War with Spain

1898 war with Spain the war transformed America and they were left with an overseas empire

Controversy over Cuba

  • Spanish-American war emerged out of the events in Cuba
  • Cuba and Puerto Rico were all that remained of Spain's American Empire
  • the Cubans resisted Spanish rule since 1868
  • Cuba was fighting for independence from Spain
  • many Americans sympathize with the Cubans during their 10 year struggle against Spain but the US did not get involved
  • 1895 Cubans rose up again against Spain
  • the Cubans were mad at the Wilson Gorman tariff of 1894
  • the Wilson Gorman tariff put high taxes on sugar and sugar was an in portage export
  • Q but used to sell sugar to the United States
  • the Spanish were commanded by Gen. Valeriano Weyler known as “butcher” Weyler to the Americans
  • Weyler made concentration camps and imprisoned Cubans where they died by the thousands of disease and malnutrition
  • 1895 was reported on by the news in American newspapers by the new yellow press of William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer who were in a circulation war with each other in New York City
  • the newspapers gave the impression that all the problems were being caused by the Spanish
  • there was a growing population of Cuban immigrants in the United States living in Florida New York Philadelphia Trenton New Jersey
  • the Cuban revolutionary parties was headquarters in New York
  • the Cuban revolutionary party leader was José Marti he was killed in Cuba and 1895
  • Cubans in America formed clubs and supported the free Cuba movement called uba Libre
  • the president during all this was Pres. Cleveland and he didn't want to get involved
  • McKinley became president in 1897 and he wanted to get involved he protested Spain's uncivilized conduct
  • because of Pres. McKinley Spain took away the butcher general Weyland and got rid of concentration camps
  • at the end of 1897 it look like Americans did need to get involved
  • two dramatic events February 1898 first Cuban agent and Habana stole private letter written by Deputy D’Lome who was the Spanish minister in Washington DC and turned over to the American press. It describes McKinley as a weak man which wasn't unusual many other people like Teddy Roosevelt described McKinley as having no more backbone than a chocolate declared but coming from a foreigner it increased anger and Deputy D’ Lome resigned
  • the second thing that got people in America mad after the de Lome letter was the battleship Maine blew up in Havana harbor with a loss of 260 people.
  • The battleship Maine was sent to Cuba in January to protect American lives against possible attack by Spanish
  • most people thought the Spanish had sunk the ship because they heard an explosion later you would find out that the disaster was actually the result of an accidental explosion inside one of the engine rooms
  • war hysteria went to the country Congress approved $50 million for military preparations people said remember the Maine and it became a national chance for revenge against the Spanish
  • McKinley wanted to avoid a conflict but many including Theodore Roosevelt wanted to go to war
  • March 1898 the president asked Spain to agree to not to go to war and an end to concentration camps Spain agreed to stop the concentration camps but refused to negotiate anymore
  • April 25 Congress declared war
 

A Splendid Little War

  • Secretary of State John hay called the Spanish-American war a splendid little war most people agreed
  • the war started in April and was over by August
  • Cuban rebels had Artie weakened the Spanish which made the American intervention of little more than mopping up exercise
  • 460 Americans were killed in the Spanish-American war and battle or died of wounds
  • 5200 died of disease malaria dysentery and typhoid
  • many more Cubans died
  • US soldiers had a serious supply problem of shortage of modern rifles and ammunition, uniforms were too heavy for the hot Caribbean weather in Cuba, inadequate medical services, not enough good food
  • 28,000 troops and officers were in the Army most had experience in stopping Indian outbreaks but none in larger scare warfare
  • like the Civil War the United States had to rely on the National Guard units organized by local communities being run by local leaders without military experience
  • Americans were very inefficient
  • there were racial conflicts
  • a big part of American troops were black soldiers
  • others were members of the four black regiments in the regular Army who had been stationed on the front tier to defend white settlement against the Indians and how they were transferred East to fight in Cuba\as the black soldiers went through the South there was segregation and restrictions\black soldiers had to use a white only park in Georgia
  • in Florida the black soldiers couldn't drink at a soda fountain operated there was a riot that left 30 wounded in Florida too
  • Blacks won many medals in Cuba including the famous charge at San Juan Hill
  • half the Cubans fighting with the Americans were black but unlike Americans they were fully part of the rebel army
  • one of the leading commanders was AntonioMaceo a black Cuban
  • the site of black Cubans fighting alongside whites as equals gave American blacks a strong sense of the and justice that they felt their own country
  • only the Navy had an object is Theodore Roosevelt was the assistant secretary of the Navy and he was an imperialist he wanted war
  • Commodore George do we attacked Spanish naval forces in the Philippines a colony of Spain in the event of war that was the instruction from Theodore Roosevelt
  • do we sailed for the Philippines after war was declared on May 1, 1898 he came into the Philippines Manila Bay and destroyed the Spanish fleet there only one American soldier died in the battle of heatstroke then George Julie was promoted to admiral because he was the first hero of the war
  • several months after the Americans came the Spanish surrendered the city of Manila in the Philippines
  • what had started as a war to free Cuba was becoming a war to seize Spanish colonies like the Philippines

