In 1890, a book written by Alfred T. Mahan called The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1600-1783 had a huge impact on many important people in the United States.

Mahan wrote that United States policy should have the goals of:

1. Conquest of the islands of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and the Philippines and smaller islands in both areas for bases to protect U.S. commerce

2. Building of a canal to enable fleet movement from ocean to ocean

3. Construction of the "Great White Fleet" of steam-driven armor plated battleships

The popularity of these ideas with the political leaders, newspapers, and general public grew strong. In 1896, William Warren Kimball, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate and intelligence officer, completed a secret strategic study of the implications of war with Spain. His plan called for an operation to free Cuba through naval action, which included blockade, attacks on Manila, and attacks on the Spanish Mediterranean coast.

Spain, which had once been a super-power in the exciting days of Christopher Columbus and Spanish Conquistadors of hundreds of years ago was now weak. Many people who lived under Spanish rule sought to free themselves from Spain. Many leading Americans saw this as a chance to take advantage of the troubles and gain control of Spanish possessions for America just as Mahan's book had proposed.

President Cleveland did not completely endorse this approach and in 1896 Cleveland proclaimed that American would stay neutral in the fight between Spain and freedom fighters in places like Cuba and the Philippine Islands.

In January of 1897, both William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal newspaper and Joseph Pulitzer's New York World newspaper, through their sensational reporting on the Cuban Insurrection, helped strengthen anti-Spanish sentiment in the United States. On the day of the execution of Cuban rebel Adolfo Rodríguez by a Spanish firing squad, the article "Death of Rodríguez" in the New York Journal by Richard Harding Davis stirred up Americans against Spain. On October 8, 1897, Karl Decker of the New York Journal reported on the rescue of Cuban Evangelina Cisneros from a prison on the Isle of Pines, which further angered Americans.

In 1898 a new President, William McKinley, was elected and with him a new Navy Secretary Theodore Roosevelt. The Spanish Prime Minister Antonio Cánovas had been assassinated and Spain's already weak government was becoming even weaker. Spain granted limited independence to Cuba. But when the ship, U.S.S. Maine, exploded in Havana (Cuba) Harbor, the calls for war were overwhelming.

Headlines around the country boldly read, "Remember the Maine!"

Congress and the United States business community strongly favored the war to obtain lands that could help Americans gain key markets and shipping routes. By March, the battleship U.S.S. Oregon left the port of San Francisco, California on a famous voyage to the Caribbean Sea and Cuban waters. The states of Washington, Oregon, and California placed gun emplacements along their shores in anticipation of a war with Spain's navy as the U.S. Government issued demands to Spain about turning over its land to the United States. In April 1898, the New York Journal issued a million-copy press run dedicated to the war in Cuba. The newspaper called for the immediate U.S. entry into war with Spain. The "Splendid Little War" was begun as war fever swept the Congress and the country! A state of war existed between Spain and the United States and all diplomatic relations were suspended.

U.S. President William McKinley ordered a blockade of Cuba. Spanish forces in Santiago de Cuba mined Guantánamo Bay. The U.S. fleet left Key West, Florida for Havana to begin the Cuban blockade. President McKinley called for 125,000 volunteers. By April 25th, 1898, war was formally declared between Spain and the United States.

There were some leading citizens, however, who did not like the way America was behaving. Anti-war Anti-Imperialists assembled around the country. Among its members were Andrew Carnegie, Mark Twain, William James, David Starr Jordan, and Samuel Gompers. George S. Boutwell, a former secretary of the treasury and Massachusett's senator, served as president of the League.

It was a short war. On May 1, 1898, calmly saying, "You may fire when you are ready, Gridley" U.S. Commodore George Dewey defeated the Spanish squadron in the Philippine Islands in only six hours.

In June, a group of soldiers called the "Rough Riders" sailed from Tampa, Florida bound for Santiago de Cuba.  Later, Theodore Roosevelt led a famous charge up San Juan Hill and into American history. American victory over Spain was easy.

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Read more about Theodore Roosevelt and the Rough Riders at:

Rough Riders
Library of Congress

By August, the war with Spain was all but over. U.S. General Arthur MacArthur, whose son Douglas would gain fame in the Philippines in World War II, was appointed military commander of the area. Representatives of Spain and the United States signed the Treaty of Peace in Paris. Spain renounced all rights to Cuba and allowed an independent Cuba, ceded Puerto Rico and the island of Guam to the United States, gave up its possessions in the West Indies, and sold the Philippine Islands, receiving in exchange $20,000,000. Newspapers and leaders all over the country called it, "a Splendid Little War".

Many people, who were freedom fighters, did not think that replacing Spain with the United States was such a good idea. They rebelled throughout the new American territories. By 1902 when the Treaty of Paris was proclaimed and hostilities ended within the new possessions, more than 4,200 U.S. soldiers, 20,000 Filipino soldiers, and 200,000 Filipino civilians were dead.

The U.S. stated that the U.S. had declared war on Spain and all of its possessions because of the destruction of the battleship U.S.S. Maine and other acts against the United States. However, it is generally accepted today that the U.S. fostered the hostilities to obtain expanded lands and influence throughout the world, urged by media and business interests who profited from the war. A vast amount of land and Islands from Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Caribbean to Hawaii, Wake, Guam, and the Philippines in the Pacific Ocean were gained and would later play a role in World War II.

Without the Spanish American War, the movie "Pearl Harbor" would not make sense, since Hawaii would not be American. You will have to study Hawaiian history on your own … no time here for details.

Oh, by the way ... did you see the movie "Thirteen Days" about President Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis of 1962? Well, guess what? Then and now we have a base in Cuba at Guantánamo Bay which to this day is a source of controversy ... all thanks to the "Splendid Little War". Ever see the Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson movie "A Few Good Men"? Once again ... no Spanish American War, no movie! The Spanish American War, called "the Splendid Little War", has helped make possible a few "splendid little movies"!

And in your lifetime ... Puerto Rico may become the 51st state ... votes on statehood have come and gone many times ... how is that for a war you probably never heard of before????

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