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AN AMERICAN EMPIRE
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1898-Oojanuar y25,1898,on eoft hemost mod ernsh ip s
illth eUnitedStates'nav ysteamed int otheharbor
ofl I avana,Cub a.T he shipwas a cru iser calledthe
Maine,Awarwasbeingfough tin Cub a at this ti me
andth eMainehad been senttoHavan a asa
d em onstrationofAmericanpower.Three weeks
late r,onthe nigh tofFebruar y15.J.h ugeexplos ion
shook thecity .The.\faint'WdSblown[0pieces an d
260 ofit s ere....: were killed.
T o this d ay.th e causeofth e explos io nthat destroyed
th eMaineremain s am yst er y.Some believe thatit
was setoffby an accid ent alsparkill thesh ip's
magazine,ora m m unitio nstore.Attheti m e.
ho wever .man yAmericansbelieve d thatthe
ex plosio n hadbeen causedbyan enemym ine.
Themanwho m ad e thisclaimm o stloudly wasa
new spaperowncrnam edWilliamRand o lphH earst.
" T I IEWARSH IP.\lA.ISEWASSPLITINT WO
HYA NENEMY' SINFERNAL[h ellishl
MAC HINE," read thehead lin e in o neofhis
n~wspaperson Februar y17.Thcsto rywhich
fo llowedm adeit clear thattoHear stthe"enemy"III
rhc head linewas Spa in. MostAmericansagreedwit h
him. T hiswas not becaus e(heyh adan yproof. It was
becau se(heywant ed tobelieveit. Letus see why.
In 1867(heU n ited Statesh ad boug htAlaskafro m
Russia.Apartfromthisit hadbrought noadditional
landunderits rule sinc e gaini n g co n tro lofC alifo rnia
andtheSouthwe stin theM exican Warof 1846 to
Il:WKInthetl:WOs,however, anewspiri tstarte dto
ente rAmeri can foreignpolicy .Thesewereyears
whenBritain .Pran ce andGermanywerebusy
claim ingcolo nies, fo reignlandswhich(heyco uld
ruleand expl oi t .SomeA meri cansbelievedthatth e
UnitedStatesshould do (he same.Colon iesoverseas
m eanttrade. w ealth ,pow erandp resti ge. "A policy
ofisolationdid wellenoug h (w as all right]whenwe
werean emb ryonation ,b utto d aything sart'
different,"said Sena to rOrvilleP iauIII 189 3. "We
arc th e m o st ad van cedandpowerful nati o n 011 eart h
andourfuture d em ands anabandon mentofthe
policy of Iso lat io n.Iris to(heoceano urchild ren
must look. as(hey once looked to(hebound less
wrsr. "
Man y Ame rica nsagreedwithPlatt .Politicians.
businessmen.newspaper s and missio nari esj o ined
to getherto claimthat" the Anglo-Saxon race"- by
which they m eantAmerican sas well asNorth
Europeans-.hada rig htandaduty to bring w estern
civilizationtothe peoplesofAsia, AfricaandLatin