The sailing of General Shafter's army was only one movement in
a comprehensive war against the Kingdom of Spain. More than a month
earlier Commodore Dewey, acting under orders, had destroyed a fleet of
eleven war ships in the Philippines. The purpose of the war was to
relieve the Cubans from an inhumane warfare with their mother country,
and to restore to that unhappy island a stable government in harmony
with the ideas of liberty and justice.
Up to the breaking out of the Spanish War the American policy with
respect to Europe had been one of isolation. Some efforts had been
made to consolidate the sentiment of the Western world, but it had
never been successful. The fraternity of the American Republics and
the attempted construction of a Pan-American policy had been thus far
unfulfilled dreams. Canada was much nearer to the United States,
geographically and socially, than even Mexico, although the latter is
a republic. England, in Europe, was nearer than Brazil. The day came
in 1898, when the United States could no longer remain in political
seclusion nor bury herself in an impossible federation. Washington's
advice against becoming involved in European affairs, as well as the
direct corrollary of the Monroe Doctrine, were to be laid aside and
the United States was to speak out to the world.
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