2. A New Revolution
By the late 1800s, opinions on American expansionism would drastically change with the advent of the industrial revolution. With the explosion of economic growth, the US economy required a more centralized state and bureaucracy to effectively manage it continuing expansion. This change not only put power in the hands of the federal government but would allow expansionist presidents, such as William Mckinley, to push the United States’ influence abroad.
That expansionism would manifest in 1898 when Mckinley, despite opposition, intervened in the Cuban War of Independence with Spain after the USS Maine exploded and sank in Havana Harbor under mysterious circumstances. To this day there is a debate about whether the cause of the explosion was due to the ship’s powder magazines igniting internally or a Spanish mine hitting the bottom of the ship. It made little difference to newspaper publishers Hearst and Pulitzer at the time as they decided that the Spanish were to blame and war soon followed.
The far superior military might of the United States made quick work of the lackluster Spanish forces and after the defeat took possession of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. Over the next two decades, they would take annex the Kingdom of Hawaii, Wake Island, American Samoa, the Panama Canal Zone, occupy the Dominican Republic, and purchase the American Virgin Islands. The acquisition of these territories would see America begin its rise as a global power.
