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The Spanish American War Begins

http://readingthroughhistory.com/ Transcript: The Spanish American War Begins Before you can understand the U.S. occupation of the Philippines, you need to know what Imperialism is. This is whenever powerful nations attempt to control the economic and political affairs of a weaker people, either by colonization, force, or manipulation. In the early days of American colonization, Spain controlled most of middle and South America. As a result, most of the areas south of the United States is Catholic and speaks Spanish. As the 19th century heated up, Spain began losing its colonies in the Americas, one by one. Some through struggles, while other areas were let go to avoid a fight. By 1890, this once vast empire consisted of merely Cuba and Puerto Rico. While the Progressive Era was going strong in the United States, a revolt broke out in Cuba in 1895. A Spanish general by the name of Valeriono Weyler was in charge of putting down the revolt. Hundreds of thousands of Cuban nationalists were imprisoned, and hundreds of thousands died as a result of brutal treatment. Most Americans wouldn’t have cared about what was going on in Cuba, but times were changing in America. Two different journalists fought a duel with one another in their coverage of the situation in Cuba. They were Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst. In order to sell papers, they engaged in yellow journalism. This is a style of writing to try and stir up emotions in an attempt to sell newspapers. Public opinion forced President McKinley to take action. In January of 1898, McKinley sent a vessel, the USS Maine, to Havana harbor in Cuba to warn Spain that America cared about the situation in Cuba, which lies a mere 90 miles from Florida. In the late evening hours of February 14, 1898, the battleship Maine exploded, killing 260 American sailors. The yellow journalists fanned the flames with headlines such as, “Remember the Maine!” Spain was given the blame and Americans began calling for action. On April 20, 1898, McKinley declared Cuba to be independent. On April 25, 1898, Congress declared war on Spain. What followed was a four month war that never should have happened. The action began with Commodore George Dewey sailing for the Philippines. He was already headed that direction in one of those incidents that was supposed to look like a coincidence, but was blatantly obvious. A man who had previously been Assistant Secretary to the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt, had made it clear, “If we ever go to war with Spain, take the Philippines!” To put it bluntly, Spain had it and the U.S. wanted it. Once notified of the war, Commodore Dewey had his men paint all the ships. Once a bright white, the ships were soon covered with a dull gray to make them less visible to the enemy. Dewey ordered everything made of wood, including the piano on his flagship Olympia, tossed over the side. Splintered wood presented a greater danger to his crews than enemy shells. Then with chairs and tables bobbing in the water behind them, the ships went to seek out the Spanish fleet. What ensued in the Philippines was the Battle of Manila Bay, but it wasn’t much of a battle. America’s ironclad battleships began lobbing shells at the Spanish flotillas and the devastating destruction began. After 8 rounds, the Spanish fleet ceased to exist. Spain suffered 380 dead and wounded. 8 Americans had minor wounds, and one sailor died of a heat stroke. On top of that, all Spanish Naval power in that part of the Pacific was gone. George Dewey became an overnight hero. But that wasn’t the end of the story in the Philippines. The rebelling forces there were led by a guy named Emilio Aquinaldo. He wanted independence from Spain, and everyone else, posing a conflict of interest. America wanted the islands, so did the Filipinos. Aquinaldo was happy to see American soldiers at first, but he soon began to grasp the situation. Spain felt they could hold the Philippines, that is, until the Americans showed up. To save pride, Spain hoped to fight and lose the territory to the Americans, not the Filipinos. So a skirmish known as the Battle of Manila was arranged, which Aquinaldo knew nothing about. At the set hour, the Americans bombarded and stormed over the barracks, resulting in 40 Spanish soldiers being killed. The U.S. then set out to subdue the Filipinos, which controlled most of the Philippine islands. Detention camps for Filipinos were set up around the islands, and 20,000 Filipinos perished fighting the occupying US forces. Over 200,000 Filipinos died due to disease or starvation during the conflict, while US casualties numbered around 6,000. Over 70,000 US troops were involved. Eventually, Aquinaldo was captured and the Philippines became a U.S. territory, thus making the US an imperial power for the 1st time.

• published: 02 Oct 2014
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