The explosion that sank the battleship USS Maine in HavanaHarbor on February 15, 1898, touched off war with Spain and, in its victoriousaftermath, a chain of events leading to the emergence of a newly imperial UnitedStates of America. As in the case of the “war of choice” launchedby the United States against Iraq over a century later, this casusbelli would turn out to be suspect – the explosion wasalmost certainly an accident. But America's imperial turn was not an accident.It had deep roots in the nation's early history and political culture. Itsprogress was furthered by continental expansion and the Union's victory in theCivil War, stimulated by the global imperial “scramble” of thelast decades of the nineteenth century and enabled by the development of amodern American navy. Domestic resistance to overseas expansion and a strongfederal government and military establishment, largely centered in theDemocratic Party (particularly its southern wing, with its fresh memories ofReconstruction), though significant, was waning by the 1890s. It was overwhelmedby a tide of popular support for war with Spain, one that crossed party andsectional lines. Contrary to a still common view, this war fever was notartificially manufactured by a “yellow press” in response to thedestruction of the Maine, but reflected widespread humanitarianrevulsion at the escalating atrocities committed by the Spanish authorities intheir long struggle with the Cuban rebels, coupled with a sense that thissituation had become an intolerable affront to the honor of the nation.