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Spain had reaped rich rewards from its colonies for centuries. However, protecting distant lands was challenging and expensive.
Even before the Spanish-American War Cuba had been the site of conflict. From 1868 to 1878, Cubans struggled for independence by mounting the armed rebellion known as the Ten Years’ War. Led by plantation owner Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, the revolt ended in failure after the loss of more than 200,000 lives.
A second uprising, La Guerra Chiquita (“The Little War”), engineered by Calixto García, began in August 1879 but was quelled by superior Spanish forces in autumn 1880. Spain gave Cuba representation in the Cortes (parliament) and abolished slavery in 1886. Other promised reforms, however, never materialized.
Some U.S. newspaper owners began demanding that the United States go to war with Spain over its treatment of the Cuban people. Many Americans were sympathetic to the Cubans, who were rebelling against a colonial power just as Americans had during the American Revolution. Conditions in Cuba were graphically portrayed by sensationalist newspapers, notably Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World and William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal.
USS MaineThe half-submerged battleship USS Maine in the harbor of Havana, Cuba, 1900.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.In 1898 tensions between the United States and Spain increased after a disaster in Havana’s harbor. In January of that year the United States sent a battleship called the Maine to Cuba to protect U.S. citizens and property there. On February 15 an explosion in the harbor sank the ship, carrying 260 seamen to their deaths. The exact cause of the disaster was never firmly established.
The Spanish government offered to submit the question of its responsibility over the destruction of the USS Maine to arbitration, but the U.S. public, prompted by newspapers in the grips of yellow journalism, held Spain unquestionably responsible. “Remember the Maine, to hell with Spain!” became a popular rallying cry.
Spain and the United States declared war on each other in April.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (Digital File Number: cph 3b52211)The first major conflict of the war was the Battle of Manila Bay in the Philippines. After the United States had declared war on Spain, the U.S. Asiatic Squadron under Commodore George Dewey was ordered to “capture or destroy the Spanish fleet” then in Philippine waters. On May 1 in Manila Bay, Dewey’s squadron destroyed all the Spanish ships on the scene in a few hours. U.S. forces later occupied Manila.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (reproduction no. LC-USZ62-57107)The other major fighting during the war took place in Cuba. The U.S. troops sent there included buffalo soldiers (the nickname given to members of African American cavalry regiments of the U.S. Army) and Theodore Roosevelt’s regiment of “Rough Riders,” a group of cavalry volunteers that included cowboys, miners, and college athletes, among others. U.S. successes on land and sea in June and July resulted in a final victory over the Spaniards. The concluding engagement of the war was the Battle of Santiago.
On July 18 Spain asked France to help arrange an end to hostilities. The formal peace negotiations took place in Paris. In the Treaty of Paris (December 10) Spain renounced all claim to Cuba and ceded Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines to the United States.
