The Spanish-American War, 1898 - Literature review Example

The Spanish American War January 27, The Spanish American War, 1898 Introduction The Spanish-American war started in 1898 ending Spanish rule over parts of the Western Hemisphere. Islands like Philippines, Cuba, and Porto Rico were taken over by the Americans from the Spanish because of the defeat in the war. History explains that the war started after an American ship was sunk by the Spanish in 1898 and the Cubans demands for independence after long term oppression from Spanish, which led to the interference of the US in Cuba. However, the war ended in 1898 December after the two countries signed a treaty in Paris. History shows that Spanish was the most powerful European nation between 1500 and 1600. Spain ruled most parts of Central Europe like the Netherlands, Italy and other modern countries in Central Europe. The Spanish rule also extended to Northern and Southern America especially modern USA. The Spanish government ruled America states like New Mexico, Texas, Colorado and Arizona. Being the most powerful colony which used emperors as the structure of their rule with Kings as leaders, they had taken over big western hemisphere islands and other islands. Most of the islands under Spanish rule before being toppled by the US included the Cuban Island, modern Philippines and Porto Rico. The loss of the Spanish rule was extended to Southern America, where countries like Mexico and Argentina became independent from the Spanish rule. The Spanish loss of rule in many nations made it less powerful as compared to America. American was considered the most powerful nation after the defeat of Spanish and the wars they had engaged on like the civil war they fought with Mexico (Hernández, 2009). Graves (2000) explains that Cuba was under the rule of Spanish from 1800. The Spanish enacted laws which Cubans were supposed to follow but the laws were so harsh that they forced the Cubans to riot. The Spanish used their solders as the law enforcers forcing the Cubans to abide by the rules despite the harsh conditions like lack of freedom to Cubans. Because of the hard times the Cubans were undergoing under the Spanish rule, Cubans started fighting for independence as from 1868. The fight took one decade and at the end the Spanish were the winners against the Cubans who were fighting to be independent. The result of the war between the Cubans and their colonies was a relaxation of the laws and the improvement of the Cubans’ living condition. Additionally, this was the promise to the Cubans so that they could stop fighting. However, the colonies did not honour their promise, which made the Cubans angry and continue agitating for freedom. The Spanish killed most of Cubans and deported others to other countries, especially the United States. Others escaped to the United States because of the harsh rule imposed to them by the Spanish in their own country. The Cubans who had made to it the United States arranged themselves, contributed money and bought fire arms to fight the Spanish. The Cubans whom they had been deported and the ones who they had escaped formed a revolutionary group call the Cuban Revolutionary Party. The party’s main objective was to finance the exiled Cubans to get arms as mentioned above. The deported Cubans and the ones whom had escaped to the United States returned to Cuba to rebel the Spanish. This happen in 1895 and the leading revolution group was the Cuban Revolution Party. However, the Spanish weakened the fighting group by starving them. The Cubans were helping the rebels by giving them food and other basic needs including medical supplies. The Spanish saw this and rounded all the sympathizers of the rebels mostly villagers into camps. This meant that they could not access their farms, obtain food and supply the rebels. The Spanish destroyed the Cubans food stores and farms by setting them ablaze. The Cubans who had been settled in the camps by the Spanish were living in poor conditions. Most of them died because of lack food and poor health conditions. The author argues that approximately eight people in the camps lost their lives because of such conditions. This forced the United States to intervene after seeing the conditions to which the Cubans were subjected to in the camps (Graves, 2000). The living conditions of the Cubans were not the only the subject that caused the US to intervene. US citizens were also working in and had invested in Cuba. According to Dolan (2001), the US citizens’ businesses were under threat from the fight between the Spanish colonists and Cubans who were demanding for freedom and relaxation of Spanish laws. The United States, seeing this threat to both its citizens and their businesses started sending rescue missions to Cuba. Cuba as earlier pointed on this paper is an island and only few miles from one of the US states Florida. According to Dolan (2001), the guerrilla war used by the Cubans forces attracted the US government. This is because the Cubans rebels destroyed the economy in the island by burning down sugarcane plantations, waylaying the Spanish troops and killing them and attacking the Spanish military stations. Most of the sugarcane plantations were property of Americans citizens. The destructions by the Cubans’ rebels attracted much attention from the US. The US government had to intervene to safeguard property owned by US citizens and the citizens themselves. According to the Dolan (2001), rebels did the destructions intentionally to get US attention so that they could help them in fight for independence. The US economy was falling because of the destruction of their property in