And so on April 24th 1898 the United States and Spain went to war over Cuba. There was no need for the U.S. to enact conscription as it would do in later wars, Spurred on by a belief that Spain had murdered Americans on the USS Maine, hundreds of thousands, maybe up to a million young men volunteered. 

There were substantial American commercial interests in Cuba, mostly agricultural and in railways, totaling around one and a half billion dollars in today's money. Cuban rebels were talking about that most dreaded of things—land redistribution.

Notes:

Overthrow and The True Flag by Stephen Kinzer

Wall Street, Banks, and American Foreign Policy by Murray Rothbard

Crucible of Empire: The Spanish American War

Remember the Maine, by Adam Graham

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