because Cuba was just 90 miles south of Florida and its population was largely Catholic and included Americans the United States took an intense interest in the inner workings of that island in 1895 as Cuba was fighting for its independence from Spain the tabloid press in America continuously reported the story often noting the horrors of Spanish repression against Cuba and these deeply upset Americans for social reasons for religious reasons for political reasons and also in part for economic reasons Cuba was an important nearby trading partner people in the u.s. start increasingly calling for intervention into events in Cuba in 1898 President William McKinley decided to send the battleship USS Maine to Cuba to protect Americans and American businesses that ship had been sent by McKinley to Havana in January 1898 to protect American interests and also to be there in case Americans needed to evacuate the city the ship explodes at the time everyone thought and the newspapers reported that it had been bombed a much later investigation actually in 1976 confirmed what many people and amend some of the thought which was that it was an internal explosion the details may have been murky but a tabloid press call for a war against Spain the sensational headlines and thinly reported stories came to be known as yellow journalism named for the yellow ink used in a cartoon in one of the newspapers Joseph Pulitzers New York world the sensational coverage by the tabloids spread anti Spain sentiment throughout the United States at first President McKinley hesitated to take action but the pressure to go to war with Spain mounted the combination of events and the rolling pattern toward war paperwork almost inevitable and immediately after the explosion of the name Congress gives McKinley at a unanimous declaration in him to respond and a few weeks later he goes back and asked for a formal declaration of war and that passes easily at people [Music] soon the war with Spain escalated beyond the Caribbean and into the Pacific Ocean and Merle Dooley was ordered to attack the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay in the Philippines another of Spain's territories he accomplished this quite easily only a few weeks after Congress declared war the initial war with Spain was a work in any way to liberate Cuba and only later did it become a war to acquire the Spanish apart Philippines is a turning point in that moment the u.s. Navy primarily conquers the Philippines quite easily in 1898 by the end of the war with Spain six months later the United States had control of Cuba Puerto Rico and the Philippine Islands