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The Spanish American wars of independence (Spanish: Guerras de independencia hispanoamericanas) took place throughout Spanish America during the early 19th century, with the aim of political independence from Spanish rule.
- 25 September 1808 – 29 September 1833, (25 years and 4 days)
- Patriot victory.
- Overview
- Origins of the war
The Spanish-American War was a conflict between the United States and Spain that effectively ended Spain's role as a colonial power in the New World. The United States emerged from the war as a world power with significant territorial claims stretching from the Caribbean to Southeast Asia.
What were the causes of the Spanish-American War?
The immediate cause of the Spanish-American War was Cuba's struggle for independence from Spain. Newspapers in the U.S. printed sensationalized accounts of Spanish atrocities, fueling humanitarian concerns. The mysterious destruction of the U.S. battleship Maine in Havana’s harbour on February 15, 1898, led to a declaration of war against Spain two months later.
Where did the Spanish-American War take place?
The main theatres of combat in the Spanish-American War were the Philippines and Cuba. Fighting centred on Manila, where U.S. Commodore George Dewey destroyed the Spanish Pacific fleet at the Battle of Manila Bay (May 1, 1898), and on Santiago de Cuba, which fell to U.S. forces after hard fighting in July.
How did the Spanish-American War end?
The war originated in the Cuban struggle for independence from Spain, which began in February 1895. The Cuban conflict was injurious to U.S. investments in the island, which were estimated at $50 million, and almost ended U.S. trade with Cuban ports, normally valued at $100 million annually. On the insurgent side, the war was waged largely against property and led to the destruction of sugarcane and sugar mills. Of more importance than its effect on U.S. monetary interests was the appeal to American humanitarian sentiment. Under the Spanish commander, Capt. Gen. Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau (nicknamed El Carnicero, “the Butcher”), Cubans were herded into so-called “reconcentration areas” in and around the larger cities; those who remained at large were treated as enemies. Spanish authorities made no adequate provision for shelter, food, sanitation, or medical care for the reconcentrados, thousands of whom died from exposure, hunger, and disease. These conditions were graphically portrayed for the U.S. public by sensational newspapers, notably Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World and William Randolph Hearst’s recently founded New York Journal. Humanitarian concern for the suffering Cubans was added to the traditional American sympathy for a colonial people struggling for independence. While these aspects of the war created a widespread popular demand for action to halt it, the U.S. was faced with the necessity of patrolling coastal waters to prevent gunrunning to the insurgents and by demands for aid from Cubans who had acquired U.S. citizenship and then had been arrested by Spanish authorities for participating in the rebellion.
The popular demand for intervention to stop the war and assure Cuban independence gained support in the U.S. Congress. In the spring of 1896 both the Senate and the House of Representatives declared by concurrent resolution that belligerent rights should be accorded the insurgents. This expression of congressional opinion was ignored by Pres. Grover Cleveland, who opposed intervention, though he intimated in his final message to Congress that prolongation of the war might make it necessary. His successor, William McKinley, was equally desirous of preserving peace with Spain, but, in his first instructions to the new minister to Spain, Stewart L. Woodford, and again in his first message to Congress, he made it plain that the U.S. could not stand aside and see the bloody struggle drag on indefinitely.
In the fall of 1897 a new Spanish ministry offered concessions to the insurgents. It would recall General Weyler, abandon his reconcentration policy, and allow Cuba an elected cortes (parliament) with limited powers of self-government. These concessions came too late. The insurgent leaders would now settle for nothing short of complete independence. The war went on in Cuba, and a series of incidents brought the United States to the brink of intervention. Riots in Havana in December led to the sending of the battleship Maine to that city’s port as a precaution for the safety of U.S. citizens and property. On February 9, 1898, the New York Journal printed a private letter from the Spanish minister in Washington, Enrique Dupuy de Lôme, describing McKinley as “weak and a popularity-hunter” and raising doubt about Spain’s good faith in her reform program. De Lôme immediately resigned, and the Spanish government tendered an apology. The sensation caused by this incident was eclipsed dramatically six days later. On the night of February 15, a mighty explosion sank the Maine at her Havana anchorage, and more than 260 of her crew were killed. Responsibility for the disaster was never determined. A U.S. naval board found convincing evidence that an initial explosion outside the hull (presumably from a mine or torpedo) had touched off the battleship’s forward magazine. The Spanish government offered to submit the question of its responsibility to arbitration, but the U.S. public, prompted by the New York Journal and other sensational papers in the grips of yellow journalism, held Spain unquestionably responsible. “Remember the Maine, to hell with Spain!” became a popular rallying cry.
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The demand for intervention became insistent, in Congress, on the part of both Republicans and Democrats (though such Republican leaders as Sen. Mark Hanna and Speaker Thomas B. Reed opposed it), and in the country at large. U.S. business interests, in general, opposed intervention and war. Such opposition diminished after a speech in the Senate on March 17 by Sen. Redfield Proctor of Vermont, who had just returned from a tour of Cuba. In matter-of-fact and unsensational language, Proctor described his observations of the war-torn island: the suffering and death in the reconcentration areas, the devastation elsewhere, and the evident inability of the Spanish to crush the rebellion. His speech, as The Wall Street Journal remarked on March 19, “converted a great many people on Wall Street.” Religious leaders contributed to the clamour for intervention, framing it as a religious and humanitarian duty.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
14 de may. de 2010 · The Spanish-American War was an 1898 conflict between the United States and Spain that ended Spanish colonial rule in the Americas and resulted in U.S. acquisition of territories in the western...
- Missy Sullivan
- 3 min
History. Encyclopedias almanacs transcripts and maps. Spanish American Independence. views 3,527,994 updated. Spanish American Independence. The humiliating defeats suffered by Spanish forces during the Seven Years War (1756–1763) included the capture by British forces of Havana, one of the economic and strategic jewels in the imperial crown.
The Spanish–American War (April 21 – December 10, 1898) began in the aftermath of the internal explosion of USS Maine in Havana Harbor in Cuba, leading to United States intervention in the Cuban War of Independence.
- April 21 – August 13, 1898, (3 months, 3 weeks and 2 days)
List covering some of the major causes and effects of the Spanish-American War. The war originated in the Cuban struggle for independence from Spain. By the time the war drew to a close, Spanish colonial rule in the New World had come to an end, and the United States controlled strategically significant lands.
Overview. The Cuban movement for independence from Spain in 1895 garnered considerable American support. When the USS Maine sank, the United States believed the tragedy was the result of Spanish sabotage and declared war on Spain. The Spanish-American War lasted only six weeks and resulted in a decisive victory for the United States.