Cuba. US had invested close to $50 million on sugarcane farms. Additionally, trade investments between US and Cuba were approximately $100 million every year just before the start on the fight between the Spanish and Cubans rebels. The rescue mission that was sent to Cuba by the US was the Maine battle ship. On arrival to Cuba they found out that the rioting had stopped and people were busy celebrating. Dolan (2001) explains that people were shouting, playing loud music to celebrate the start of annual prayer and fasting season. The battle ship later left Havana, the Cuban island, but was attacked by the Spanish causing it to sink. According to Graves (2000), the ship was sent by the US only for a rescue mission. The US President, William McKinley, had no issues with the Spanish and had no plans of fighting with them. The Spanish decided to open the camps and set free the Cubans so as to stop the fighting rebels. In addition, they gave the Cubans leaders the right to make their own decisions regarding the kind of leadership they needed. However the Cubans were not satisfied, they continued fighting because they wanted the colonists to move out of their country in order to get full freedom. All this happen before the US reaction of which the battle Ship Maine was sent to Havana. As mentioned earlier above the US battle ship was sunk by the Spanish. The ship exploded after it was hit with something believed to have been from the Spanish fighters. Most of the crew and other sailors in the ship died from the cause of explosion. The investigation from the US Navy found nothing as to the cause of the explosion: however, blame was laid on the Spanish. Most Americans believed that they were the cause of explosion. The US media run stories about explosion; they showed that Spanish were behind their sunken ship. However, the stories in the US Newspapers were not true based on the investigation on the sunken ship. They only wanted the US to fight with the Spanish. Additionally, the Americans wanted to resolve the fight between the Cubans and the Spanish by giving freedom to the Cubans. The arraignment of war between the Spanish and American were arranged immediately. The US had a small number of troops but they called for more through voluntarism. US soldiers were only 26000, but more soldiers were added and the number increased to 62000. Furthermore, the government called for volunteers and 125000 people were recruited to the army. The requirement of more soldiers was because the Spanish had more soldiers in Cuba who were ready to face the Americans fighters. Spanish soldiers were 80000, a number that forced the US to recruit more and ask for volunteers. The high number of the troops was problematic to the US since they all required transport to Cuba to fight the Spanish. Additionally, training and provision of weapons to new recruits surpassed the capacity of the US military. Furthermore, the uniforms used in the US army could not be provided to volunteers. US army decided to provide old rifles using black powder to volunteers. The fighters were also met with harsh climatic conditions of Cuba and diseases such as malaria. Cubans fighters were dark skinned as compared to American fighters. This was an unusual expectation to the US forces. They had thought that Spanish forces were dark skinned. The US forces could not fight along with the Cubans revolution rebels because of their colour and their behaviour. Cuban rebels were depicted as indiscipline, poorly dressed, poorly trained and dark skinned while the Spanish forces were good mannered, sharp in war and light skinned. The Cubans rebels’ strategy of fighting was the guerrilla style. The US forces could not fight along with them based on their tactics and behaviours (Murrin et al 2010). The first battle between American and Spanish forces was fought in Manila, Philippines harbour. The Spanish had big investments in Manila because most of their trade was conducted there. Additionally, it was an open door to the whole war since the Spanish goods were traded with other countries through Manila bay. American forces took over Manila bay and weakened the Spanish forces since they could not trade with other nations. America won the war in Manila bay and took over from the Spanish. Later in June they proceeded to Cuba, fought with the Spanish forces and destroyed most of their fleet. The Spanish forces surrendered at the end of June. The main aim of the US government according to Murrin et al (2010) was to take control of the previously Spanish owned islands before war like Porto Rico, Philippines and Guam. Additionally, they wanted to assist the Cubans be independent from Spanish. Conclusion The Spanish-American war was driven by the Cubans demand for independence. However, the study shows that Cubans used different tactics to start a war between the US and Spain like the destruction of US property. Americans had invested in Cuba and most of its citizens were working there. The fight could have endangered their lives and destroyed their property. Spanish was shown from the paper and the most powerful colonies before war between Americans whereby most of the properties destroyed and trade with other countries brought to halt. References Dolan, E. F. (2001), The Spanish-American War, USA: Twenty-First Century Books. Graves, K. A. (2000), The Spanish-American War, USA: Capstone. Hernández, R. E. (2009),The Spanish-American War, Malaysia: Marshall Cavendish. Murrin, J., Johnson, P., McPherson, J., Gerstle, G. and Fahs, A. (2010), Liberty, Equality, Power: A History of the American People, Vol. II: Since 1863, Concise Edition, Volume 2, USA: Cengage Learning. Read More