War Spanish-American

The Guerre Spanish-American took place in 1898, and had as a consequence the independence of Cuba and the takeover of old Spanish colonies in the the Caribbean and the Pacifique by the the United States.

Context

The position of the Spain as a world power had declined. At the end of the 19th century only some small possessions in the Pacific Ocean remained to him, the Africa and the the Indies, most of sound colonial empire had acquired its independence, and a certain number of the zones still under Spanish control was likely to do it. The Guérilla S operated in the Filipino , and had been present at Cuba during decades.

Towards 1894, the American capital invested in the sugar plantations and the refineries of Cuba represents approximately 50 million dollars and the annual Commerce between the United States and Cuba a hundred million dollars. The Sucre constitutes by far the principal product of export and is past mainly towards the United States. In addition, certain numbers of followers of the commodore Alfred Mahan, celebrates theorist and strategist, saw in this island close to the United States a zone favourable with the creation of naval bases.

However, Cuba will know disorders. The small people of the let us peons lived there already in misery, even at the time of economic prosperity. But after 1890, a series of difficulties makes their situation even more intolerable: increased competition of the European sugar of Beet, lowers price of the sugar at the time of the depression of 1893 and especially the customs tariff Wilson-Gorman (1894) which increased by 40% the customs duties on sugar and made disappear the privileged position from cuban sugar on the US market. Being given that sugar accounted for 80% of the resources of the island, the result was catastrophic. The social sufferings which resulted from this and latent dissatisfaction against the Spanish domination - which had already brought in the past a series of revolts, in particular in 1868-1878, - caused a rebellion in March 1895.

On both sides one showed cruelty. The Spanish general Valériano Weyler, starting from February 1896, practiced a policy of regrouping forced of most of the population - including women, children, old men - behind barbed iron wire. The food and medical conditions being absolutely insufficient, of the thousands of reconcentrados died, it was the first modern case of Concentration camp. In two years, a eighth of the population, i.e. approximately 200.000 people, succumbed. On their side, revolted the Politique burned ground practiced, ransacking and destroying the properties of the partisans of Spain and devastating the sugar plantations. Their goal was to cause the defeat of the Spaniards by exhausting all their resources.

The Public opinion American, influenced remainder by the cuban revolutionary committees of New York, rather quickly expressed its sympathy to those which fought for their independence. Certain particularly avid newspapers of sensational, especially the New York World of Joseph Pulitzer and the New York Newspaper of William Randolph Hearst, made great case of the cruelty of the Spaniards and their commander-in-chief, Weyler, called “the butcher”. Protestant newspapers - perhaps partly by hostility with regard to the catholic priests of Cuba - as well as certain numbers of republican and democratic bodies were declared in favor of an intervention in favor of the insurrectionists for purely humane reasons. In addition, of the partisans of the expansion such Theodore Roosevelt, Lodge or Whitelaw Reid of the New York Platform, claimed also an intervention.

These events in Cuba coincided in the years 1890 with a battle for the readers between the American press groups Hearst and Pulitzer. The style of Hearst, qualified “yellow journalism”, could have supplanted that of Pulitzer, and it used the capacity of the press to influence the American opinion in favor of the war. In spite of the documents attesting of the atrocities made in the island, and the reality of a rebellion which fought the Spanish yoke, Hearst often manufactured stories or assembled them out of pin in a highly provocative language. Hearst published accounts sensationnalists on the atrocities which the “cruel Spaniards” inflicted to the “Cubains poor”. Scandalized by “the inhumanity” of Spanish, the Americans were incited to ask for a “intervention” that even the blasés falcons, the such young person Theodore Roosevelt, would have regarded as a regulated business. Hearst is known for its famous answer to a request of its illustrator, Frederic Remington, to return from a calm stay and without events to Havana: “ Please remain. You provide the images, and I will provide the war. ”

On the other hand, the newspapers reflecting the thought of the financial economic circles or emphasized that a Guerre would compromise the economic re-establishment which started to appear in 1897 and would threaten monetary stability based on the Gold Standard.

Being given the passion aspect of the debate and the nature of the fight to Cuba, it was not easy for the US government to maintain a position of Neutralité. The president Cleveland made any possible sound not to be let involve in an adventure, in spite of the pressures of the Congrès. Its successor McKinley endeavoured to pursue the same policy of prudence. The starter of a policy of reforms in Cuba by Spain - reference of Weyler, obtaining by the Cubans of the same political rights as the Spaniards, promise of a possible internal autonomy - was far from satisfying revolted but was well accommodated by the US government and part of the press. The November 6th 1897, the Washington Post titrated: “ No war with Spain. All indications not to peace. ” (No war with Spain. Any door to be accepted peace.) A series of incidents was however going to make assemble the tension between the United States and Spain.

Rise of the tension

The publication, the February 9th 1898, by the New York Newspaper of a private letter of the Spanish ambassador with Washington DC, Enrique Dupuy of Lome, concealed by a spy of the insurrectionists, made great noise: in this missive, the author described president McKinley like “ weak seeking the admiration of crowd ”!

Six days later, the battleship “US Maine” exploded in the roads of Havana.

In spite of the newspapers - if one puts aside the Newspaper and World -, the politicians, the business men and the members of the clergy which called with calm, the public opinion was reached, according to the expression of a European diplomat, “a kind of quarrelsome fury”. Demonstrations burned Spaniards in effigy in the streets: a warlike enthusiasm broke from one end to another of the country. In front of the inaction of the government, one started to whistle McKinley in the streets and the Théâtre S.

