Joseph Pulitzer helped establish the foundations for the modern U.S. newspaper. He came to the United States from Hungary in 1864 at age 17 and served briefly in the Union Army. He then went to St. Louis, where he began his journalism career with a German-language newspaper. In 1878 Pulitzer bought and merged the St. Louis Dispatch and Post. Success there established his leadership in the field. In 1833 he purchased the New York World. He was in strong competition with William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal at the time of the Spanish-American War, with the results of that competition leading to the term "yellow journalism." At his death he left funds to establish the journalism school at Columbia University and endow the Pulitzer Prizes for achievements in American journalism and letters, and later in music.