A Question for the Group Mind re: Spanish-American War

[drenilop]

Hello fellow academicians

Comments

[bing_crosby]

I would guess that the student would have to cite some reasons for that since it's a pretty broad claim. I am sure others will know more about this than I do, but my understanding is that there were actually not that many people in the military then and so some private groups, e.g. Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders, joined up and went to the war. Overall the US was very reluctant to enter this war and I think the general consensus is that Spain taunting McKinley and making him feel ashamed not to be tougher was the main cause.

[drenilop]

Thanks. Unfortunately it was a blue-book exam and so the student doesn't have any further details in the essay.

[dhole]

During the run-up to the war, Roosevelt was Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Once he got the war, he resigned the post, and organized the Rough Riders, who weren't exactly a private organization -- their official name was the 1st US Volunteer Cavalry, after all.

[tx_cronopio]

Dubious...and certainly not a primary cause.

[kira_bouviea]

Sounds like your student was grasping at straws here. Did they say that this was the "only" cause or just a contributing cause? If they say it was the only cause, they need to research some more, but, while I don't know nearly enough about this, if they said that it was a contributing cause, maybe they have room to stand, but I'm seriously doubting it.

[sensaes]

The word referenced in the post was "primary".

But it's all clearly nonsense because, as everyone knows, all wars are caused by oil lust. *Nods.*

(And it isn't even Friday yet.)

[kira_bouviea]

*frowns* Clearly I have been studying too much since I compleatly did not catch the word "primary."

I cannot wait till Finals week is over.

[sensaes]

Not only are you excused, but you've just gained bonus points for that archaic spelling of "completely". ;o)

[delenda_est]

If it never came up in lecture, the student is most likely BS-ing. I just finished grading final exams, and I got all sorts of weird answers when students were grasping for straws and just made stuff up.

[drenilop]

Thanks. I did have a couple of students who wrote their papers on this war and who cited evidence of an 'imperialist' mindset/expansionist preferences within some parts of the military and other bureaucracies. That's the only reason I even gave this a second thought.

[tigg]

It's arguable. I wouldn't give it as a "primary" cause, but it IS arguable in light of imperialism and expanionism AND if you couple in hyper-masculinity and Teddy Roosevelt....it has some basis, but I would buy more of the imperialism and expansionism.

[pansette]

Yeah, I think it's one of those things that's totally valid in a long enough list, but is kind of off in a short list of primary causes.

[vietcong]

There's something to be said for the argument that the US wanted to "test out" it's new ocean-going navy--a reasonable interpretation of the presence of the USS Maine near Cuba anyway. (This would be thanks, in part, to the theoretical musings of Alfred Thayer Mahan, author of _The Influence of Seapower on History_, which tried to apply Napoleonic principles of domination of land warfare to the sea. He argued that the US should project its power in part by having a two-ocean fleet). All told, the Navy was in far better shape than the US Army, which was, by most accounts, a fairly rag-tag bunch, shipped off to the frontier to fight/kill (insert own political views here) Indians or else sent around this great land to build things, as one thing West Point was good at producing was engineers

[drenilop]

I've had the distinct misfortune of reading Alfred Thayer Mahan, thanks... It was one of the worst books I've ever read; I was literally tracking progress by the page (in percentage form) because I'd read for an hour and get (what felt like) nowhere.

But thanks for the clarification. I love the fact that AA has experts in just about everything.

[vietcong]

agreed on Mahan. it's painful stuff.

[paperkingdoms]

I really like your icon.