A Battle for Cuba

  • Cuba was the principal focus of the military efforts
  • Spanish had admiral Pascual Cervera
  • Americans had Nelson Miles
  • Miles had a force of 17,000 leave camp of Florida in June to attack sent Iago but he was incompetent it took five days for the small army to get on sure and that was with the enemy offering new opposition
  • the American commander in Cuba was Gen. William Schaffer he moved his troops towards Antioch go which he was going to surround and capture he defeated the Spanish at loss Guasimas and a week later into battles mEl Caney and San Juan Hill
  • at the center of all the fighting was a Calvary unit known as the Roughriders
  • the Roughriders were commanded by Gen. Leonard Wood but its real commander was Col. Theodore Roosevelt who had resigned from the Navy to get to the war
  • Theodore Roosevelt wanted to be sure that his unit got to fight in the war and he came out looking like a hero
  • Theodore Roosevelt led a charge up Capitol Hill directly into the face of Spanish guns hundred of his soldiers were killed and Theodore Roosevelt would call this the greatest day of his life
  • a lot of American troops were weakened by sickness they had a hard time taking over Santiago but the Spanish government decided that Santiago was lost and ordered everyone to evacuate July 3 they tried to evacuate and American squadron destroyed the entire Spanish fleet on July 16 the commander of the Spanish ground forces in Santiago
  • Spanish ground forces surrendered
  • American army landed in Puerto Rico and occupied it against no opposition
  • August 12 the US ended the war when Spain signed an armistice

Puerto Rico and the United States

  • Puerto Rico was annexed by the United States
  • there is no controversy in the United States about keeping Puerto Rico as a result of the Spanish-American war
  • Puerto Rico had been part of the Spanish Empire since pulse daily on arrived in 1508
  • the native people of Puerto Rico were called Arawaks and they disappeared almost entirely as a result of infectious disease Spanish brutality and poverty.
  • Puerto Rican society developed with the Spanish ruling class and a large African workforce for coffee and sugar plantations they came to dominate its economy
  • Puerto Rico resisted Spanish rule just like Cuba
  • Puerto Rico had the largest rebellion was crushed by the Spanish in 1868
  • Puerto Rico abolished slavery and 1873
  • 1898 Ford Rico demanded independence movement to get independence was organized by Louise Munoz Riviera
  • control Puerto Rico shifted to the United States American military forces occupied the island during the war

America remained in control until 1900 with military forcesForaker act ended military rule in Puerto Rico and established a formal colonial government with an American governor a two chamber legislature the member of the upper chamber appointed by the United States the member of the low were elected by the Puerto Rican people the United States could amend or veto any legislation the Puerto Ricans past

people still wanted independence importer Rico

  • in 1917 Puerto Rico was declared a United States territory which made all Puerto Ricans American citizens
  • Puerto Rican sugar industry sold to the American market without taxes
  • like in Hawaii Puerto Rico began establishing large sugar plantations and hired natives to work with them many of the planters didn't even live in Puerto Rico
  • sugar was a cash crop and it turned Puerto Rican farmers into paid laborers led to the reduction in the growing of food for the island
  • Porter he can see came dependent on imported food and international economy
  • when international sugar prices were high Puerto Rico did well when sugar prices dropped Puerto Rico did poorly

The Debate over the Philippines

the annexation of Puerto Rico didn't have much controversy but the annexation of the Philippines started long debates

Puerto Rico was close to America in the Western Hemisphere

the Philippines were large densely populated area thousands of miles away

McKinley didn't want to support annexing the Philippines but he didn't want the Philippines to go back to Spain

McKinley didn't want the Philippines to be handed over to other imperialist like France Germany or Britain

McKinley decided the Philippines could not govern themselves because Filipinos were unfit for self-government

McKinley thought the only solution was to take them all and educate them and Christianize them and teach them about God

Treaty of Paris December 1898 brought a formal end to the Spanish-American war

Cuba Puerto Rico and Guam came to America and so did the Philippines after Americans paid $20 million for the islands to the Spanish

anti-imperialists were against owning the Philippines so far away

anti-imperialist include Andrew Carnegie, Mark Twain, Sen. Sherman and others some believe that imperialism was immoral some feared polluting the American population by introducing inferior Asian races into it, some feared the flood of cheap labor from the new colonies, some feared that sugar prices would go up because of competition

anti-imperialist league established in Boston and New York 1898 to fight against annexation

people in favor of having the Philippines were imperialist like Theodore Roosevelt he thought you could reinvigorate the nation, businessmen saw opportunities in the Philippines and wanted the US to dominate Oriental trade, most Republicans wanted new territories that they got through the war that was fought by Republican administration but the strongest argument was the apparent ease at which it could be done because the US after all already posessed the Philippines.

  • Anti-imperialist told people of the dangers of having huge populations in the Philippine the US policy towards American Indians they treated them as dependents rather than citizens and they could do the same thing to the Filipinos in the Philippines
  • Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts said we deny the Indian tribes the right to choose their allegiance or to become citizens
  • William Jennings Bryan anti-imperialist wanted to move the issue out of the Senate and make annexation of the Philippines the subject of a national referendum in 1900 he was a presidential candidate Democratic party. He persuaded the number of anti-imperialist Democrats to support the treaty and set up a 1900 debate the Senate ratified it finally on February 6, 1899
  • Brian was wrong the nation wanted imperialism McKinley won the presidential election in 1896 and again in 1900
  • McKinley and the Republicans were imperialist and the vice president of McKinley was Col. Theodore Roosevelt who was the hero of San Juan Hill.