rule of Fidel Castro as mentioned in “Document D”. The US, against communism, became much involved in Cuba during 1962, when
Lost, a word that carries a heavy and negative connotation while also hefting unique experiences and emotions for each person, with the main common point between them being the act of having something or someone taken from their lives. In the short story, “confusing the Saints,” by Ana Menéndez, the female protagonist faces grief, anger, and acceptance due to the loss of her husband, while simultaneously bringing in her culture involving Santeria and her life in both Cuba and America. This character leads to the question of what are the psychological and physical effects of losing a loved one and how one copes with loss.
Race relations within the revolutionary Caribbean complicated the Twentieth Century, leaving questions of freedom and nationalism open to interpretation. In A Nation for All, Alejandro De La Fuente examines various meanings of race within post-Spanish Cuba, Batista’s Cuba, and socialist Cuba, and how racial tensions aligned with revolutionary ideas. Rather than simply adopting a chronological organization of events, Alejandro De La Fuente gains the reader’s attention by utilizing a thematic scheme. The idea of an inequality, masked by revolutionary, egalitarian rhetoric, remains central to each thematic division. De La Fuente’s work serves to undermine the elitist pretense of equality in Twentieth Century Cuba and expose the long-term effects
First, there was the political component in which Americans sympathized with the Cubans’ yearning for independence. Second, businessmen had important interests on the island, cultivated over several decades. Sugar, railroads, shipping, and other enterprises gave the United States an undeniable economic interest in Cuba, while at the same time putting Americans in a potential crossfire.Third, there was the moral issue of Weyler;s treatment of the Cubans, which appealed to American humanitarianism (Schweikart and Zinn 483).
Flies circle great black lumps as the moist air ravages the corpses. Dried blood soaked into the ground after faceless soldiers brutally destroyed its owners’ lives. These were the stories in the newspapers, the movies, and the films. Horrified by these crimes against humanity, the American public was spurred into action against the Spanish oppressors. the United States invaded Cuba in 1898 to pursue humanitarian efforts.
During the mid and late 1800s imperialism was alive and well in the United States. It was not enough for America to have acquired massive tracts of land throughout the late 1800s, such as Alaska and Hawaii, Guam, and Puerto Rico. The idea of imperialism and the Monroe Doctrine called for more land and limited European intervention in the Western Hemisphere. Ultimately the imperialistic eye of the United States had to eventually turn to Cuba, an area under Spain’s control that represented tremendous opportunity to fuel the growing imperialist machine that was America. The Monroe Doctrine could not tolerate Spanish control over Cuba, forbidding European intervention in the Western Hemisphere. This factor, coupled with the United States’ desire
The book That Infernal Little Cuban Republic, focuses on the relationship between both Cuba and the United States. A lot of the contention between Cuba and the United States stems from the American view that every country is in need of our assistance. The author details how American officials asserted themselves into Cuba and with their presence in most cases did more harm than good in reference to the Cuban population. The book highlights that the U.S. government supported many policies in Cuba that were undemocratic leading to their citizens suffering politically, economically, and socially. After Castro took power the relationship between the two governments suffered immediately. Tensions only got worse as Cuba and the Soviet Union became
Opening in 1892, Ellis Island quickly became the most active immigration station (and largest in America) for Immigrants entering the U.S.; mainly from Europe. For these Immigrants, Ellis Island was the entrance point to "the land of opportunity" and they had worked hard and spent a lot of hard earned money to get there. The immigrants that came to the America were coming partially because of the prospect and promises of prosperity and happiness and that America was “the land of opportunity”, but mainly because of drought, famine, war, and religious persecution in their home countries.
The Cuban Revolution was successful in toppling the corrupt Batista dictatorship and getting the Cosa Nostra (a major crime syndicate in Sicily) out of Cuba. The Cuban Revolution was and is not successful however, in making Cuba a free land and a good place to live for everyone. It benefited just the communist party leaders. At first the Cuban people thought they were fighting from freedom, and that they were trying to free themselves from Batista and the United States. However, what most of the cuban people didn 't know it was that it was all a lie. Nothing changed things got worse and worse and worse. Cuba remained the same as it did earlier with Batista; a poor country in debt whose livelihood depends on sugar production.