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The Spanish-American War took place in 1898, and resulted in the United States of America gaining control over the former colonies of Spain in the Caribbean and Pacific.
1 Background
For several centuries Spain's position as a world power had been slipping away. By the late nineteenth century the nation was left only a few scattered possessions in the Pacific, Africa, and the West Indies. Much of the empire had gained its independence and a number of the areas still under Spanish control were clamoring to do so. Guerrilla forces were operating in the Philippines, and had, for decades, been present in Cuba. The Spanish government did not have the financial resources or the manpower to deal with these revolts and thus turned to expedients of building camps to separate the rebels from their rural base of support. The Spaniards also carried out many executions of suspected rebels and harshly treated villages and individuals thought to be supporting them. By the end of the 1890sEvents and trends Technology Early commercial production of automobiles. Science Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity Discovery of x-rays by Wilhelm Rontgen Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius and US geologist Thomas Crowder Chamberlain independently co the rebels had mostly been defeated and Cuba was returning to a relative peace. In the long run, however, Spain's position was completely untenable.
These events in Cuba coincided in the 1890sEvents and trends Technology Early commercial production of automobiles. Science Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity Discovery of x-rays by Wilhelm Rontgen Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius and US geologist Thomas Crowder Chamberlain independently co with a battle for readership between the American newspaper chains of HearstWilliam Randolph Hearst ( April 29, 1863 August 14, 1951) was an American newspaper magnate, born in San Francisco, California. Hearst's father was a multi-millionaire miner and U. Senator from California named George Hearst. His mother was Phoebe Hearst, and Pulitzer. Hearst's style of " yellow journalism" would outdo Pulitzer's, and he infamously used the power of his press to influence American opinion in favor of war. Often completely fabricated or just simply inflammatory, Hearst published sensationalized tales of atrocities in which the 'cruel Spanish' (see black Legend) were inflicting on the 'hapless Cubans.' Outraged by the "inhumanity" of the Spanish, Americans were stirred up to pushing for an "intervention," which even the most jaded hawks, like a young Theodore Roosevelt would treat as a mostly dress-up affair. Hearst is famously quoted in his response to a request by his illustrator Frederick Remington to return home from a uneventful and docile stay in Havana, writing: "Please remain. You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war."
There were, however, more genuine pressures pushing towards war. The United States Navy had recently grown considerably, but it was still untested, and many old war dogs were eager to test and use their new tools. The Navy had drawn up plans for attacking the Spanish in the Philippines over a year before hostilities broke out. The end of western expansion and of large-scale conflict with Native Americans also left the Army with little to do, and army leadership hoped that some new task would come. From an early date many in the United States had felt that Cuba was "rightly" theirs. The so-called theory of manifest destiny made the island just off the coast of Florida seem an attractive candidate for American " expansion." Much of the island's economy was already in American hands, and most of its trade, much of which was black market, was with the US. Some business leaders pushed for conflict as well. In the words of Senator John M. Thurston of Nebraska: "War with Spain would increase the business and earnings of every American railroad, it would increase the output of every American factory, it would stimulate every branch of industry and domestic commerce."
In Spain, the government was not entirely averse to war. The US was an unproven power, while the Spanish navy, however decrepit, had a glorious history and it was thought it could be a match for the US. There was also a widely held notion among Spain's aristocratic leaders that the United States' ethnically mixed army and navy could never survive under severe pressure.
US "1st Kentucky Volunteers" in "Porto [sic] Rico", 1898
