Chronology of Colonial Cuba American battleship, USS "Maine", was sunk under strange circumstances in the Havana Harbor. This brought about American intervention in the war, which became the Spanish–American War that ended with the Treaty of Paris on December 10, within which Spain ceded Cuba and Puerto Rico to the United States. Thus, a new stage in Cuban history was begun. Chronology of Colonial Cuba The chronology of the colonial time of Cuba is about the Spanish colonial period in Cuba, and the efforts to obtain independence from the Spanish Empire and includes history from the "discovery" of the island by Christopher Columbus to
Battle of Santiago de Cuba August 9, 1898, the "Springfield Republic" claimed the controversy was largely a product of writers determined "to get a brilliant hero out of the Santiago battle at any cost." Many journalists felt that Sampson's "careful, thorough and comprehensive leadership" did not fit the mold of the brash American hero in the era of Rooseveltian masculinity. Just as early motion picture-makers such as Thomas Edison made films celebrating Schley's leadership at Santiago, journalists, by and large, placed Schley on a pedestal for winning the battle because he was the man standing on the bridge, leading the fleet towards the enemy and