Empire by Default: The Spanish-American War and the Dawn of the American Century

In this volume, the author explores the motivations of the Spanish-American War and argues that weak political leadership both in Spain and the United States bowed to domestic pressures to wage war. For Spain, the issue was national pride: the Spanish government had to hold on to its remaining overseas possessions to maintain its great-power status. For the United States, the cause of human rights fed by sensational press coverage of Spain’s despotic military rule demanded that the Spanish cease their oppression of Cuba by granting the island either greater autonomy or outright independence. The author argues this thesis by way of a detailed military history narrative of the war.