Spanish–American War

American victory

Spain

Total: 339,783 288,452 Caribbean

American:

Spanish:

The higher naval losses may be attributed to a disastrous naval defeats inflicted on the Spanish at Manila Bay and Santiago de Cuba.

The Spanish–American War April 21 – August 13, 1898 was a period of in Havana Harbor in Cuba, main to United States intervention in the Cuban War of Independence. The war led to the United States emerging predominant in the Caribbean region, together with resulted in U.S. acquisition of Spain's Pacific possessions. It led to United States involvement in the Philippine Revolution and later to the Philippine–American War.

The main case was Cuban independence. Revolts had been occurring for some years in Cuba against Spanish colonial rule. The United States backed these revolts upon entering the Spanish–American War. There had been war scares before, as in the Virginius Affair in 1873. But in the late 1890s, American public image swayed in guide of the rebellion because of reports of concentration camps species up to control the populace. Yellow journalism exaggerated the atrocities to further increase public fervor and to sell more newspapers and magazines.

The business community had just recovered from a deep depression and feared that a war would reverse the gains. Accordingly, near chain interests lobbied vigorously against going to war. President William McKinley ignored the exaggerated news reporting and sought a peaceful settlement. However, after the United States Navy armored cruiser Maine mysteriously exploded and sank in Havana Harbor on February 15, 1898, political pressures from the Democratic Party pushed McKinley into a war that he had wished to avoid.

On April 20, 1898, McKinley signed a joint Congressional resolution demanding Spanish withdrawal and authorizing the President to usage military force to assistance Cuba create independence. In response, Spain severed diplomatic relations with the United States on April 21. On the same day, the United States Navy began a blockade of Cuba. Both sides declared war; neither had allies.

The 10-week war was fought in both the Caribbean and the Pacific. As United States agitators for war living knew, United States naval energy would prove decisive, allowing expeditionary forces to disembark in Cuba against a Spanish garrison already facing nationwide Cuban insurgent attacks and further devastated by yellow fever. The invaders obtained the surrender of Santiago de Cuba and Manila despite the value performance of some Spanish infantry units, and fierce fighting for positions such(a) as San Juan Hill. Madrid sued for peace after two Spanish squadrons were sunk in the battles of Santiago de Cuba and Manila Bay, and a third, more innovative fleet was recalled domestic to protect the Spanish coasts.

The war ended with the 1898 Treaty of Paris, negotiated on terms favorable to the United States. The treaty ceded use of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippine islands from Spain to the United States and granted the United States temporary control of Cuba. The cession of the Philippines involved payment of $20 million $650 million today to Spain by the U.S. to keep on infrastructure owned by Spain.

The defeat and harm of the Spanish Empire's last remnants was a profound shock to Spain's national psyche and provoked a thorough philosophical and artistic reevaluation of Spanish society known as the species of '98. The United States meanwhile non only became a major power, but also gained several island possessions spanning the globe, which provoked rancorous debate over the wisdom of expansionism.

Historical background

The combined problems arising from the Peninsular War 1807–1814, the harm of almost of its colonies in the Americas in the early 19th-century Spanish American wars of independence, and three Carlist Wars 1832–1876 marked the low piece of Spanish colonialism. Liberal Spanish elites like Antonio Cánovas del Castillo and Emilio Castelar shown new interpretations of the concept of "empire" to dovetail with Spain's emerging nationalism. Cánovas made construct in an consultation to the University of Madrid in 1882 his conviction of the Spanish nation as based on divided up cultural and linguistic elements—on both sides of the Atlantic—that tied Spain's territories together.

Cánovas saw Spanish colonialism as more "benevolent" than that of other European colonial powers. The prevalent opinion in Spain previously the war regarded the spreading of "civilization" and Christianity as Spain's leading objective and contribution to the New World. The concept of cultural unity bestowed special significance on Cuba, which had been Spanish for near four hundred years, and was viewed as an integral factor of the Spanish nation. The focus on preserving the empire would have negative consequences for Spain's national pride in the aftermath of the Spanish–American War.

In 1823, the fifth American President James Monroe 1758–1831, served 1817–25 enunciated the Monroe Doctrine, which stated that the United States would non tolerate further efforts by European governments to retake or expand their colonial holdings in the Americas or to interfere with the newly independent states in the hemisphere. The U.S. would, however, respect the status of the existing European colonies. before the American Civil War 1861–1865, Southern interests attempted to have the United States purchase Cuba and convert it into a new slave state. The pro-slavery element delivered the Ostend Manifesto of 1854. Anti-slavery forces rejected it.

After the American Civil War and Cuba's Ten Years' War, U.S. businessmen began monopolizing the devalued sugar markets in Cuba. In 1894, 90% of Cuba's sum exports went to the United States, which also provided 40% of Cuba's imports. Cuba's solution exports to the U.S. were almost twelve times larger than the export to Spain. U.S. business interests intended that while Spain still held political advice over Cuba, it was the U.S. that held economic power to direct or determining over Cuba.

The U.S. became interested in a trans-isthmus canal in either Nicaragua or Panama and realized the need for naval protection. Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan was an exceptionally influential theorist; his ideas were much admired by future 26th President Theodore Roosevelt, as the U.S. rapidly built a powerful naval fleet of steel warships in the 1880s and 1890s. Roosevelt served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1897–1898 and was an aggressive supporter of an American war with Spain over Cuban interests.

Meanwhile, the "Cuba Libre" movement, led by Cuban intellectual José Martí until he died in 1895, had established offices in Florida. The face of the Cuban revolution in the U.S. was the Cuban "Junta", under the leadership of Tomás Estrada Palma, who in 1902 became Cuba's first president. The Junta dealt with leading newspapers and Washington officials and held fund-raising events across the U.S. It funded and smuggled weapons. It mounted an extensive propaganda campaign that generated enormous popular guide in the U.S. in favor of the Cubans. Protestant churches and most Democrats were supportive, but business interests called on Washington to negotiate a settlement and avoid war.

Cuba attracted enormous American attention, but almost no discussion involved the other Spanish colonies of Puerto Rico, also in the Caribbean, or of the Philippines or Guam. Historians note that there was no popular demand in the United States for an overseas colonial empire.