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Spanish-American war

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by Ratswiskers (U7323852) on Wednesday, 7th May 2008

  Was the Spanish-American conflict nothing more than a land grab. America taking advantage of an old and crumbling empire.
  
  The precipitation of conflict, caused by the explosion and sinking of the USS Maine in Havana does seem to be open to question.
  
  

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by cmedog47 (U3614178) on Wednesday, 7th May 2008

  Of course!
  
  It, like every major historical event involving action of millions and dependent on the decisions of tens of thousands, is reducible in it's essence to two simple words. You have found it!

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• Message 3

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  Posted by Ratswiskers (U7323852) on Wednesday, 7th May 2008

  Yes I'm guilty of being to economical, I should have framed my intent more clearly.
  My real curiosity is whether the circumstances surrounding the loss of the USS Maine were ever resolved.
  The Spanish of course claim her loss was the result of an accident in her forward magazine. The US navy maintained at the time she was sunk by a mine.
  Has her wreck ever been examined and the actual cause established.

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• Message 4

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  Posted by Allan D (U1791739) on Wednesday, 7th May 2008

  It was also about the decline of the Spanish Empire that had been going on for three centuries and American desire to enforce the Monroe Doctrine. The chief cause however and the most influential with American public opinion was the brutal crushing by Spain of the Cuban revolt beginning in 1895 using wholesale clearances of the civilian population through "concentration camps" (which entered the language for the first time and were later copied by the British in South Africa). It was generally considered that such repression of what were, after all, people of European origin, should not be tolerated on America's doorstep annd relations between Spain and the US gradually soured although you are right that the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana harbour (now generally thought to be accidental) was the casus belli.
  
  If the Spanish had been wise they would have allowed the US to have mediated a settlement between themselves and the Cubanm rebels even if it had meant Cuban independence (which happened anyway) just as Lord Salisbury agreed to US insistence that a boundary dispute between Venezuela and the British colony of Guiana (now Guyana) be put to international arbitration. Salisbury considered the loss of face worth the retention of good relations with the US (and the international court eventually upheld most of the British claims in any case).
  
  Of all the wars fought by the US from the War of Independence to the present the Spanish-American War was not only one of the shortest, lasting less than 4 months from the Congress' declaration of war on 25 April to the cease-fire being agreed on August 12 1898, but also possibly the most popular. It was presented as a genuinely disinterested intervention designed to bring freedom and self-government to the Cuban people (the annexation of Spain's Pacific colony of the Phillipines was overlooked at the time). However it had considerable long-term ramifications. It entangled the US in Cuban affairs which continues to this day. The US acquired a colony in the Phillipines where it pursued a 16year long repression of an independence struggle that was as, if not more, brutal than anything the Spanish had conducted, either there or in Cuba.
  
  The war marked the emergence for the first time of the USA as a world power with global responsibilities, in defiance of the dictum contained in Washington's Farewell Address that the USA "should avoid foreign entanglements", inevitably leading to America's participation in the two world wars. The US also acquired an interest in controlling the Pacific and maintaining a large and powerful navy which would ultimately lead to conflict with Japan, the other rising power at this time.
  
  Japan, like America, proved its global status by fighting and defeating a declining power - Russia- in 1904-5. Theodore Roosevelt, whose political prominence largely stemmed from his role in the Spanish-American War, mediated a peace deal that largely favoured Japanese interest. However in internnational politics, as in politics generally, there is no place for gratitude.

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• Message 5

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  Posted by Backtothedarkplace (U2955180) on Thursday, 8th May 2008

  Hi,
  
  The maine sinking has been examined at least three times possibly four? both officialy by the US government and privately.
  
  The damage has at one point or another been put down to a fire in a coal bunker setting off the forward magazine. An external mine detonating under the hull and setting off the magazine.
  
  I think the last time that it was looked at was in the 1990's and they came to the conclusion that the explosion had an external source.
  
  Even if it was a mine there are several possibilities. one the spanish did it on purpose, either on orders or not.
  
  two they did it by accident. a mine broke loose from the harbour defences.
  
  three the cuban rebels did it. to provoke a war.
  
  No one is probably going to know.
  
  The wreck was salvaged about 1910? after examining it it was then dumped at sea off the coast of cuba. its not likley that enough of it remains intact to establish an exact cause after this time.

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• Message 6

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  Posted by Allan D (U1791739) on Thursday, 8th May 2008

  According to this there have been four inquiries, a US Navy Board Inquiry under Captain Sampson held immediately after the sinking based on witness evidence and that of navy divers, an inquiry under Admiral Vreeland in 1910-11 after the wreck had been brought to the surface, an investigation by Admiral Rickover in 1976 based on evidence given to the first two inquiries and an investigation by National Geographic, using computer modelling, in 1999:
  
  
  
  There are two distinct theories regarding the destruction of the Maine. One is that the Maine was destroyed, either intentionally or accidentally, by a mine of some kind and the other is that the explosion occurred due to spontaneous combustion in the coal bunker which affected the magazines, an occupational hazard since coal-fired ships had been introduced during the Civil War which was to remain until the US Navy changed to oil-fired vessels.
  
  The first two inquiries and the National Geographic investigation supported the mine theory whilst Rickover believed a fire in the coal bunker was responsible.

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• Message 7

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  Posted by Ratswiskers (U7323852) on Thursday, 8th May 2008

  Thanks backtothedarkplace (dan)Free Sean!, I'd managed to track down a synopsis from the original board of inquiry. But I felt sure such an historic event would have lead to a modern examination of the wreck.
  Though as you rightly point out, knowing the cause does not itself clear up whether the sinking was deliberate or an accident.

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• Message 8

  , in reply to message 6.

  Posted by Ratswiskers (U7323852) on Thursday, 8th May 2008

  Thank you Allan D for a most interesting insight into the events around the incident. I will follow up the National Geographic tip.
  
  Your reference to Russo-Japanese war, reminds me of one of the more peculiar international incidents of the 20th century.
  After the Japanese surprise attack on the Russian Far Eastern fleet in February 1904, and its eventual destruction in August of the same year. The Russians decided to move their Baltic fleet half way round the world to continue the fight. An epic voyage of over 18,000 miles.
  
  The fleet was ill prepared and trigger happy to boot, sailing south at night through the north sea the fleet encountered the Hull fishing fleet.
  These were identified wrongly as Japanese torpedo boats and the fleet opened fire. Fortunately for the fishermen of Hull the gunnery of the Russians was as inept as their ability to identify the enemy and though four trawlers were damaged the Russians inflicted far more damage on themselves when in the darkness they mistakenly fire on each other.
  The British were naturally outraged and a grovelling apology was extracted from the Tsar, whilst the Royal navy escorted the baltic fleet out of British territorial waters.

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