Yellow press

1. What impact did the "yellow press" have on American opinion on expansion in the 1890s? What criticisms might be leveled against the press? The Yellow Press and those that they were associated with all competed against each other with the sole reason for over shining each other on how they can use different devices to trick and influence the public. It was a scheme in order to increase the newspaper sales especially during the Spanish-American war. They used very dramatic and striking headlines in order to gain the attention of the public. They created the comic strip and had their authors would depict very vivid details of the several crimes that went on and stories of all that was going on in Cuba. Most of these stories had no reliable source and some were even created just as a technique to once again get the American public stirred up. This had a very big impact on the Americans view of the actions of Spain during this time period. The Americans viewed the Spanish people as evil and cruel for their actions because they believed all the stories that they read in these papers. The American’s began to become anger at the Spanish people which eventually lead to the cause of the Spanish-American war. 2. Was the Spanish-American War in fact a “splendid little war”? What was “splendid” about it? What was ill-conceived about it? The Spanish-American was in fact not a “splendid little war”. Americans call it “splendid little war” because the mission to defeat Spain, who was perceived to have ill-treated and enslaving Cubans as well as causing several battles against them, was completed. The war only took 6 months which is what we may call “splendid” about the who situation. Americans had ties to the Cuban’s so Helping them gain their independence from Spain as we gained ours from Britain, was very important to them. They achieved their goal and helped free the Cuban’s and helped them gain their independence from Spain.