When the American battleship USS Maine exploded in Havana, Cuba, tensions between Spain and the U.S. rose to an all-time high. The ship had been docked in the harbour for 3 weeks and exploded at 9:40 PM on Feb. 15, 1898. The Americans tried to make the appearance of their battleship seem friendly, but just about everyone had their doubts about the Americas supposedly friendly intentions. Of a crew of 374, about 266 Americans were killed.
Of course American journalists had fun with this. The Spaniards in Cuba were immediately blamed for the sinking of the Maine. The leading American journalists (yellow journalists) were William Randolph Hearst and Josef Pulitzer. American foreign policy at this time reflected ethnocentrism, or the belief in manifest destiny and Anglo-Saxonism. It was these views that portrayed America as an Imperialist nation.
The cause of the sinking of the Maine reMaines a mystery, but several in-depth theories have been proposed.
1. Internal Explosion: Basically, this theory is based on the possibility that an internal fire or combustion occurred in the Maine, and could have set off a magazine explosion. Most crew members and other witnesses of the explosion of the Maine reported hearing 2 explosions, but there were a few who only heard one. One explosion would indicate a magazine explosion was triggered by an internal blast rather than an external.
Observers also point out that (assuming there were fish living in the polluted harbour) there would have been a lot of dead fish floating in the water had there been an external explosion. Another point is that no witnesses reported having seen a splash beside the ship, a characteristic common of external explosions.
2. Spontaneous Combustion: Spontaneous Combustion of the coal bunkers was a common occurrence of ships like that at the time. If the coal reached a high enough temp., the coal could "spontaneously ignite". Almost all the ships that were known to have had spontanous combustion in the coal bunkers never were lost. They carried brown powder which was very chemically stable and would not have exploded even when heated to this point. The Maine also carried this brown powder, but in addition carried a less stable black powder.
3. External Explosion: This could have been caused by a Spanish mine which was part of the harbour defenses, which could have broken loose and drifted into the ship. Other possible sources were a homemade bomb being placed on the hull of the ship or mine being secretely placed in teh watere.
Anyhoo, Spain declared war on April 23,1898 and McKinley, the U.S. president of the time declared war on Spain on April 25.
Of course American journalists had fun with this. The Spaniards in Cuba were immediately blamed for the sinking of the Maine. The leading American journalists (yellow journalists) were William Randolph Hearst and Josef Pulitzer. American foreign policy at this time reflected ethnocentrism, or the belief in manifest destiny and Anglo-Saxonism. It was these views that portrayed America as an Imperialist nation.
The cause of the sinking of the Maine reMaines a mystery, but several in-depth theories have been proposed.
1. Internal Explosion: Basically, this theory is based on the possibility that an internal fire or combustion occurred in the Maine, and could have set off a magazine explosion. Most crew members and other witnesses of the explosion of the Maine reported hearing 2 explosions, but there were a few who only heard one. One explosion would indicate a magazine explosion was triggered by an internal blast rather than an external.
Observers also point out that (assuming there were fish living in the polluted harbour) there would have been a lot of dead fish floating in the water had there been an external explosion. Another point is that no witnesses reported having seen a splash beside the ship, a characteristic common of external explosions.
2. Spontaneous Combustion: Spontaneous Combustion of the coal bunkers was a common occurrence of ships like that at the time. If the coal reached a high enough temp., the coal could "spontaneously ignite". Almost all the ships that were known to have had spontanous combustion in the coal bunkers never were lost. They carried brown powder which was very chemically stable and would not have exploded even when heated to this point. The Maine also carried this brown powder, but in addition carried a less stable black powder.
3. External Explosion: This could have been caused by a Spanish mine which was part of the harbour defenses, which could have broken loose and drifted into the ship. Other possible sources were a homemade bomb being placed on the hull of the ship or mine being secretely placed in teh watere.
Anyhoo, Spain declared war on April 23,1898 and McKinley, the U.S. president of the time declared war on Spain on April 25.
