How did the Spanish-American War change America's role in the world In Research Paper

How did the Spanish-American War change America's role in the world In what ways did America's global role stay the same after the war - Research Paper Example s—in extending our commercial relations—to have with them as little political connection as possible.†1 As a corollary to this principle of non-intervention, or isolationism, America remained steadfast in her support of the freedom struggles and democratic movements of other countries, but refused to become embroiled in war by â€Å"spreading our ideals throughout the world by force of arms.†2  This policy came to an end in 1898, with the Spanish-American War. The war originated in the Cuban struggle for independence from Spain that began in 1895. American public sympathy for the revolutionaries was exacerbated by the yellow press, reporting atrocities committed by the Spanish General, Valeriano Weyler. American investments in Cuba and the perception of the strategic importance of the island in Central America, led President McKinley to dispatch the battleship USS Maine to Havana, to pressurize Spain. The mysterious explosion of the Maine in February 1898 was attributed to Spain, and public outrage enabled McKinley to enter the Spanish-American War in April 1898. American victory was declared in August. Under the Treaty of Paris, in December 1898, Cuba became an American Protectorate under the Platt Amendment of 1902, Puerto Rico and Guam were received from Spain as indemnity and the Philippines was ceded to America after the Battle of Manila Bay, for $ twenty million.3 The repercussions of the Spanish-American War led to the annexation of the Philippines, which was made an American colony, after the suppression of the Filipino Insurrection, led by Emilio Aguinaldo. Intellectuals, like Senator Albert Beveridge, used the concept of ‘Manifest Destiny,’ to justify overseas expansion. Josiah Strong’s Our Country (1885), and Rudyard Kipling’s poem, ‘The White Man’s Burden’ (1899), based on ‘Social Darwinian,’ considered it the ‘duty’ of the ‘superior’ Anglo-Saxon race to spread Christian and Democratic values to ‘backward’ people.