Spanish-American War

The explosion of the Maine helped bring on the Spanish- American War. The U.S. battleship blew up on Feb. 15, 1898, at Havana, Cuba.
The chief battles of the Spanish-American War took place around Santiago de Cuba. The U.S. Army and Navy played key roles in the war.

The Spanish Armada was a fleet of heavily armed ships that was defeated by the Eng­lish fleet in 1588. This painting of the 1500's shows the Ar­mada in battle against Eng­land. The ship foreground is a Spanish galleass— a heavy, low-built warship powered by both sails and oars.

The Spanish-American War(1898) was a conflict between the United States and Spain that ended Spanish colonial rule in the Americas and resulted in U.S. acquisition of territories in the western Pacific and Latin America.

The war originated in the Cuban struggle for independence from Spain, which began in February 1895. Spain’s brutally repressive measures to halt the rebellion were graphically portrayed for the U.S. public by several sensational newspapers, and American sympathy for the rebels rose. The growing popular demand for U.S. intervention became an insistent chorus after the unexplained sinking in Havana harbour of the battleship USS Maine (Feb. 15, 1898; see Maine, destruction of the), which had been sent to protect U.S. citizens and property after anti-Spanish rioting in Havana...

Spanish-American War marked the emergence of the United States as a world power. This brief conflict between the United States and Spain took place be­tween April and August 1898, over the issue of the liber­ation of Cuba. In the course of the war, the U.S. won Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippine Islands.

Background of the war

Spanish misrule. Until about 1860, American expan­sionists had hoped to acquire Cuba. After the American Civil War (1861-1865), interest in annexation dwindled, but Americans continued to be displeased by Spanish misrule. A long and exhausting uprising took place in the 1870's. In 1895, during a depression that made condi­tions worse, a revolution broke out again and threat­ened to go on endlessly. The Spanish forces were not powerful enough to put down the insurrection and the rebels were not strong enough to win.

American intervention. American newspapers printed sensational accounts of Spanish oppression, and continually agitated for intervention. Many Americans regarded conditions in Cuba as intolerable and began to demand that the United States intervene. A few felt that the United States should also acquire naval and mil­itary bases and become an imperial power.

In November 1897, U.S. President William McKinley pressured Spain into granting Cuba limited self- government within the Spanish empire. The rebels wanted nothing less than independence, and continued to fight. Meanwhile, pro-Spanish mobs in Havana rioted in protest against self-government. To protect Ameri­cans from the rioters, the battleship Maine arrived in Havana harbour on January 25,1898. On February 15, an explosion blew up the ship and killed about 260 people on board. The American public immediately blamed Spain for the explosion, but today many historians be­lieve it was accidental and occurred inside the ship.

"Remember the Maine became a popular slogan but forces already in operation did more to bring about ac­tual war. In March, President McKinley sent three notes to Spain, demanding full independence for Cuba. Spain granted an armistice. On April 19, Congress passed overwhelmingly a joint resolution asserting that Cuba was independent. The resolution also disavowed any American intention to acquire the island, and authorized the use of the army and navy to force Spanish with­drawal. On April 25, the U.S. formally declared that a state of war existed with Spain as of April 21.

Chief events

Manila Bay. The first important battle of the war took place in the Philippines. The Asiatic Squadron of six ships under Commodore George Dewey sailed from Hong Kong to Manila Bay. On May 1, 1898, it destroyed the entire Spanish fleet of 10 vessels without the loss of an American life or serious damage to any American ship. Then Dewey blockaded Manila harbour while he waited for U.S. troops to arrive.

Cuban blockade. Meanwhile, the North Atlantic Squadron, under Rear Admiral William T. Sampson, had begun a partial blockade of Cuba while scouting in the Caribbean Sea for a fleet that had left Spain under Admi­ral Pascual Cervera y Topete. Finally, on May 28, Ameri­can ships located Cervera's fleet, which had anchored in the landlocked harbour of Santiago de Cuba, on the southeastern part of the island. While the navy placed a blockading force outside the harbour, the army hastily prepared to send an expeditionary force to assault Santi­ago by land.

Land battles. On June 22, Major General William R. Shatter began landing 15,000 troops at Daiquiri and Si- boney, near Santiago. The Spaniards offered little resist­ance during the landing and deploying of troops.

General Shatter launched a full-scale two-pronged as­sault against Santiago on July 1. Fie sent nearly half of his men against a small Spanish force strongly defending a stone fort at El Caney. The remainder made a frontal as­sault on the main Spanish defences at Kettle Hill and San Juan Hill. By nightfall, the Americans had taken the ridges commanding Santiago, but they had suffered 600 casualties.

As soon as Santiago came under siege, the governor of Cuba ordered Admiral Cervera to run the naval block­ade to try to save his ships. Cervera led the ships out on July 3, heading in single file westward along the Cuban coast. The pursuing American naval vessels, com­manded by Commodore Winfield S. Schley, sank or forced the beaching of every one of them. Again no seri­ous damage occurred to any American vessel.

After days of negotiations, Santiago surrendered on July 17. On July 25, Major General Nelson A. Miles began an invasion of Puerto Rico which met almost no opposition. Several contingents of U.S. troops arrived in the Philippines. On August 13, they entered and occu­pied Manila, thus keeping the Filipino patriots out. The cables had been cut, and Dewey did not realize that an armistice had been signed the previous day.

Results of the war

The peace treaty. Sentiment grew within the United States to keep the spoils of war, except for Cuba. In the

Treaty of Paris, signed Dec. 10,1898, Spain granted Cuba its freedom. Spain ceded Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines to the United States. The United States, in turn, paid Spain 20 million U.S. dollars for the Philip, pine Islands. See Philippines (History).

Anti-imperialism. Many people in the United States did not like their nation's new position as a colonial power. These anti-imperialists opposed the annexations They did not wish to hold subject peoples by force, run the risk of becoming involved in further wars, or face competition from colonial products or workers. The anti-imperialist forces were so strong in the Senate that it ratified the peace treaty by only one vote on Feb. 6, 1899. 
Other results. The United States had to put down a long and bloody insurrection in the Philippines, strengthen its defences, build more powerful battle­ships, and reorganize the army to remedy serious weak­nesses revealed by the war. The war also showed the need for a canal through the Isthmus of Panama, which separated the Caribbean Sea from the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish-American War thus led to the building of the Panama Canal. Related articles: Cuba; Puerto Rico; Dewey, George and Roosevelt, Theodore.