"Remember the Maine! To hell with Spain!" and slogans like this swiped the United States like a rapid forest fire in 1898. Becoming a world power was just the highway the United States was driving on when they decided to intervene between the cruel rulings the Spanish were placing upon Cuba. To add to the United States list of problems with Spain, a letter from Depuy de Lome, the Spanish minister, called President McKinley, "a weak hypocritical politician." Tensions between the countries ignited even more after the Spanish brought upon the February 15th explosion, killing 262 men and destroying the battle ship called the Maine. The following events shaped the imperialist and non- imperialist regime.…
