The Spanish-American War

When we look at the world today, a few countries are illuminated as significant powers, with their gripping arms and stomping legs extending across all faces of the globe, clutching colonies and spheres of influence to keep for themselves. Britain and France, nations that still control literal colonies in Oceania, the Caribbean, and South America are undoubtedly members of this clique. Russia, having spent the past 3 centuries hosting the rulers of imperial bodies like the Russian Empire, Soviet Union, and Russian Federation, is another example of a major world power. It is currently spilling blood - both the blood of its own soldiers and of the supposed "enemy" country - in Ukraine, hoping to use that blood to scribble "RUSSIA" across that whole nation, from Crimea to Kyiv. China, too, has been working ever since Mao Zedong's death to restore the days of the Silk Road, when all of Asia feared Beijing and its mighty fist. Right now, however, the most powerful of all the powerful is the United States of America. Many factors ever since the end of the Revolutionary War have fed America's ascension to imperial "majesty", but the crown jewel, the final hoop the US had to jump through, was the Spanish-American War.

The Spanish-American War was rooted in controversies surrounding the Cuban War for Independence. Exhausted from centuries of life under the tyranny of Spanish colonialism, the people of Cuba rebelled on February 24, 1895. The Cuban War for Independence had begun! Tragically, though, the independence movement was met with abhorrent brutality on the part of Madrid. For instance, Cuba served as a major source of sugar cane for mainland Spain. So, Cuban independence activists would burn down sugarcane farms in order to sever Spain's access to the crop. Thus, economic pressure would form that could only be relieved by the manifestation of Cuban sovereignty. Spain did not give up, however, and instead began imprisoning entire villages if said village happened to contain a sugarcane farm. That way, none of the villagers would be able to burn down the farm. Presumably, Spanish spies and soldiers were sent to till the farm instead. News of these atrocities soon reached the shores of the US, producing public outrage and resulting tensions between Madrid and Washington DC.

Later in 1895, the New York World, a journal owned by Joseph Pulitzer (the namesake of the Pulitzer Prize!) began publishing a regular comic strip called The Yellow Kid. Soon after, William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal started publishing copies of The Yellow Kid as well, without the permission of either Pulitzer or his New York World. Furious over the infringement, Pulitzer formed a rivalry with Hearst and the duo of men challenged one another to see who could make the most money off of their businesses. In pursuit of the profits needed to outflank the other, Pulitzer and Hearst started publishing absurd exaggerations of the already-vile treatment of Cubans by the Spanish authorities. For example, many of the articles published by the New York Journal and New York World claimed that Cuban women were being forced to strip nude and show that they weren't carrying any weapons with which to aid the rebellion. As Pulitzer and Hearst anticipated, these hyperbolic claims sold extremely well. They also dramatically worsened the tensions between the US and Spain.

During the following year, in November of 1896, Republican William McKinley defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan. McKinley, whose campaign was largely financed by businessmen fearing Bryan's proposed labor reforms and promises of increased economic equality, was inaugurated on March 4, 1897, replacing the Democrat Grover Cleveland. Early into McKinley's presidency, in December of 1897, Enrique Dupuy de Lome, the Spanish ambassador to the US, wrote a private letter in which he insulted the new president. The letter contained a collection of different remarks, but they can be summarized as saying in so many words that McKinley was an unimpressive, mediocre, and spineless politician willing to do anything for votes. 2 months later, on February 9, 1898, Cuban rebels uncovered the contents of the letter and leaked it to the American press. The US population was outraged when they opened up newspapers and learned how Spanish officials had derided their leader. The De Lome Letter wound up being another irritant of the growing tensions between America and Spain.

At the end of 1897, around the time that the De Lome Letter was written, McKinley successfully convinced the Spanish government to recall Valerino Weylar, the general who was responsible for most of the brutality exercised against Cuban rebels. Weylar supporters were outraged when they found out about this and staged a riot in January of 1898. In order to protect US citizens and property in Cuba amidst the riots, McKinley, upon receiving the blessing of Madrid, sent a ship called the USS Maine to the island's coast. Only a few weeks later, on February 15, 1898, the USS Maine exploded. The military then set up a committee to investigate the origins of the explosion, which, on March 28, 1898, disbanded upon publishing a report blaming a mine for the tragedy. This instigated a massive influx of anti-Spanish sentiment and allegations. Americans, particularly those already upset over the Spanish treatment of Cuban rebels and the De Lome Letter, started accusing Spain of having planted the mine.

