Question

President William McKinley's War Message to Congress; April 11, 1898

The present condition of affairs in Cuba is a constant menace (threat) to our peace and
entails upon this Government an enormous expense. With such a conflict waged for
years in an island so near us and with which our people have such trade and business
relations, when the lives and liberty of our citizens are in constant danger and their
property destroyed and themselves ruined; where our trading vessels are liable
(likely) to seizure and are seized at our very door by war ships of a foreign nation the
resulting strained relations, are a constant menace(danger) to our peace and compel us
to keep on a semi-war footing with a nation with which we are at peace.
1. Why should we go to war?

Answer 1

The correct answer to this open question is the following.

Although there are no options attached, we can say the following.

The United States should go to war because its political and economic interests in the Island of Cuba were threatened by teh Spaniards.

At the end of the 1800s, the United States had developed interesting trade relations and cooperation with Cuba. However, the presence of the Spaniards represented a major risk to US interests in the region and that is why they supported the independence of Cuba and had to fight in the Spanish-American War of 1898.

In the end, the United States won the war and became the most powerful nation in the world, having surpassed Great Britain. With the victory, the United States gained control of three countries that had been controlled by the Spanish government: Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Phillippines.