Slides depicting causes and facts regarding the Spanish American War and how this was a key event in American History becoming a World Power

1. INTERPRET THIS POLITICAL CARTOON

2. Chapter 23, Section 2
War With Spain
• Why did tensions in Cuba lead Americans to call
for war with Spain?
• How did Americans win a quick victory in the
Spanish-American War?
• How did the United States gain and rule its new
empire?

3. Spanish Empire (Once upon a time)
Dominated by the Western Hemisphere, the Spanish Empire was
the 3rd largest empire in World History (1st=British, 2nd=Mongol)

4. The Spanish Empire
Before and After
Spain’s Empire 1790’s Spain’s “Empire” 1898

5. Chapter 23, Section 2
Americans Call for War With Spain Over Cuba
By the 1890s, Spain’s empire in the Western Hemisphere had shrunk to two
islands in the Caribbean, Cuba and Puerto Rico.
Rebellion in Cuba
• In 1868, the Cuban people rebelled aainst Spanish rule. The revolution was
crushed, and some revolutionaries fled to New York.
• In New York, Puerto Rican-born Lola Rodríguez de Tió wrote poems, and
José Martí raised funds, gave speeches, and published a newspaper in
support of Cuban independence.
• In 1895, Martí returned to Cuba. Rebels launched a new fight against
Spain. Soon, they won control of much of the island.

6. • Spain sent a new governor, who used brutal tactics to crush the
revolt. In a policy known as reconcentration, his men moved about
half a million Cubans into detention camps so they could not aid
the rebels.

7. • Americans worried about the revolt. Americans
had money invested in plantations, railroads,
tobacco, and iron mines in Cuba.
• American opinion split over whether or not to
intervene in Cuba.
• So enter Social Media ( No NOT Facebook)
to influence War Support

8. Chapter 23, Section 2
Americans Call for War With Spain Over Cuba
Business leaders opposed American involvement. They didn’t want to do
anything that might hurt foreign trade. Other Americans sympathized with
Cuban desires for freedom.
Americans Call for War
• The press whipped up American sympathies for the people of Cuba.
Joseph Pulitzer’s World and William Randolph Hearst’s Journal competed
to print the most grisly stories about Spanish atrocities, or wartime acts of
cruelty and brutality.
• To attract readers, Hearst and Pulitzer used yellow journalism, or reporting
that relied on sensational stories and headlines. Often, these reports were
biased or untrue. When a photographer told Hearst there was no war,
Hearst supposedly replied, “You supply the pictures. I’ll supply the war.”
• President Grover Cleveland and his successor, William McKinley, tried to
keep the country neutral.

9. Enter Yellow Journalism

10. Yellow Journalism

11. Remember the Maine
• In 1898, fighting broke out in Havana, the Cuban
capital. President McKinley sent the battleship
Maine to protect American citizens and property
there.
• On the night of February 15, as the Maine lay at
anchor in Havana harbor, a huge explosion ripped
through the ship. It killed at least 260 American
sailors.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urtm4GpjFu4

12. Chapter 23, Section 2
Americans Call for War With Spain Over Cuba
• The real cause of the explosion remains a mystery.
But Pulitzer and Hearsts’s papers clamored for war.
“Remember the Maine!” they cried.
• In the end, McKinley gave in to war fever. On April 25,
1898, Congress declared war on Spain.

13. Chapter 23, Section 2
The Spanish-American War
The Spanish-American War lasted only four months. The battlefront
stretched from the Caribbean to the Philippine Islands.
The Philippines
• Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt instructed
Commodore George Dewey, commander of the Pacific fleet, to
prepare for war with Spain. As soon as war was declared, Dewey
sailed his fleet to Manila, the main city of the Philippines. In the
darkness on April 30, 1898, the fleet slipped into Manila harbor.
• The Spanish fleet was surprised. The Americans bombarded the
Spanish ships. By noon, the Spanish fleet had been destroyed.
• By July, American ground troops had landed in the Philippines.
Local people had been fighting for independence from Spain for
years. With the help of Filipino rebels, led by Emilio Aguinaldo, the
American forces quickly captured Manila.

14. Chapter 23, Section 2
The Spanish-American War
War in Cuba
• American troops landed in Cuba. The expedition was badly
organized.
• Theodore Roosevelt organized a volunteer unit, later called the
Rough Riders. The Rough Riders joined regular troops in a battle
to gain control of the San Juan Heights overlooking the Cuban city
of Santiago.

15. Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders

16. The Spanish-American War
• African American members of the 9th and 10th
Cavalries, nicknamed Buffalo Soldiers, also
played a role in the victory.
• Two days later, the Americans destroyed the
Spanish fleet in Santiago Bay. The Spanish army
in Cuba surrendered.
• In a separate action, American troops claimed
Puerto Rico.
• On August 12, Spain and the United States
agreed to end the fighting.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q60HQm4gMc
Q

17. RECAP
• Refer back to this cartoon

18. Recap
• William McKinley (1897 – 1901)
• Spanish American War. – Made Teddy
Roosevelt’s Career
Phillipino American War (1899 – 1902 )
Teddy Roosevelt (1901 – 1909)
Active involvement in Latin America
Taft ( 1909 – 1913) $$$ Dollar Diplomacy
Woodrow Wilson (1913 – 1921) Idealist
Condemned heavy handed foreign policy (yet)
D.R and Haita. Sent two thousand soldiers to
quell Pancho Villa in the Mexican revolution.
Could all this foreign involvement be helped ???

19. THEREFORE