This was the final straw. At the start of April 1898, Congress drafted and approved a declaration of war against Spain. McKinley, however, was still desperate to avoid war. In fact, this declaration of war was the only one to ever pass Congress without the support of the president. The War of 1812, for instance, was started by a declaration of war written at the request of James Madison. The same applies to the Mexican-American War with James K. Polk, World War 1 with Woodrow Wilson, and World War 2 with Franklin D. Roosevelt. McKinley, hoping to preserve peace, reached out to Spain with an ultimatum on April 19, 1898: Agree, within 48 hours, to give Cuba its independence and war with the United States will be avoided. Spain adamantly refused to give up its remaining colony in the New World and so, on April 21, 1898, the deadline came and went with the question of Cuba's future still being ambiguous. Not only did Spain refuse to follow McKinley's ultimatum, it responded with an outright declaration of war against the US on April 23, 1898, sparking the Spanish-American War.

McKinley reciprocated by signing Congress' declaration of war on April 25, 1898. A little under a week later, on May 1, 1898, the Battle of Manila Bay - the first battle of the Spanish-American War - commenced off the coast of the Philippines, another Spanish colony. The battle began at 5:40 AM, when American naval forces struck Spanish troops. By 7:30 AM, the entirety of the Spanish fleet, which was often composed of wooden ships in contrast to the American navy that had been modernized by Chester A. Arthur, was destroyed. The Spanish forces refused to give up, though, and fighting resumed around noon. But almost immediately after the battle was revived, Spain realized what it was up against and actually did surrender. The Battle of Manila Bay had ended in a massive American victory. 370 Spanish troops died, while just 10 American soldiers were killed. This actually proved to be a common trend throughout the Spanish-American War: Very few Americans actually died in combat. In fact, it has been estimated that for every 1 American soldier who died in combat during the Spanish-American War, 5 died from eating the contaminated meat provided to them by private companies. This fact, published during the Army Beef Scandal, helped catalyze the passage of the Pure Food and Drugs Act under Theodore Roosevelt.

Speaking of Roosevelt, on July 1, 1898, he led a group of American troops in another decisive victory: The Battle of San Juan Hill, a battle actually fought on the island of Cuba. Just 2 days later, on July 3, 1898, vast reserves of Spanish weapons were destroyed in the Battle of Santiago de Cuba. It was already apparent that Spain had no chance of winning the war, but the Battle of Santiago de Cuba would soon be followed by another massive blow to Madrid. Back in 1890, Benjamin Harrison raised tariffs to one of the highest rates in American history, making it exceedingly difficult for sugar farmers from the US living in Hawaii to ship their crops to the land they were born in. As a result, on January 17, 1893, these sugar farmers staged a violent revolution in which they took control of the Hawaiian government and set up a shell state demanding annexation by the United States. Their logic argued that if Hawaii was part of the United States, the tariff issue would be eliminated because sugar shipments would no longer count as imports. Cleveland, an anti-imperialist, refused to cater to these demands, but McKinley did. On July 7, 1898, in order to better access Spanish bases, the US annexed Hawaii.

Exactly 10 days after America annexed Hawaii, all of Cuba fell to US-military occupation on July 17, 1898. By now, even the Narcissists and warmongerers controlling the Spanish Empire realized that an indestructable wall of clouded diamonds and rusty steel sat between them and victory. On August 13, 1898, the Spanish military surrendered, allowing for postwar peace negotiations to begin. Spanish and American delegates met in Paris, France, and started hammering out an agreement. What emerged was the Treaty of Paris, which, in reference to how American sympathies with the Cuban independence movement sparked the war in the first place, required Spain to give Cuba its independence. Furthermore, it mandated that Spain cede the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico to the United States. On December 10, 1898, the Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the Spanish-American War in a major US victory. The Treaty of Paris - and the Spanish-American War as a whole - proved to be incredibly influential in American history, mainly since it served as the point at which the US officially became a superpower. It was the final brick to be laid in the imperial castle.

The Treaty of Paris also specified that during a brief transitional period between the signing of the treaty and Cuba actually becoming independent, the island was to be occupied by American forces. In 1901, McKinley signed a bill called the Army Appropriations Act, which included the Platt Amendment. Under the Platt Amendment, the US government explained that it would not withdraw forces from Cuba until the Cuban government agreed to 2 policies: One, permitting the re-entry of US troops at any point so long as the intervention was for "the preservation of Cuban independence". (Of course, "the preservation of Cuban independence" soon became a codeword for repealing any Cuban policy Washington DC opposed). And two, a ban on giving any Cuban land to foreign countries, with the curious exception of the United States. As part of the Good Neighbor Policy (an initiative launched by Herbert Hoover and continued by FDR), FDR repealed the Platt Amendment in 1934.