THE 18TH-CENTURY FORTRESS OF SAN CARLOS DE LA CABAÑA, DEPICTED
HERE IN A COLORIZED POSTCARD FROM 1900, WAS BUILT BY THE SPANISH TO
DEFEND THE MOUTH OF THE HARBOR OF HAVANA, CUBA, FROM INVADERS.
MARY EVANS/AGE FOTOSTOCKI
t is arguably the most celebrated anecdote
in the history of American journalism.
Sometime in early 1897, as the story goes,
artist-correspondent Frederic Remington
found himself in Cuba working for the
New York Journal. The famous painter of buck-
ing broncos and other Wild West scenes was on
assignment for the newspaper’s owner, William
Randolph Hearst, in anticipation of hostilities
with Spain.
“There is no trouble here,” the bored Rem-
ington informed Hearst by telegram. “There
will be no war. I wish to return.”
Hearst fired back, “Please remain. You fur-
nish the pictures, and I’ll furnish the war.”
The story has been told and retold to show
how the yellow press, of which Hearst was an
exemplar, set the United States on the road to
the Spanish-American War—a war in which
Theodore Roosevelt charged up San Juan Hill
(as reporters wrote it all down) and with that
fame strode into the White House; a war that
marked the beginning of the United States as a
global power and an ending of the Spanish Em-
pire, which lost remnant colonies. It was also
a war that ushered in a new age for journalism,
for as irresponsible as coverage was at times, it
was a first step to the development of energetic
foreign news coverage in the States.
But the story is false.
No such telegrams were ever found. Hearst
never admitted to saying any such thing. Histo-
rians have found that the story originated withThe Spanish Empire had no equal during its
golden age. It was the undisputed ruler of the
world with territories from the Atlantic to the
Pacific. After unifying Spain in the late 15th
century, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella
began an era of exploration with Christopher
Columbus’s expedition in 1492.less than 50 years later, the Spanish claimed portions of
the Earth many times the size of their homeland thanks
to conquistadores like Hernán Cortés in Central America
and Francisco Pizarro in South America. Vasco Núñez de
Balboa thought so grandly he claimed all of the Pacific
Ocean for Spain. In 1511 Spain started the permanent
settlement of Cuba. Within a century, enslavement,
disease, and starvation had deci a lo l Tain
culture. Ferdinand Magellan, a
for the Spanish, arrived in the P
The islands would be named for
settled in 1565 by a mere 500 S
their language and customs on
But by the end of the 19th centu
in the industrial revolution and s
political system that did not pro
at the other end of the arc of his
in the New World began to revo
beginning with Bolivia in 1809.
including Cuba in 1868. Spain h
to resist the Cubans’ quest for
Cuba had become a province of
than a colony. Its loss would be
international prestige as well as
revenue. Spain’s prime minister
Cánovas del Castillo pledged to
for Cuba with “the last peseta o
treasure and to the last drop of
of the last Spaniard.”END OF AN EMPIRE:
Spanish king Ferdinand VII is
restored following Napoleon’s
1808 invasion of Spain. He
attempts to reassert control in the
South American colonies, where
trust in Spain has eroded.78 MARCH/APRIL 2019COLUMBUS DISEMBARKS IN THE NEW WORLD.
DETAIL OF AN 1862 PAINTING BY DIÓSCORO PUEBLA
BRIDGEMAN/ACITHE SPANISH
EMPIRE’S
STEEP DECLINE
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