war waged against Spain by the U.S. in 1898, for the purpose of liberating Cuba from Spanish rule. The war grew out of the Cuban struggle for independence, which became an active revolution in 1895 because of the neglect by Spain of reforms promised to the Cuban people in 1878, at the conclusion of the TEN YEARS' WAR, (q.v.).

The Background of U.S. Intervention.

On both humanitarian and economic grounds a strong reaction to this conflict developed in the U.S. The brutal treatment of the Cubans by Spanish military forces received wide publicity, chiefly through reports that appeared in the New York World and the New York Journal, the former operated by Joseph Pulitzer and the latter by William Randolph Hearst. Concern was also aroused by the extensive property damage caused by the war. Considerable U.S. investments were affected, and all U.S. trade with Cuba was halted. The popular demand for intervention on behalf of Cuban independence gained support in the U.S. Congress, but both President Grover Cleveland and President William McKinley, during his first year in office, firmly opposed U.S. action. In 1897 an attempt to settle the conflict was made by the Spanish prime minister, Práxedes Mateo Sagasta (1827–1930). Partial autonomy was to be granted to the Cubans, and the outrageous system of prison camps was to be abolished. The insurgents, however, continued to press for complete independence.

The conflict continued, and a series of incidents brought about U.S. intervention. In December 1897 the U.S. battleship Maine was sent to the port of Havana to protect U.S. citizens and property. On the night of Feb. 15, 1898, the ship was sunk by a tremendous explosion, and 260 lives were lost. Reports pointed to sabotage, but responsibility for the disaster was not determined. Senator Redfield Proctor (1831–1908) of Vermont then made a speech in the Senate in March 1898, in which he described the inhumane conditions he had observed in Cuba. On April 20 President McKinley approved a congressional resolution calling for immediate Spanish withdrawal from Cuba, and on April 24 war was declared by the Spanish government. On April 25 the U.S. Congress declared that hostilities had officially begun on April 21. Congressional resolutions affirmed Cuban independence and stated that the U.S. was not acting to secure an empire.

Military Action and the War's Results.

On May 1, 1898, the Spanish fleet anchored in Manila Bay, in the Philippines, was attacked and destroyed by the U.S. naval forces under Commodore George Dewey. On July 1, U.S. troops penetrated the outer defenses of the city of Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, and on July 3 a Spanish naval squadron commanded by Adm. Pascual Cervera y Topete (1839–1909) was destroyed while attempting to cross the U.S. blockade of Santiago harbor. Santiago then surrendered to U.S. forces under Gen. William Rufus Shafter (1835–1906). Another American force, commanded by Gen. Nelson Miles (1839–1925), occupied Puerto Rico, and on July 18 the Spanish government requested a settlement with the U.S.

By the terms of the peace treaty, signed in Paris on Dec. 10, 1898, Spain relinquished Cuba and ceded to the U.S. the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and the island of Guam, in the Ladrones (now the Mariana Islands). As a result of the Spanish-American War the U.S. became a world power. In 1969 U.S. Navy research determined that a defective boiler caused the explosion on the Maine.

For further information on this topic, see the Bibliography, section 1141. The Nineteenth Century.