Yellow Journalism Dbq

Why did the US get involved in World War I? The U.S. declared war on April 6th, 1917, while President Wilson had been attempting to create peace between Germany and Britain; the country had desperately tried to stay neutral with the problems accruing with these two. After the continuous attacks against American ships, and propaganda by German U-boats, Germany kept attempting to get Mexico to declare war on the U.S. and stop American supplies from getting to Britain. For this reason the U.S saw itself being pushed to get involved.

Between 1900-1920 the United States got into two major wars, the Spanish American War and World War 1. The were some similarities between the reasons for entering and the outcomes of them, there were also some differences. There are similarities and differences between the reasons for entering the Spanish American and entering World War 1. Similarities like social Darwinism and differences like militarism.

U.S. involvement in the Philippines started with the Spanish-American War. The war began when the U.S.S. Maine blew up near Cuba. It was later discovered that the explosion was most likely caused by an accident. Nevertheless, the United States declared war on Spain, thinking that the destruction of the U.S.S. Maine was caused by Spain. Although President McKinley used this incident as a reason for intervening in the conflict between Spain and its colonies, many Congressmen felt the United States had a more important reason for invading.

1898 Spanish American War On the year of 1898, tensions between the United States and Spain begun to rise over the domination of Spain of Latin America and some places of the Caribbean. The war started because Cuba was eager to reach for independence from Spain. There was word that the spanish rulers of Cuba were treating the people brutal. Cuban forces demolished areas of the island so the Spanish would not be able to stay.

Most people found out through the headlines and topics of newspapers that were printed daily for the people and found that they could understand them in their fight for their freedom. Another cause that helped fuel this war was thanks to yellow journalism in newspapers, it caused many people to feel anger and hatred for spain, making Americans more thirsty for war. People making newspapers realised that all these made up stories helped make them more money, all of the fabricated, lies, and over-exaggerated headlines and stories could bring them more profit, thus initiating the start of Yellow Journalism to an extreme extent. Some of the main people that practiced Yellow Journalism was Joseph Pullitzer and William R. Hearst. These two men were enmeshed in a vicious public war.

This explosion finally made the Americans want to go to war, and so the United States decided to get involved. On April 25, 1898, the United States officially went to war with Spain to help Cuba. Instead of the battles being fast and right away, the United States was hesitant and patient. After multiple articles from Hearst and Pulitzer exposing the horrors in Cuba and the rumors about the explosion of the U.S. Mains, America finally got involved in the Spanish American

On February 15 of the year of 1898, a tragedy occurred, the Maine all of a sudden exploded while sailing through Havana harbor. Around 260 Americans were killed because of this explosion. President McKinley and mostly all Americans wanted to prevent war, they just wanted to have a peaceful relationship with Cubans. However, there were some incidents between U.S. and Spain early in 1898. The Americans believed that the more they destroyed Cuba’s mainland, the quicker Spanish would leave Cuba, and Cuba will be able to be free at last.

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 causes of the Mexican-American war were the Annexation of Texas, Land Disputes between Mexico and the United States of America and President Polk’s Greed. The country of Mexico was upset and angry with the United States of America because they took the state of Texas away from them. The two continued to dispute over Southern Texas and the land between the rivers Rio Grande and Nueces. President Polk later sent a messenger to offer thirty-million dollars for the SouthWest. Mexico declined the offer and President Polk declared war on Mexico.

The first reason is the main reason the U.S joined the Spanish-American war is territory and resources. According to a document by Jason Colby, Spain took control of Cuba, the Philippines Islands, and Puerto Rico. The U.S was worried that

“The air was thick with war feeling, like the electricity of a storm which has not yet burst” (Howells 1491). This quote from William Dean Howells’ Editha represents the atmosphere of America leading up to and during the Spanish-American War. America was split by differing views of imperialism, and ultimately ended up fighting a war for the wrong reasons. An atmosphere of blind patriotism, corrupted by yellow journalism and jingoism, consumed America during the years of the Spanish American War, which can be seen in the characters of William Dean Howells’ Editha. America entered into the Spanish-American War due to the yellow journalism that filled American citizen’s heads with sensational journalism, a prime example of this being Editha

The Spanish American war involved both the Spanish and the Americans. It started by America wanting to buy Cuba from Spain. The Spanish responded harshly to this claim. While American interest in Cuba grew, Cubans tried and tried again to become independent from Spain. Some Americans were happy about the sudden rebuttal and others wanted the United States to support Spain in order to keep their investments.

Spain fought with countries such as France, England, and the Dutch for control over lands in the New World, because they were all seeking wealth and power. They had even faced the threat of foreign attacks from England. Because of

The United States of the early 20th century was one with a booming economy and a hunger for power. They had expanded westward and were looking to continue to expand their territory across the seas, in order to assert their dominance as a global superpower among the powerful nations of the time. The poor relations between Cubans and their Spanish rulers eventually led to the Treaty of Paris, which is when Spain surrendered the Philippines to the United States. It was at this point that another major divide between the American people was created. Many Americans believed that attempting to gain power over as many territories as possible was a bad idea and one that went against what America was built on.

To start off, publishers did not tell the public what they did not want them to know, and they also persuaded opinions. From an article titled, “Joseph Pulitzer,” it reads, “Yellow journalism on the part of both papers helped inflame public opinion in favor of war against Spain in 1898” (McGuire and Leslie). This is a demonstration of how yellow journalism persuaded the public to all think the same way. By doing this, the publishers hoped they could lead everyone to think the way powerful people thought.