Spanish-American War (1898)

Directions: As you read about the Spanish-American War, write notes to answer the questions about its causes and effects.

Causes: How did each of the following help to cause the outbreak of the Spanish-American War?

1. American business owners-were interested in Cuba because it was so close to Florida and they coud get great benificial profits from it, the Americans said they were interested and then Spain responded by saying something like they'd rather Cuba drown than be owned by the U.S.

2. José Martí-he organized revolts that destroyed American sugar plantations to provoke the Americans, and then the Americans were split on wether to help Spain or the Cubans.

3. Valeriano Weyler-is a general of Spain, sent to Cuba to restore order, his attempt at restoring order was to send the population of central and western Cuba into barbed wire concentration camps, newspaper headlines in America were writing crazily about these concentration camps.

4. Yellow journalism-is the style of writing that the journalists use that exaggerated the true stories of the concentration camps and what Spain was doing, for example they said that children were thrown in the water to sharks, which made Americans more sympathetic towards the rebels.

5. De Lôme letter-the minister of Spain (Enrique Dupuy de Lome) wrote a letter and a Cuban took it from the post office and gave it to a newspaper company, the U.S. saw the letter which insulted President McKinley (it called him "weak") and the U.S. grew furious at Spain for insulting them.

6. U.S.S. Maine-went to Cuba to retrieve American citizens so they'd be safe and protected (ordered by President McKinley after the De Lome letter), and in the harbor the ship blew up (1898), and then newspapers blamed Spain for purposely blowing up the ship and asked for the capture of the terrorist with a reward if captured.


Effects: What happened to each of the following territories as a result of the Spanish-American War?

7. Cuba-handed over to the U.S. from Spain when they made the treaty and after the armistice

8. Puerto Rico-handed over to the U.S. from Spain when they made the treaty and after the armistice

9. Guam-handed over to the U.S. from Spain after the armistice and when they were in Paris making a treaty

10. Philippine Islands-sold to America for $20 million from Spain after the armistice and in the making of the treaty while in Paris, treaty was called the Treaty of Paris and was a great debate because some people weren't sure if the U.S. was allowed to annex the Philippines Islands, but Congress passed the Treaty of Paris and all of the above nations were added to the U.S. dominion. Also, a question raised was wether or not the annexation went against the Decleration of Independence for allowing a newly added nation to self-govern.