Talk:Spanish-American War

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The below comments are from a Spanish-American war historian, who was shocked at the content of this page (this is why I added the accuracy comment to the article):

The cause of the war had virtually nothing to do with Yellow Journalism,and, really, little to do with the MAINE...it was Mahanian naval theory and the need for coaling bases to support a world-wide navy. The outcome was that the U.S. became a world power....as for it being the first war of American imperialism, someone is completely overlooking the Mexican War. It has McKinley being in favor of the war, when the complete opposite is the case. The comments on the actions in the Philippines and Cuba mistate the situation and the important actions involving Puerto Rico, Guam and Hawai'i are completely missing.

I following the links to some of the related sites, such as the Battle of Manila Bay, and what is written is simply fiction!!

I will follow up with him on whether he has any time to edit. - Aion 17:59 30 Jun 2003 (UTC)

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I really think that the Spanish-American War was very drastic on us, but then it was also very hard on the other countries that were involved in war as well. Since we are the ones that got shot at first, and what I mean by that is our american battleship, the USS Maine in Havana Harbor.

I think part of the point of this is that the U.S.S. Maine's demise is not clearly a result of having been "shot at first". There are many hypotheses as to what happened to that ship and very few facts to back any of them up. Claiming that the U.S.A. was hard done by because "they shot us first" is, as a result, highly disingenuous.

That being said, I question strongly the NPOV stance of this article. It looks very much like a rant against purported U.S. imperialism and not an encyclopaedia entry on a war. I lack sufficient knowledge of the war itself to correct this, however. --Michael 10:25 8 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Which sentences particularly are you having trouble with? Kingturtle 18:02 8 Jun 2003 (UTC)

The earliest warning sign for me was the "Background" section which babbled on about newspapers as if newspapers fought the war. Inserting references to a purported "Black Legend" without further explanation raised alarms. Chronic use of Random Capitals lends the whole article the slight appearance of a crackpot's street leaflet. ("American Press", "Peace Treaty", "Imperialism", "Empires of Europe", etc.)

Pretty much the whole article starting with "Aftermath" and going onward looks like a thinly-veiled rant against purported U.S. imperialism to me. The first paragraph of it, for example, talks about a war that's not directly related to the Spanish-American war. At best it should be a sentence along the lines of "the Spanish-American War was a triggering event for the Phillipine-American War" (if this is, in fact, the case -- as I said, I don't know enough about the war to write anything about it). To my critical eye, that first paragraph of "Aftermath" is there strictly to show how evil Americans are and how imperialistic they are. (And before the usual accusations start: I'm neither American nor an American apologist.)

Continuing, the next paragraph has an unsupported assertion. "...It is considered the first war of USA Imperialism..." Considered by whom? Which sources provide this consideration? Then the later invocation of "American Empire" (which ironically links to an article referring to it as an "informal term") continues the hatchet job.

Additionally, the old saw "you furnish the pictures, I'll furnish the war" is recited again as "reported". Reported by whom?

If I read this article in a newspaper, I'd assume it was some anti-American, very likely left-wing hack-rag. It's too full of judgemental language, questionable assertions and dubious quotations. I really would like a chance to fix it, but, as stated before, don't know where to begin. --Michael 06:58 9 Jun 2003 (UTC)