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Uss Maine

U.S.S. Maine

Captain Charles Sigsbee of the USS Maine, a battleship of the United State's Atlantic Fleet, was writing a letter to his wife about his hopefulness for the success of his mission in this foreign possession (Chidsey 54). Then it happened. Just as he sealed the envelope a small explosion shook the ship followed by a mammoth detonation that rocked her and the surrounding areas (Chidsey 57). Sigsbee ran for his life, collected what he could of his detachment and the rest of the crew, and moved to organize the ensuing chaos. The ship couldn't have been saved. Sigsbee was the last off as per naval tradition. He looked back as the ruined mass settled on the harbor floor (Chidsey 57). The call for war had arrived; now those who controlled the flow of information, the media, to have their way with it.
Empire had been the word of the day. Germany, Italy, and Japan were working to catch up to the British and their two-hundred-year head start. Military theory and technology was changing.   It introduced a new view of international geopolitics: the flags and politics of nations followed the economy of a nation, not the other way around, which had long been the accepted European idea (Reeder 29). Control of the sea was considered vital to all national interest: for the sake of communication to territorial possessions and for, most importantly of all, trade. But technology had also advanced. Coaling stations were now required at various intervals all over the world to keep the steam navies of the day going (Chidsey 15).
For the United States an obvious coaling station would be on the Spanish colony/island of Cuba, just miles south of Florida and Key West. Cuba had long been a thorn in the side of both Spain and the United States. President Polk had made offers to buy the island and surrounding territories outright in the 1840s, offering the ridiculous sum of $100,000,000 (this being three times what President Jefferson paid for Louisiana, a territory over a...