Battle of Santiago de Cuba Battle of Santiago de Cuba The Battle of Santiago de Cuba was a naval battle that occurred on July 3, 1898, in which the United States Navy decisively defeated Spanish forces, sealing American victory in the Spanish–American War and achieving nominal independence for Cuba from Spanish rule. The battle marked the culmination of the Cuban Wars for Independence that had been waged by Cuban revolutionaries against Spanish imperial power for several decades. The United States had political, economic, cultural, and ideological interests in Cuba. Within this larger context, many American political leaders, pushed by interventionist public opinion, were outraged by
Raid on Santiago de Cuba (1603) by the English since the advent of the Anglo-Spanish war. Santiago de Cuba was the second largest town in Cuba having been founded in 1515. The town had been targeted by pirates before, notably in 1553. On 12 May 1603 the English landed in a bay near Santiago de Cuba and met no resistance. They then took the small but unfinished fort; a ravelin and battery on the south-western beach of the promontory which covered the bay from the land side. Soon after Cleeve's men then marched towards the town and then launched an attack. They surprised the militia who