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The immediate cause of the Spanish-American War was Cuba’s struggle for independence from Spain.
Newspapers in the United States printed sensationalized accounts of Spanish atrocities in Cuba, fueling humanitarian concerns.
There was widespread U.S. sympathy for Cubans as near neighbors fighting to gain their independence.
USS MaineThe USS Maine before its destruction in 1898.
U.S. Naval Historical Center PhotographThe mysterious destruction of the U.S. battleship Maine in the Cuban harbor of Havana on February 15, 1898, led to a declaration of war against Spain two months later.
Growing U.S. economic, political, and military power, especially naval power, contrasted with waning Spanish power over its far-flung colonies, made the war a relatively short-lived conflict.
Effects
The war ended Spanish colonial rule in the Americas. Spain subsequently turned its focus inward and experienced a cultural renaissance and two decades of significant progress in agriculture, industry, transportation, and other areas.
The United States emerged from the war as a world power, with control of Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam.
In 1902 the United States withdrew its troops from Cuba, and Cuba became a republic. However, the articles of the Platt Amendment, a rider appended to the U.S. Army appropriations bill of March 1901, were incorporated into the Cuban constitution. It gave the United States the right to intervene in Cuba in the interests of a stable government. Cubans generally considered the amendment an infringement of their sovereignty, and most of its provisions were repealed by 1934.
The war made certain that a U.S.-built canal would cut through the Isthmus of Panama. The Panama Canal, linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, was completed in 1914.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.The war also contributed to the popular image of Theodore Roosevelt as a war hero and advanced his career. Roosevelt, who resigned as assistant secretary of the navy to serve with the Rough Riders, just a few years later became the 26th president of the United States.
The Treaty of Paris transferred Philippine sovereignty from Spain to the United States but was not recognized by Filipino leaders. The Philippine-American War ensued. For the next three years (1899–1902) the Filipinos carried on a guerrilla warfare campaign against U.S. rule. By the time fighting ended, some 20,000 Filipino troops and 200,000 civilians were dead. An estimated 4,300 Americans perished, the overwhelming majority as a result of disease.
