The Spanish-American War

The Spanish-American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, the result of American intervention in the Cuban War of Independence. In just ten weeks, it ended a crumbling empire and transformed the United States into a global power.

Revolts against Spanish rule had occurred for some years in Cuba, with earlier war scares such as the Virginius Affair in 1873. By the late 1890s, American public opinion had been inflamed by anti-Spanish propaganda led by journalists such as Joseph Pulitzer and William Hearst, who used yellow journalism to criticize Spanish administration of Cuba.

After the mysterious sinking of the American battleship Maine in Havana harbor, political pressures from the Democratic Party and certain industrialists pushed the administration of Republican President William McKinley into a war he had wished to avoid. Spain sought compromise, but the United States sent an ultimatum demanding it surrender control of Cuba. First Madrid, then Washington, formally declared war.

Although the main issue was Cuban independence, the ten-week war was fought in both the Caribbean and the Pacific. American naval power proved decisive, allowing U.S. expeditionary forces to disembark in Cuba against a Spanish garrison already brought to its knees by nationwide Cuban insurgent attacks and further wasted by yellow fever.

Numerically superior Cuban, Philippine, and American forces obtained the surrender of Santiago de Cuba and Manila despite the good performance of some Spanish infantry units and fierce fighting for positions such as San Juan Hill. American attacks on Spain's Pacific possessions led to involvement in the Philippine Revolution and ultimately to the Philippine-American War.

With two obsolete Spanish squadrons sunk at Santiago de Cuba and Manila Bay, and a third more modern fleet recalled home to protect the Spanish coasts, Madrid sued for peace. The result was the 1898 Treaty of Paris, negotiated on terms highly favorable to the United States.

The defeat and collapse of the Spanish Empire was a profound shock to Spain's national psyche, provoking a thorough philosophical and artistic revaluation of Spanish society known as the Generation of '98. For the United States, the war yielded several island possessions spanning the globe and ignited a rancorous new national debate over the wisdom of expansionism.

For the men of the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment — the Rough Riders — the war was brief, brutal, and transformative. Their charge up Kettle Hill and San Juan Hill became one of the defining moments of American military legend, and catapulted their lieutenant colonel, Theodore Roosevelt, toward the White House.