On mobile and away from my sources, so I’ll add them later.

It’s important to remember that while these incidents may have preceded wars, they didn’t necessarily cause them.

The explosion of the USS Maine in Havana harbor was definitely met with outrage by the American public, and yellow journals were quick to blame the Spanish, but officials at the time were uncertain of the actual cause. Even today, over a century later, the cause is still debated. Most would agree that the event pushed us closer to war, but most historians agree that it was simply one of many incidents that started the war.

I recently read a book about political cartoons surrounding the SA war (citation pending) and it made several good points. The authors main argument is that the US, president McKinley in particular, already had imperialist designs. The Teller Amendment only prohibits the annexation of Cuba, so we ended up getting Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines instead. In his address to Congress, making the case for intervention in Cuba, McKinley speaks as if he favors diplomacy with military action to be a last resort. Whether this is his sincere position or if it’s window dressing to conceal his true, imperialist motivations is still a matter of (some) debate.

Others argue that the yellow press incited the American people to demand war, based on a series of atrocities and misconduct. These include the alleged strip search of a woman on the deck of a ship by Spanish officials (it was later determined that the search was below deck and conducted by a female official). Another was the sensationalized imprisonment of a beautiful young Cuban girl and her subsequent rescue by a reporter.

In addition to all of this, US military leaders had been modernizing since the end of the civil war, primarily in the Navy. Many were itching to test out their new toys. At this point, it’s also important to consider what I’ll call generational war enthusiasm. This is a recurring phenomenon in which a generation that has grown up after a war (in this case the civil war) hearing war stories from veterans that glorified combat. This generation grows up wanting to experience this glory for themselves. Thus, when a new war arises, they enlist enthusiastically. This effect can be observed with practically every modern war, with the subsequent disillusionment becoming a mainstay in most soldier perspectives. This, coupled with the desire of military leaders to use their new equipment led to an environment of war mongering. Even the then Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt was caught up in it. He resigned his position and helped create the Rough Riders so he could go fight.

Once you account for all of this, it becomes apparent that while the sinking of the Maine certainly was a contributing factor to the US declaring war on Spain, it would be an oversimplification to refer to it as the cause of the war. A similar argument can be made regarding the Lusitania. These events are usually included in the war narratives because they are dramatic. Also, then and now, maritime trade is an important part of any nation’s economy, especially to the United States, being geographically isolated from Europe and Asia, so any disruption of it would be big news.