Spanish American War Essay

Spanish American War Before the Spanish American war, America as a country was rising and the Spanish empire was declining and getting weaker. They were losing their control they previously had over other countries. Cuba was one of the countries that the Spanish empire owned and Cuba had been trying to revolt aagaisnt the Spanish. America had been seeing on newspapers what cuba was doing and they somewhat supported the revolt because that’s what America did to gain it’s independene. So America saw cuba as if they were following in Americas footsteps which a lot of americans grew fond of. The Spanish were doing everything they could to stop the revolt and keep control over cuba. They created a Reconcentration policy where Spanish troops would remove ppl from their homes and tell them to take what they could carry then troops would loot the homes and burn them down. After families were taken they went to reconcentration camps which was just a terrible, disgusting area where the Spanish threw a bunch of Cuban families into to monitor them. It was a very unhealthy life style wher a lot of disease would spread and people would watch their loved ones die due to starvation or disease. If people tried to escape then they would be shot. Some people would purposely attempt to escape to be shot instead of dying a slower death from starvation or disease. Atleast 200,000 people dies in these camps. People in America were hearing about what the Spanish was doing to these families and to the country and they were getting more and more angry, they wanted to be involved. The five main things that led America into aa war with the Spanish was first off, it was a humanitarian crisis because of all the people dying. Second, American business had $40 million invested in cuba and they wanted to protect that. Another plus is that, if the Spanish don’t control cuba anymore then America can and can make more money from the cuba econmomy. Thirdly, the US army hadn’t had a mission in so long and they were getting antsy for another one. Fourthly, the US navy was feeling the same was as the army so it made the push for war even greater. At this point a majority of Americas want to declare war with spain but president McKinley was very against war and kept holding back. Lastly, yellow journalism became a huge problem because newspapers were publishing these sensationalized stories about what is happening in cuba to make people even more angry so they feel the need to get involved. McKinley decided to send the USS Maine to Havana Harbor and warns the Spanish that it wasn’t an act of war, it was so we could make sure the americans living in cuba are safe. The USS Maine acted as a type of safe Haven for americans in cuba. Even though the ship at cuba was not an act of war, it was an act of intimidation to show cuba that America ses what is going on and that we are there. All of this is slowly building up to war being declared. A Spanish diplomat named De Lome was living in the US and sent a letter to another Spanish offical in cuba. The letter was found and stolen by Cuban rebels and they sent it to the newspaper publishers in America and they published it the next day. The letter De Lome wrote was talking a big mess about McKinley and americans got even more mad. Spain apologized and fired De Lome but americans were not accepting it, they wanted war. A week later, the USS Maine in cuba exploded and a lot of people on it were killed. America was already so mad at spain that they blamed it on them in hopes that would be enough for McKinley to declare war. McKinley still didn’t want war so he sent a letter to the Spanish saying if they didn’t want a war to start they should sell Cuba to the US, end reconcentration policy, and give cuba independence. Spain says no to all of it. McKinley then declared war because at that point, spain gave him no choice. Before going to war, US attached the Teller amendment to the declaration of war that said the US would not annex cuba. Before going straight to cuba, America went to the pillippines because spain controlled them and if we took them from spain then we could trade with all of Asia. The US had spent a lot of money on modernizing our battle ships so when we went to the phillippines the US’s six battle ships beat the spanish’s ten battle ships in the battle of manila bay. We then took over the Philippines and the citizens there revolt against us because we basically did what spain did and got carried away, we were at war with the phippines for a long time. The US then went to cuba and sent in troops led by general William shafter. Teddy Roosevelt gathered a group he called the rough riders to help fight in the war at cuba. The battle of san juan hill took place in Santiago, cuba. There was a military fort on a big hill called san juan. Shafter and his men were going to run up and attack the fort. Teddy and his men were going to attack a smaller hill next to it called Kettle hill that also had a military fort on it. Teddy and his men conquer Kettle hill and go to help out the other men trying to attack the Spanish on San Juan hill. At this point all of teddys men are exhausted and cramping from dehydration and the heat. But teddy got them to help anyway. Teddy and his men were crucial in conquering the fort on san juan hill as well. US now had captured Santiago. The Spanish end up losing control over Puerto rico aswell and basically calls it quits since they also lost Santiago, the rest of cuba, and the Philippines. The Treaty of Paris was made and that put an end to the Spanish American war. Cuba had gotten there independence, Puerto rico and guam were given to the US, and spain wanted the Philippines back and the US said no but they did give the spainsh $20 million for the philppines. Around 300 americans were killed in four months because of this war, but mainly due to disease and poor treatment of wounds. American troops stayed in Cuba after this and cuba had complained about it so the US said they would take out the troops if Cuba accepted the Platt amendment. This stated that Cubs would give US land for bases in Guantanamo Bay and the US can intervene at any time in Cuban affairs.