Spanish–American War

Spanish–American War[a]
Part of the decolonization of the Americas,
the Cuban War of Independence,
and the Philippine Revolution

(clockwise from top left)
DateApril 21[b] – August 13,[d] 1898
(3 months, 3 weeks and 1 day)
Location
Result
  • U.S. victory
Territorial
changes		 Spain relinquishes sovereignty over Cuba; cedes Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to the United States. $20 million paid to Spain by the United States for infrastructure owned by Spain.
Belligerents
United States
Supported by:
Cuban Liberation Army
Philippine Revolutionary Army		  Spain
Commanders and leaders
  • Alfonso XIII
  • Práxedes Mateo Sagasta
  • Patricio Montojo
  • Pascual Cervera
  • Arsenio Linares
  • Manuel de la Cámara
  • Manuel Macías
  • Ramón Blanco
  • Antero Rubín
  • Arsenio Martínez
  • Valeriano Weyler
  • José Toral
  • Basilio Augustín
  • Fermín Jáudenes
  • Diego de los Ríos
Strength
Total: 300,000[12]

Total: 339,783 (only 20–25 percent of the army capable of field operations)[16]
288,452 (Caribbean)

  • 278,447 in Cuba (only 2,820 engaged in major land battles)[17]
  • 10,005 in Puerto Rico
51,331 (Philippines)
Casualties and losses

Total: 4,119
American:

  • 2,446 dead
  • 1,662 wounded[18]
  • 11 captured[19]
  • 1 cargo ship sunk[20]
  • 1 cruiser damaged[17]

Total: 56,400–56,600
Spanish:

  • 15,700–15,800 dead
    • 200 soldiers killed[21]
    • 500–600 sailors killed[21][f]
    • 15,000 dead from disease[22]
  • 700–800 wounded[21]
  • 40,000+ captured[17][g]
  • 6 small ships sunk[17]
  • 11 cruisers sunk[17]
  • 2 destroyers sunk[17]

The Spanish–American War[a] (April 21 – August 13, 1898) was fought between Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the U.S. acquiring sovereignty over Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, and establishing a protectorate over Cuba. It represented U.S. intervention in the Cuban War of Independence and Philippine Revolution, with the latter later leading to the Philippine–American War. The Spanish–American War brought an end to almost four centuries of Spanish presence in the Americas, Asia, and the Pacific; the United States meanwhile not only became a major world power, but also gained several island possessions spanning the globe, which provoked rancorous debate over the wisdom of expansionism.[23]

The 19th century represented a clear decline for the Spanish Empire, while the United States went from a newly founded country to a rising power. In 1895, Cuban nationalists began a revolt against Spanish rule, which was brutally suppressed by the colonial authorities.[24] W. Joseph Campbell argues that yellow journalism in the U.S. exaggerated the atrocities in Cuba to sell more newspapers and magazines,[25] which swayed American public opinion in support of the rebels. But historian Andrea Pitzer also points to the actual shift toward savagery of the Spanish military leadership, who adopted the brutal reconcentration policy after replacing the relatively conservative Governor-General of Cuba Arsenio Martínez Campos with the more unscrupulous and aggressive Valeriano Weyler, nicknamed "The Butcher."[26][27] President Grover Cleveland resisted mounting demands for U.S. intervention, as did his successor William McKinley.[28] Though not seeking a war, McKinley made preparations in readiness for one.

In January 1898, the U.S. Navy armored cruiser USS Maine was sent to Havana to provide protection for U.S. citizens. After the Maine was sunk by a mysterious explosion in the harbor on February 15, 1898, political pressures pushed McKinley to receive congressional authority to use military force. On April 21, the U.S. began a blockade of Cuba,[5] and soon after Spain and the U.S. declared war. The war was fought in both the Caribbean and the Pacific, where American war advocates correctly anticipated that U.S. naval power would prove decisive. On May 1, a squadron of U.S. warships destroyed the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay in the Philippines and captured the harbor. The first U.S. Marines landed in Cuba on June 10 in the island's southeast, moving west and engaging in the Battles of El Caney and San Juan Hill on July 1 and then destroying the fleet at and capturing Santiago de Cuba on July 17.[29] On June 20, the island of Guam surrendered without resistance, and on July 25, U.S. troops landed on Puerto Rico, of which a blockade had begun on May 8 and where fighting continued until an armistice was signed on August 13.

