History of the United States II / Unit 7 USH2 0911 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
The Maine
The idea
McKinley sent the battleship Maine to Havana harbour in January eighteen ninety-eight to observe the crisis and protect Americans. On February fifteenth an explosion destroyed it, killing more than two hundred fifty sailors. The yellow press blamed Spain, and a naval court of inquiry, Digital History says, blamed a mine. The anchor reports that many historians now conclude the explosion was likely an accident, caused by gunpowder stored close to hot boilers.
In practice
The slogan remember the Maine on every front page, set beside a modern finding of an accident on board.
Where people slip
Two verdicts, far apart in method, sit in the same entry. In eighteen ninety-eight, the anchor says, newspapers ran with the charge of a Spanish attack without ready evidence, and the country followed. The course states the verdict of the time and the verdict of historians together, because a war began on a cause now thought to be an accident.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
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