Destruction Of The Mammin Research Paper

The Meaning of theMaine: Causation and the Historiography of the Spanish-American War

At 9:40 p.m. on February 15, 1898,the U.S. battleship Maine exploded in Havana harbor.The explosion occurred in the forwardpart of the vessel, near the port side, and almostdirectlyunder the enlistedmen's quarters.The loss of life was staggering:out of a complementof 354 officers and a totalof 266 perished in the explosion. men, The destruction theMaine had immediateinternational of These were troubledtimesbetweenthe United repercussions. Statesand Spain, a period of increasingtensionsand deterioratingrelationsduring whichmutual suspicionswere becomas ing at least as much a source of estrangement conflicting national interests.In the United States officialimpatience
"Causes,Connections Conditions History," ibid., 238-264; H. Walsh, "HistoricalCausation,"in Ronald H. Nash, ed., Ideas ofHistory (New York, Milic Capek, "Towarda Wideningof the Notionof Causality," 1969),234-252; of XXVIII (Winter 1959),63-90;E. J.Tapp, "Some Aspects Causation Diogenes, in History," IL Journal Philosophy, (1952),67-79; Samuel H. Beer, "Causal of and Theory, (1963), III Explanationand ImaginativeRe-enactment," History and XIII (1974), 6-29; Paul K. Conkin,"CausationRevisited," History Theory, and Causal Importance," 1-20;RaymondMartin, "Causes,Conditions, History and Theory, XXI (1982),53-74;AndrusPork,"Assessing RelativeCausal Importancein History," and XXIV (1985),62-69. History
Cullom wrote later, "that war would have been avertedhad not theMaine been destroyedin Havana harbor." the Champ Clark characterized Maine as "thestrawthatbroke the camel's back"; Secretary War Russell A. Alger believed of that the incident "swept away forever"all likelihood of a L. to peaceful settlement; WhiteBusby,privatesecretary RepresentativeJoe Cannon, wrote that the "destructionof the Maine precipitatedmatters."6 Contemporary historical accounts of 1898 also emphasized the causal prominenceof theMaine."The sinkingofthe Maine meant war between the United States and Spain," Richard R. Titherington wrote in 1900. Horace E. Flack argued that"it was largelydue to theMaine thatintervention took place" and that,"in all probability,there would have been no war, had our battleship not been destroyed."For Theodore E. Burton "peace mighthave been obtained had it the not been forthe blowing up of the... Maine."After Maine, Trumbull White insisted,"the logic of eventswas irresistibly drawingthe countrytowardwar withSpain."'7 War depart Subsequentaccountsofthe Spanish-American first at frominterpretations formulated the turn only slightly of the century.The Maine persists as an event of singular importanceand principal cause of the war,oftenproclaimed in terms as categorical as those used by contemporaries. William A. Robinson insisted that "the explosion shattered the hope ofpreserving peace as completelyas it had shattered the vessel itself." "On the night of February