The war formally ended with the 1898 Treaty of Paris, signed on December 10 with terms favorable to the U.S. The treaty ceded ownership of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to the U.S., and set Cuba up to become an independent state in 1902, although in practice it became a U.S. protectorate. The cession of the Philippines involved payment of $20 million ($760 million today) to Spain by the U.S. to cover infrastructure owned by Spain.[30] In Spain, the defeat in the war was a profound shock to the national psyche and provoked a thorough philosophical and artistic reevaluation of Spanish society known as the Generation of '98.[31]

  1. ^ Moreno Luzón, Javier (2013). "Alfonso el Regenerador. Monarquía escénica e imaginario nacionalista español, en perspectiva comparada (1902–1913)" [Alfonso el Regenerador. Performing Monarchy and Spanish Nationalist Imaginary, from a comparative perspective (1902–1913)]. Hispania. LXXIII (244). Madrid: Editorial CSIC: 319. doi:10.3989/hispania.2013.009. ISSN 0018-2141.
  2. ^ Louis A. Pérez (1998), The war of 1898: the United States and Cuba in history and historiography, UNC Press Books, ISBN 978-0807847428, archived from the original on April 24, 2016, retrieved October 31, 2015
  3. ^ Benjamin R. Beede (1994), The War of 1898, and US interventions, 1898–1934: an encyclopedia, Taylor & Francis, ISBN 978-0824056247, archived from the original on May 27, 2016, retrieved October 31, 2015
  4. ^ Virginia Marie Bouvier (2001), Whose America?: the war of 1898 and the battles to define the nation, Praeger, ISBN 978-0275967949, archived from the original on May 14, 2016, retrieved October 31, 2015
  5. ^ a b Trask 1996, p. 57
  6. ^ "Protocol of Peace Embodying the Terms of a Basis for the Establishment of Peace Between the Two Countries". msc.edu.ph. Washington, DC. August 12, 1898. Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved October 17, 2007.
  7. ^ Edgardo Pratts (2006), De Coamo a la Trinchera del Asomante (in Spanish) (First ed.), Puerto Rico: Fundación Educativa Idelfonso Pratts, ISBN 978-0976218562
  8. ^ Foreman 1906, p. 459.
  9. ^ The World of 1898: the Spanish–American War, US Library of Congress, archived from the original on June 29, 2011, retrieved October 10, 2007
  10. ^ "Our flag is now waving over Manila", San Francisco Chronicle, archived from the original on December 24, 2008, retrieved December 20, 2008
  11. ^ "Treaty of Paris, 1898". Archived from the original on May 23, 2015. Retrieved December 31, 2009.
  12. ^ Dyal, Carpenter & Thomas 1996, p. 21–22.
  13. ^ Clodfelter 2017, p. 256.
  14. ^ Clodfelter 2017, p. 308.
  15. ^ Karnow 1990, p. 115
  16. ^ Dyal, Carpenter & Thomas 1996, p. 20.
  17. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Clodfelter 2017, p. 255.
  18. ^ a b "America's Wars: Factsheet." Archived July 20, 2017, at the Wayback Machine US Department of Veteran Affairs. Office of Public Affairs. Washington DC. Published April 2017.
  19. ^ Marsh, Alan. "POWs in American History: A Synoposis" Archived August 6, 2017, at the Wayback Machine. National Park Service. 1998.
  20. ^ See: USS Merrimac (1894).
  21. ^ a b c d Keenan 2001, p. 70.
  22. ^ Tucker 2009, p. 105.
  23. ^ Herring, George C. (October 28, 2008). "The War of 1898, the New Empire, and the Dawn of the American Century, 1893–1901". From Colony to Superpower: US Foreign Relations Since 1776. Oxford University Press. pp. 299–336. ISBN 9780199743773. Archived from the original on September 23, 2023. Retrieved May 18, 2021 – via Google Books.
  24. ^ "The Spanish-American War, 1898". Historian of the U.S. State Department. n.d. Retrieved May 7, 2025.
  25. ^ W. Joseph Campbell, Yellow journalism: Puncturing the myths, defining the legacies (2001).
  26. ^ "Concentration camps existed long before Auschwitz". Archived from the original on September 17, 2020.
  27. ^ "February, 1896: Reconcentration Policy". PBS. Archived from the original on October 3, 2020.
  28. ^ David Nasaw (2013). The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 171. ISBN 978-0547524726. Archived from the original on March 9, 2019. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
  29. ^ "Military Book Reviews". StrategyPage.com. Archived from the original on May 1, 2011. Retrieved March 22, 2014.
  30. ^ Benjamin R. Beede (2013). The War of 1898 and US Interventions, 1898T1934: An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. p. 289. ISBN 978-1136746901. Archived from the original on May 15, 2016. Retrieved October 31, 2015.
  31. ^ Dyal, Carpenter & Thomas 1996, pp. 108–09.


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