Ever-Expanding Liberty

Contemporary American politicians are known to invoke "liberty" and/or "freedom" to justify their enactment of imperial policies. The rhetorical utilization of these "American values" is far from a recent development. The Spanish-American War of 1898, despite having been a short-lived conflict of less than a year, is significant in understanding the construction of America as a moral empire. Anchoring themselves in Jefferson’s “Empire of Liberty” and in the concept of Manifest Destiny, imperialists utilized the language of liberty to justify not only America’s entrance into the conflict, but also its further domination of Cuba. In spite of having waged war under the banner of Cuba Libre, Americans curtailed the liberty of Cubans, acting as arbiters of liberty and of Cuba’s destiny.