The Spanish American War and the Philippine Insurgency were very fascinating events to learn about in the film and the sources that were given. Entering the Imperial Age, America was in its reconstruction era and was culturally divided due to the recent conclusion of the civil war. During this time America was very interested in expanding its empire and turning itself into a world superpower. America felt that it was their destiny to be on the top as shown by this quote from Modern History Sourcebook: Albert Beveridge: The March of the Flag I answer, The rule of liberty that all just government derives its authority from the consent of the governed, applies only to those who are capable of selfgovernment We govern the Indians without their consent, we govern our territories without their consent, we govern our children without their consent(Internet History Sourcebooks)America felt that it was their duty to help struggling countries and try and impose their superior values in their governments. In the documentary film Crucible of Empire: The Spanish-American War which was directed by Daniel A. Miller in New York for PBS, America was searching for a reason to expand their territory and saw the Cuban War of Indepences as a perfect opportunity to do this. At the time Cuba had been trying for years to gain its independence from Spain and The Cubans were crying for help from America. Newspapers at the time were flooded with horrific atrocities that were being committed against the Cuban people
and the American people felt that they had no choice but to help the struggling people. William Randolph Hearst was a lobbyist for the aid of the Cubans as supported by this quote Hearst took up the Cuban independence movement as a jingoistic way to bring America together. We were a nation in that period that was at each others throats&.And Hearst saw that the way to pull everybody together was with some war. (Film: Crucible of Empire: The Spanish-American War, act 1). Although there were many supporters of this war some felt that diving into the war was not the route for America to go down. A very famous and outspoken anti-imperialist was Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie wrote about his feelings toward imperialistic views in a journal entry in the North American Review. Carnegie claimed that America was not ready to take the next step in becoming a world power. This is supported by this quote. I say, that no American statesman should place his country in any position which it could not defend, and relying only upon its own strong right arm. (Carnegie, Andrew. Americanism versus Imperialism). Despite the fact that there were many anti-imperialistic supporters, in February of 1898 the USS Maine sunk in Havana harbor as a result of an explosion on the ship. Newspapers spread across the United States and blamed the ship sinking on the Spanish and that was the last straw for America. On April 22nd the united states sent its naval fleet into Cuba which led to Spain declaring war on the United States.