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Causes of the Spanish-American War
Cuba, a Caribbean island that is just 90 miles south of Florida, was a Spanish colony that had been resisting Spanish rule since 1868. In 1895, Cubans rebelled again, causing concern among American businessmen who had invested in Cuban sugar plantations. A sensationalist-style of reporting and writing, called yellow journalism, used often-exaggerated stories to sell newspapers and bring the Cuban Revolt to the general public’s attention. One of those exaggerated stories was about the American ship, the USS Maine, which exploded and sank in a Cuban harbor, killing more than 250 American sailors. The press emphasized how this “innocent” American ship was attacked by the Spanish. Later, investigators confirmed that the USS Maine exploded due to a fire in its own ammunition bay, not the result of any Spanish action. Additionally, a leaked private letter from a Spanish diplomat that criticized President McKinley was used to exaggerate the lack of Spanish respect for the United States. The press called this “the worst insult to the U.S. in history.”
Effects of the Spanish-American War
By December 1898, the Treaty of Paris (1898) formally ended the Spanish-American War. The treaty confirmed U.S. possession of the former Spanish colonies of Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Guam and provided for the United States to pay $20 million to gain control of the Philippines. Guam and the Philippines were especially strategic possessions as they were in the Pacific Ocean and could serve as overseas military bases, which would allow greater American involvement in Asia.
Some residents of the Philippines, known as Filipinos, preferred independence to simply becoming another country’s colony. Led by Emilio Aguinaldo, they started the Philippine-American War, which lasted from 1899 to 1902. The war was brutal, with both sides torturing captured soldiers and the United States responding harshly to guerilla fighters. After its defeat in the Philippines in 1902, the United States was reluctant to allow the Filipinos to have self-rule, partly due to the idea that they simply lacked the ability to rule themselves. The Jones Act of 1916 promised the Philippines a gradual path to self-rule, and the United States granted it full independence after World War II.
In April 1898, President McKinley requested a declaration of war, which Congress issued about two weeks later. The war itself only lasted through August, causing Secretary of State John Hay to call it “a splendid little war,” due to the short amount of time the United States had spent to gain four territories.
