Spanish-American War

Brief war in 1898 between Spain and the USA over Spanish rule in Cuba and the Philippines; the complete defeat of Spain made the USA a colonial power. The Treaty of Paris ceded the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico to the USA; Cuba became independent. The USA paid $20 million to Spain. This ended Spain's colonial presence in the Americas.

The war began in Cuba when the US battleship Maine was blown up in Havana harbour, allegedly by the Spanish. Other engagements included the Battle of Manila Bay, in which Commander George Dewey's navy destroyed the Spanish fleet in the Philippines; and the taking of the Cuban port cities of El Caney and San Juan Heights (in which Theodore Roosevelt's regiment, the Rough Riders, was involved), destroying the Spanish fleet there.

Cuba began its struggle for independence from Spain in 1895. Brutally repressed by the Spanish, the Cubans gained sympathy, via sensationalist newspaper articles and eyewitness reports by members of the US Congress, from the US public. Anti‐Spanish hostilities heightened after the explosion of the Maine, which killed 260 men. Besides popular support, other factors pushed the US government toward war. Guerrilla warfare caused heavy losses of US investment in Cuba, the island held strategic importance and the promise of a canal across the Panama isthmus, and the USA held the opportunity to become an imperial power.