The correct answer is A, as another factor that contributed to the United States decision to go to war against Spain in 1898 was US intention of protect its investments in Cuba.
The United States, which did not participate in the distribution of Africa or Asia and which, since the beginning of the 19th century, was pursuing an expansionist policy, set its initial expansion area in the Caribbean region and, to a lesser extent, in the Pacific, where his influence had already been felt in Hawaii and Japan. Both in one area and another were valuable Spanish colonies (Cuba and Puerto Rico in the Caribbean, the Philippines, the Carolinas and the Marianas and the Palau in the Pacific), which turned out to be easy prey, due to the strong political crisis that shook its metropolis since the end of the reign of Isabella II.
In the case of Cuba, its strong economic, agricultural and strategic value had already provoked numerous purchase offers for the island by several American presidents (John Quincy Adams, James Polk, James Buchanan and Ulysses S. Grant), that the government Spanish always rejected. Cuba was not only a matter of prestige for Spain, but it was one of its richest territories and the commercial traffic of its capital, Havana, was comparable to that recorded at the same time in Barcelona.
To this was added the birth of national feeling in Cuba, which since the Revolution of 1868 had been gaining adherents, the birth of a local bourgeoisie and the political and commercial limitations imposed by Spain that did not allow the free exchange of products, mainly sugar from cane, with the USA and other powers. The benefits of the industrial and commercial bourgeoisie of Cuba were seriously affected by Spanish legislation. The pressures of the Catalan textile bourgeoisie had led to the enactment of the Law of Commercial Relations with the Antilles (1882) and the Canovas Tariff (1891), which guaranteed the monopoly of the textile of Barcelona by taxing foreign products with tariffs of 40% and 46%, and forcing to absorb the production surpluses. The extension of these privileges in the Cuban market settled the industrialization of the Catalan region during the crisis of the sector in the 1880s, nullifying its competitiveness problems, at of the interests of Cuban industry, which was an essential stimulus of the revolt.
The escalation of misgivings between the governments of the US and Spain was increasing, while in the press of both countries there were strong smear campaigns against the adversary. In the midst of this scenario of tension, there was the collapse of the USS Maine, for which the USA blamed Spain. This ended by unleashing the war.
