1. The Spanish-American War
Ch 7 sec 2

2. I. Simmering Unrest in Cuba
Cuba was one of the last colonies of Spain in the West. Cubans wanted to be independent, and one of the leaders was Jose Marti.
Marti fled to the U.S. and pushed Cubans to revolt. In 1895 they did, but the Spanish general was cruel to civilians which upset the U.S.

3. II. Americans Get War Fever
People were sympathetic to the Cubans because they related their fight to our own Revolution.
Newspapers played a huge role in the public’s opinion of the war. The two main papers in New York City were the New York Journal and the New York World.

4. II. Americans Get War Fever
The Journal was owned by William Hearst and the World by Joseph Pulitzer. They competed for the best, most scandalous stories coming out of Cuba.
This was called “yellow journalism” because of a comic strip that ran in the Journal called the “Yellow Kid”. Facts were not as important as selling newspapers, so stories were either one-sided or just made up.

5. II. Americans Get War Fever
Hearst wanted to go to war, and pushed that agenda in his paper through stories and illustrations of Spanish cruelty.
A letter from the Spanish minister to the U.S., Enrique Dupuy de Lome, calling President McKinley weak was printed by Hearst, creating more support for war with Spain.

6. II. Americans Get War Fever
Then, an American battleship called the USS Maine, which was sent to Cuba to protect Americans living there, blew up in Havana Harbor.
The Journal blamed the Spanish, and after an investigation the government did, too. With cries of “Remember the Maine”, the U.S. declared war on Spain on April 25, 1898.

7. III. The Course of the War
The war would only last 4 months, and was fought on two fronts; the Philippines and Cuba.
Commodore George Dewey was in charge of the Navy’s Asiatic Squadron. When war broke out he was ordered to attack the Spanish fleet in Manila.
The U.S. had modern ships with better weapons, and the Spanish had wooden ships that were inferior. The U.S. destroyed the Spanish fleet and then went after the Philippines.

8. III. The Course of the War
Philippine rebels led by Emilio Aguinaldo captured the city of Manila while the U.S. Navy prevented Spanish escape. The Spanish surrendered in August of 1898.
Before the fighting started in Cuba the U.S. had recognized Cuba’s independence and adopted the Teller amendment that stated the U.S. would give control of Cuba to the Cubans.

9. III. The Course of the War
The War Department was not prepared for war. They used some leftover supplies from the Civil War. They issued wool uniforms to soldiers in the tropics, and the canned food made soldiers sick.
Teddy Roosevelt gathered a volunteer regiment called the Rough Riders to go fight. They were supposed to be a cavalry unit but had to leave their horses in the U.S.

10. III. The Course of the War
The plan was to take the city of Santiago, but they had to control the hills that surrounded it. The most famous battle was on San Juan Hill. Buffalo soldiers, the African-American cavalry, and the Rough Riders took the hill.
On July 3rd the Spanish fleet at Cuba was destroyed, and the Spanish troops in Cuba surrendered. Two weeks later the last troops in Puerto Rico also surrendered and the war was over.

11. III. The Course of the War
Spain had to give up Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Guam. They also gave up control of the Philippines to the U.S., but were paid $20 million.
It was an expensive war, $250 million, and about 2000 soldiers died, mostly from yellow fever not battle wounds.

12. IV. Annexing the Philippines
The big question after the war was what to do about the Philippines. Some argued that imperialism made America stronger, while others thought it violated our views of democracy.
People thought we could spread our values to the Philippine people and increase our presence in Asia at the same time. It would also be an economic bonus to trade with them.

13. IV. Annexing the Philippines
Others felt self government should be the priority, and African Americans were afraid of spreading racism to the Philippines since it was so prevalent in the U.S.
Unions were afraid of a flood of cheap labor coming from the Philippines would affect workers here.

14. IV. Annexing the Philippines
Congress voted to annex the Philippines in 1899, and the Filipino nationalists were outraged. They had already formed their own government under president Emilio Aguinaldo, and he promised to fight against the U.S. after the vote.
He was forced from power by the U.S. after 2 years of fighting, and the Philippines would be under U.S. control until July 4, 1946.

15. In your notebooks
Half-page summary of the lecture today.