1. The Spanish American War, 1898

2. Spanish Empire in the Caribbean: Background Beginning in 1492, Spain was the first European nation to sail westward across the Atlantic Ocean, explore, and colonize the Amerindian nations of the Western Hemisphere. At its greatest extent, the empire that resulted from this exploration extended from Virginia on the eastern coast of the United States south to Tierra del Fuego at the tip of South America excluding Brazil and westward to California and Alaska. Across the Pacific, it included the Philippines and other island groups.

3. By 1825 much of this empire had fallen into other hands and in that year, Spain acknowledged the independence of its possessions in the present-day United States (then under Mexican control) and south to the tip of South America. The only remnants that remained in the empire in the Western Hemisphere were Cuba and Puerto Rico and across the Pacific in Philippine Islands, and the Carolina, Marshall, and Mariana Islands (including Guam) in Micronesia.

4. Spanish Empire in the Caribbean: Cuba Following the liberation from Spain of mainland Latin America, Cuba was the first to initiate its own struggle for independence. As early as 1868, Cuban rebels fought against Spanish rule 1895: Cuban revolutionary / poet Jose Marti dies

5. Spanish Empire in the Caribbean: US interests Economic interests extend well before 1898 –1878: American sugar interests bought up large tracts of land in Cuba –1898: the U.S. had more than $50 million invested in Cuba and annual trade, mostly in sugar, was worth twice that much 1896: Sp. Gen. Valeriano Weyler (the “Butcher”).. Reconcentration

6. Spanish Empire in the Caribbean: Yellow Journalism Joseph Pulitzer William Randolph Hearst Vs.

7. Spanish Empire in the Caribbean: US interests USS Maine (Feb 15, 1898)

16. Spanish-American War: Results A “Splendid little war!” -Ambassador John Hay Treaty of Paris: December 10, 1898 established the independence of Cuba, ceded Puerto Rico and Guam to the United States, and allowed the victorious power to purchase the Philippines Islands from Spain for $20 million. The war had cost the United States $250 million and 3,000 lives, of whom 90% had perished from infectious diseases.

17. Essential Question: To what extent is American expansionism characterized by a series of incidents and not the pursuit of a foreign policy? Argument: Series of Incidents –Rationale? –Supporting Argument? –Evidence? Argument: Pursuit of Foreign Policy –Rationale? –Supporting Argument? –Evidence?