Download Spanish_American_War_small - Miami Beach Senior High School

Why did the United States go to war with Spain?
Industrialism had changed the United States. Americans began to view their nation with
increasing nationalism. The spirit if expansion and imperialism was fueled by these
feelings. For one hundred years America had taken a back seat to the traditional
European powers, that many American felt, should change.
In order for America to take its rightful place amongst the world’s power many felt we
needed to control a vast imperial empire. This empire would provide a market for our
goods, raw materials for our factories and protection for our commercial interests. The
expansion was, as previously discussed, justified by the need for our people to expand
commercially and the social Darwinist idea of the white man's burden. With this need
in mind eyes turned towards Spain. Spain, a once mighty empire, still with vast colonial
holdings many of them in our Caribbean backyard, was now a much weaker nation than
us. They were ripe for the picking and a their imperial holdings would be the spoils of
victory.
I. The Spanish American War
A. What caused an increase in tension between the United States and Spain?
1. In 1895 civil war broke out in Cuba between Spain and the Cubans.
2. The conflict was described by Senator Redfield Proctor of Vermont as bloody and
brutal.
3. Newspapers (particularly those owned by William Randolph Hearst) reported the
brutality of the Spanish General Weyler in graphic and often biased terms. The New
York Journal reports "...blood on the roadsides, blood in the villages, blood, blood,
blood!" American newspapers were clearly pushing the nation towards intervention in
the Cuban situation.
4. American Presidents Grover Cleveland and his successor William McKinley opposed
the intervention but a series of events would push us over the edge.
B. What event pushed the United States into war with Spain?
1. The DeLome Letter - A letter by Spanish Ambassador to the United States Enrique
DeLome was intercepted by Hearst's newspaper and published on the front page. The
DeLome letter called President McKinley "...weak and a bidder for the affections of the
people...a would be politician who leaves a door open behind himself while at the same
time trying to appease the jingoes of his party." (The term "jingo" comes from a term
used at the term of the century to describe one who was intensely nationalistic and
often militaristic.) The DeLome letter embarrassed McKinley and brought us one step
closer to war.
2. The Sinking of the Maine - As tensions had increased the United States has sent it's
fleet to Cuba to protect American economic interests.
The Maine in Havana Harbor three weeks before it was sunk.
On the night of February 15, 1898, the ship was sunk by a tremendous explosion, and
260 lives were lost. Reports pointed to sabotage, but responsibility for the disaster was
not determined. The New York Journal reported that a Spanish Mine had had sunk the
Maine. Other newspapers showed pictures of Spanish terrorists swimming under the
Maine and placing explosives under the ship.
Below you can see the actual newspaper headlines published by the New York Journal
Publisher William Randolph Hearst had instructed he photographers: "You furnish the
pictures...I'll furnish the war!" Looking at these headlines it is obvious that Hearst, and
his competitor Pulitzer, published information that they could not back up. This
influenced Americans to push for war with Spain. This biased and irresponsible
reporting is known a yellow journalism. It is clear that the so-called "yellow press" was
deeply involved in pushing the US into war.
3. On April 20 President McKinley approved a congressional resolution that called for
immediate Spanish withdrawal from Cuba, and on April 24 war was declared by the
Spanish government. On April 25 the U.S. Congress declared that hostilities had
officially begun on April 21. Congressional resolutions affirmed Cuban independence
and stated that the United States was not acting to secure an empire. Clearly this was
not the case but the justification was necessary.
C. How did America win the Spanish-American War?
1. The war was fought in the Spanish colonies of the Philippines and Cuba. On June 22,
1898, the United States landed 15,000 soldiers southeast of Santiago de Cuba. The
troops engaged and defeated Spanish land forces July 1 around the city. The most
famous engagement was Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt's charge up Kettle Hill
during the Battle of San Juan Hill. Meanwhile, U.S. naval forces blockaded the harbor of
Santiago de Cuba. Spanish ships tried to run the blockade as soon as the land
engagements had begun, but pursuing American naval vessels sank or forced the
fleeing ships aground. No serious damage occurred to any U.S. ships.
How did the Spanish American War make the United States a world power?
The US victory in the Spanish American War resulted in the US gaining possession
and/or control of many new territories. These and other territorial gains resulted in the
creation of a new far flung empire.
Prior to the Spanish American War the United States gained control of the Hawaiian
Islands. From the early 1800's American business interests had grown in Hawaii, a
series of islands that remained independent. In time the Dole Family was the largest
landowner and the Hawaiian Royal family more or less followed whatever they and the
United States said. In the mid 1800's a new queen, Queen Liliuokalani gained control of
the Islands and began to pass a series of anti American laws. As these laws hurt
business the Dole's and other private American businessmen funded a revolution and
took over Hawaii. The USS Boston, a US Battleship, sat in the Harbor making any
Hawaiian resistance impossible. In 1895 Hawaii became a US territory.
EFFECTS of The Spanish American War
460 American troops KIA
The United States gained control of the following lands as a result of the Spanish
American war.
1. Cuba
2. Puerto Rico
3. Philippines
4. Other islands as well but these are the important ones.
Not all areas were ruled in the same manner.
Protectorate: Areas that were given autonomy (but were "protected" by the US military.
Cuba was made a protectorate. As a matter of fact we were so interested in "protecting"
Cuba that we inserted something called the Platt Amendment into the Cuban
constitution. The Platt Amendment said that the United States had the right to intervene
in Cuba's foreign affairs.
Commonwealth: Areas that were given limited self rule.
Territory: Areas that were possessed and run directly by the US
President McKinley justified the takeover of the Philippines (who wanted and expected
independence) this way: