The immediate origins of the 1898 Spanish-American War began with the Wilson-Gorman Tariff of 1894. The American tariff, which put restrictions on sugar
imports to the United States, severely hurt the economy of Cuba, which was based
on producing and selling sugar. In Cuba, then a Spanish colony, angry
nationalists known as the insurrectos began a revolt against the ruling
Spanish colonial regime. When Spain sent in General "Butcher" Weyler to
stabilize the situation in Cuba, he put much of the population in concentration
camps. The US, which had many businessmen with investment interests in Cuba,
became concerned. The American public was stirred into an anti-Spain frenzy by
the yellow journalism of men like Hearst and Pulitzer. Nonetheless,
President Grover Cleveland promised he would not go to war.
By the time President McKinley came into office in 1897, the uproar over
Cuba was continuing, even though Weyler had left. In 1898, the US dispatched the
USS Maine on a "friendly" mission to Cuba. The ship was to wait, ready to
rescue US citizens who might be endangered by the conflict in Cuba. On February
15, 1898 the Maine mysteriously blew up. The US blamed a Spanish mine.
McKinley gave the OK for war, and by April, both the US and Spain had declared
war. In order to assure the world that it was fighting only for the good of Cuba
and not for colonial gain, the US passed the Teller Amendment, which
promised to make Cuba independent after the war was over.
Once declared, the US fought the war on a number of fronts including Cuba
itself. Upon the commencement of hostilities, on the orders of Assistant
Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt, Commodore Dewey immediately
attacked Manila harbor in the Philippines. On May 1, Dewey destroyed the old,
decrepit, and rotting Spanish fleet at Manila, and the US prepared for an
invasion of the Philippines. The US also invaded Guam and Puerto Rico, other
Spanish island colonies, during the war.
Under the leadership of General William R. Shafter, the US ground effort in
Cuba was far from organized. Nonetheless, with heroics from the famous Rough
Riders and other units, the war was never in much doubt and the US defeated
the Spanish with relatively little difficulty. On December 10, 1898, the
Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the war. The US liberated Cuba, and got
Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines as colonies for itself.
After the war, the US made improvements in Cuban infrastructure and educational
systems, and prepared to leave. But in 1901, before leaving, the US forced the
Cubans to insert the Platt Amendment into their constitution, which gave the
US a military base on the island (Guantanamo). Guam, Puerto Rico, and the
Philippines all became American protectorates, whose people, as the Insular
Cases by the Supreme Court found, did not have full rights as American
citizens. Some of the people in these new colonies were understandably upset,
since they expected that they would be liberated just as Cuba had. Instead, the
US kept the island colonies as coaling stations for its ships. Immediately
after being annexed by the US, in January 1899 the Filipinos declared themselves
independent, beginning a guerilla war against the US, led by Emilio
Aguinaldo. The rebellion lasted over a year, until March of 1901, when the US
captured Aguinaldo.
