Timeline

1895: Cuban nationalists revolt against Spanish rule

1896: Spanish General Weyler (the "Butcher") comes to Cuba.

1897: Spain recalls Weyler

Early 1898: USS Maine sent to Cuba

February 9, 1898: Hearst publishes Dupuy du Lome's letter insulting McKinley.

February 15, 1898: Sinking of the USS Maine

February 25, 1898: Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt cables Commodore Dewey with plan: attack the Philippines if war with Spain breaks out

April 11, 1898: McKinley approves war with Spain

April 24, 1898: Spain declares war on the US

April 25, 1898: US declares war on Spain

May 1, 1898: Battle of Manila Bay (Philippines)

May, 1898: Passage of the Teller Amendment. July 1, 1898: San Juan Hill taken by "Rough Riders"

July 3, 1898: Battle of Santiago Spain's Caribbean fleet destroyed. July 7, 1898: Hawaii annexed

July 17, 1898: City of Santiago surrenders to General William Shafter

August 12, 1898: Spain signs armistice

August 13, 1898: US troops capture Manila

December 10, 1898: Treaty of Paris signed US annexes Puerto Rico, Guam, Philippines.

January 23, 1899: Philippines declares itself an independent republic Led by Emilio Aguinaldo, the self-declared Filipino government fights a guerilla war against the US that lasts longer than the Spanish-American War itself.

February 6, 1899: the Treaty of Paris passes in the Senate

1900: Foraker Act Some self-government allowed in Puerto Rico.

1901: Supreme Court Insular Cases

March 1901: Emilio Auginaldo captured.

1901: Platt Amendment

1902: US withdraws from Cuba

1917: Puerto Ricans given US citizenship