The Spanish-American War is of relevance to us living in these times in a myriad of ways. The parallels that can be drawn between the current Iraq War and the Spanish-American War are striking in several ways. Both were embraced by the populace at large as being a humanitarian war, to liberate those who were oppressed and were too weak to liberate themselves. Both countries are sources of significant economic value to the American economy, Iraq with its large oil reserves and Cuba provided significant strategic worth in its location in the Caribbean and as a potential stopping point on the way through the proposed Nicaraguan but eventually became the Panama Canal.(1) The Spanish-American War also provides the beginning of and model for American interventionist policies that took place in the Twentieth century such as Vietnam and the Persian Gulf War which were both entered into in the name of protecting American interests and defending the oppressed populations of those regions. Congressman Townsend Scudder stated the rational behind such a policy in 1901 in reference to 1898: “It devolved upon us as the guardian of human liberty and free political institutions in the Western Hemisphere to correct the intolerable evils and setup in their place the institutions of enlightened government.”(2) In the twentieth century American policy still followed that ideal but enlarged Western Hemisphere to encompass the entire globe.

Historians are not united in their interpretations of the motives behind the Spanish-American War just as we today are not all of one mind as to the reasons for American occupation of Iraq and to a lesser degree Afghanistan. Until the 1970’s much of the north American historians viewed the Spanish-American War as the debut of American power into the international scene and during the Cold War years, during the struggle between American Capitalism and Soviet Communism they emphasized the magnanimity of the United States in its intervention to liberate an oppressed people from a corrupt regime. But from the 1970’s onward, in the aftermath of Vietnam and the disfavor in which American intervention abroad was now held historians began to concentrate upon the “imperialist” aspect of the Spanish-American and now Filipino-Cuban War.(3) There is no doubt that there were American policymakers or at least many influential ones who held “imperialist” or “expansionist” reasons for wanting to involve the United States in a conflict with Spain. But as Louis Perez jr. states: “it is unnecessary to deny the contribution of the United States in the Cuban struggle for independence…Nor should the authenticity of the zeal of the American people in behalf of Cuban Libre in 1898 be questioned, irrespective of the fact that this sentiment may have been manipulated by policymakers in pursuit of larger objectives.”(4) This holds true for us today, Iraq is free of an oppressive dictator because of American intervention regardless of whether or not politicians and influential businesspeople had ulterior motives behind the humanitarian rhetoric that was spoken and few if anyone doubts the sincerity of the goodwill of the American populace towards the Iraqi people as they embark upon their journey as a democratic state.

But we must also guard against the failures of the past and not try and tie Iraq to us with forced gratitude. There can be no statements such as the New York Times made on July 19, 1898 after the fall of Santiago de Cuba which represented the sentiment behind the passage of the Platt amendment: “The sacrifices of treasure and life that we have made clearly entitle us to fix the conditions under which the observance of these principles(self government) shall be secure, and to retain whatever power is requisite to enforce these conditions.”(5) The example of Cuban resentment towards such attitudes as that and the eventual revolt against the government that had close ties to the United States and replacement with a government hostile to the U.S. should be ever present in our minds as we think of our interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan, and anywhere else that we might intercede.



1. Louis A. Perez Jr., The War of 1898:The United States And Cuba in History and Historiography (University North Carolina Press: 1998), 49-50

2.Perez, 120

3.Perez, 131

4.Perez, 132

5.Perez, 124