Cuba, not far off the shores of Florida, had been a Spanish colony since the 1500s. Seeking control of their own country, Cubans launched an insurrection in 1895 to win independence from Spain. The Spanish authorities under Governor-General Valeriano Weyler used brutal tactics to suppress the uprising. They placed 400,000 noncombatant Cubans, or reconcentrados, into camps in order to prevent them from helping the rebels. These concentration camps lacked adequate food and housing, and (according to an 1898 census conducted by the Spanish government) as many as 170,000 Cubans died from disease, maltreatment, and starvation.

In the United States, people began to read about the events in Cuba in newspapers, especially those owned by Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst. While much of what these newspapers reported was true, their editors would often exaggerate and sensationalize Spanish atrocities because they knew that shocking language and images would sell more copies. This style of reporting became known as "yellow journalism."