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Spanish American War

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On April 25, 1898 the United States declared war on Spain following the sinking of the Battleship Maine in Havana harbor on February 15, 1898. The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898. As a result Spain lost its control over the remains of its overseas empire -- Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippine islands, Guam, and other islands. The reason that America declared war against Spain was when the USS Maine was sunk. No one never knew how it actually sunk, some sources say that it was because of some engine problems or that some fireworks caught on fire and destroyed to boat. But they newspapers in America blamed the Spanish fleets to how the ship got destroyed and sunk. The president of the time, William McKinley, did not want this war to go on. He always tried to avoid any intervention between any other foreign countries. But the Maine changed the public opinions toward the fact that the Spanish sunk the ship, that he had to agree with this war in which he was trying to avoid the whole time. On April 11, McKinley went before Congress to ask for permission to send troops to Cuba. The purpose that he gave Congress was for the ending of the Civil War taking place in Cuba. Congress passed the joint resolutions saying that Cuba should be "free and independent" and not saying that they had any interventions with Cuba. The U.S also demanded for the Spanish to get out of the island, basically a Spanish withdrawal from Cuba. The first battle of the Spanish- American war took place in the Philippine Islands. This battle was a sort of surprise attack toward the Spanish fleets. This first battle led to the retreat of Spanish soldiers and the Philippines to the United States. The first action that was taken place in Cuba was the establishing a base by the U.S. Marines. Hobson, an assistant Naval constructor, was order by Sampson, an admiral, to sink the a ship of the Spanish fleets. The plan was to use explosive and tie them up to the ship. From there, he would light the explosives on fire, and destroy it. The effect of this was to trap the Spanish fleet within the harbor. Unluckily, this plan was a failure, but Hobson still became a national hero. After that unsuccessful attempt, the states tries to capture the city of Santiago in order to destroy Cervera's(the admiral on the Spanish Army) fleet. The U.S V corp. landed at Daiquiri and Siboney, East of Santiago. In those locations, they established the American base of operations unopposed by the Spaniards who retreated. On July 1st, the Americans assaulted the fortifications of Spanish fleets in the Battle of El Caney. Later, the battle of San Juan Hill became the bloodiest battle in the whole Spanish- American war with 1200 American Casualties. There were also approximately 593 casualties coming from the fleets from Spain. After Cervera saw all the casualties in the battle, he decided to escape Santiago two days after the battle. Later in the war, Theodore Roosevelt teamed up with the general of the pro-independence rebels, Calixto Garcia. They planned to charge up the Kettle Hill at the Battle of San Juan Hill. The demoralized Spanish troops just gave them selves up and left. It was told that they Spanish troops would more quickly surrender than fight against their enemies. Other than going against the Spanish fleets, the American troops had to go through very harsh conditions. In Cuba, it would get really hot, so that would make it harder for the troops to battle. Also, the heat contributes to the amount of disease that was going around. The



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