In front of the rise of this tide of Warmongering, the lawyers of the Paix started to weaken. The Chicago Times Herald wrote the March 9th 1898: the intervention in Cuba is now inevitable. Our internal political conditions do not make it possible to push back it. Of other newspapers encased the step. 19, a Republican senator of the Vermont, moderated and respected, Redfield Proctor, declared in front of the Senate that a recent voyage to Cuba had convinced it of the cogency of an intervention. Many business men, economic organizations, various religious groups which had been shown moderated started to change opinion. Many political directors decided that it was not from now on reasonable any more to be opposed to the general request in favor of the war. Among Democrats, for example, Bryan, which had expressed much prudence up to that point, decided at the end of March for the intervention. On their side, many republicans made pressure on the government that they threatened not to support more if it did not take account of the popular will more.

In front of was such a warlike fever, which the attitude of McKinley? Personally eager to avoid the war, he asked the March 27th 1898 Spain to conclude an armistice with revolted, to remove the policy of the concentration camps, finally to accept an American mediation. In fact, it was arranged to announce in Spain which it wished that Cuba obtained its independence. The Spanish government accepted all, except the promise of independence. As Ernest May notices it, while refusing most important of the American requirements, Spain accepted the possibility of a war with the United States.

In the United States, the party of the war, which continued to be organized, reinforced its pressure on the president. This one did not want to leave the Democrats, in this year of election, the privilege to defend the independence of Cuba. He feared also an initiative of the Congress which would put it in the embarrassment. Also, in spite of the concessions of Spain, McKinley proposed it with the Congress, the April 11th 1898, an intervention. 19, this one declared that Cuba was to be free and authorized the use of the force to release the island. An amendment specified that the United States would not annex the island. Spain hopelessly sought the support of the other European powers, but without success. Admittedly, its cause was hardly attracting. But especially the countries of Europe worried not to be scrambled with the United States with all the economic consequences and financial that could involve. Given up of all, Spain did not have an other solution only to declare the war in the United States the April 24th 1898, the US Navy having on their side already established the Blocus of the island as of the 21.

Finally, to which McKinley pressures had it yielded? The majority of the historians consider that the war did not burst under the pressure of the economic circles. If one puts besides some owners who had had their goods devastated in the island, the ship-owners engaged in the trade with Cuba and some individuals wishing to obtain contracts of the government, in fact, one cannot speak about concrete pressures of the economic circles on the government for an intervention in Cuba in 1898.

On the contrary, the business world endeavoured during three years to resist all the pressures, Julius W. Pratt, at the end of a meticulous study of the economic newspapers and financial, official reports of the Chambers of commerce and petitions sent to the State Department, concludes that the economic circles, banking, industrial and commercial, particularly in the East, were violently hostile with the war at the end of 1897 and at the beginning of 1898. The revival of the business which went back to 1893, had known two relapses, first once in 1895 and once again at the time of the countryside in favor of the free striking of the money in 1896. In 1897, the economic situation is restored again, the foreign trade was in progress; the industrialists, the tradesmen, the financial ones were optimistic. In interior policy, the great electoral fight of 1896 had led to the triumph of large the Capitalisme. Wasn't a war likely to come to throw the disorder? It “will put in danger the walk of prosperity”, writes the New Jersey Trade Review. The chief of the electoral organization of the Republican party, Hanna Mark, spokesperson with the Senate of the mediums of businesses, estimated that the war “for the interior economic policy”. The Wall Street Journal, in December 1897, and February 1898, wished qua the question of Cuba received a peaceful solution. Thus, Theodore Roosevelt, itself very favorable to the war, wrote it on April 5th, 1898 with Robert Bacon: “Here, in Washington, we have the impression that all those which have an unspecified bond with the interests of the big business are readies to go ahead of of any infamy in order to preserve peace and to prevent that the businesses are not disturbed. ”

For the American historian Walther Feber, on the contrary, “the American economic community was not also monolithic in its opposition to war”. She even would have been already strongly worried by search for new markets, in particular since the depression of 1893. For Feber, it is not the influence of the Congress nor that of the journalists with feeling who starting from April 10th explain the hardening of the attitude of McKinley, but the evolution in extremis of many business men in favor of a policy warmonger. McKinley did not wish the war and even tried to avoid it, but he wanted also what only a war could obtain: the independence of Cuba and at the same time the disappearance of the uncertainty which weighed on the political life and economic country. At all events, in front of the speed of military successes, the reserves expressed by the industrialists disappeared. Initially, one realized that the war could be short and would facilitate the economic revival. Then the triumph of the admiral Dewey with Manila offered, with the possibility of a fulcrum in the Far East, the means of thwarting the advantages that the Russian Empire, the German Empire, the British Empire and the France had recently gained with obtaining territories with lease in China.

However, even if McKinley had decided to become intransigent only when it had had the certainty to obtain the support of certain numbers of business men, it should not be forgotten that it was subjected to an enormous pressure on behalf of the public opinion. In front of the rise of the feeling warmonger, McKinley feared to cause a scission in the Republican party and to ruin its chances of re-election in 1900 if it continued to be opposed to the war. The mediums of businesses, in fact had adopted the idea of an expansionist policy preached by others for a long time. They had not been the promoters.

Which was warmonger thus the origin of basic vagueness? Ernest R. May, in Imperial book Democracy, proposes a psychological explanation of order . The United States was in a situation of concern. This country, up to that point largely protesting and English, with the rural economy, had seen in little time the number of catholics to increase as well as industrialization and the urbanization to triumph. A faintness seized the population of old stock. This latent concern was abruptly revived by the Crise of 1893. Was there a kind of irrational transfer of these anxieties and its anguishes on the Cubans suffering them too? Perhaps for the people as for the US government, the war with the Spanish Empire monarchical, catholic, Latin did not have an other goal only to remedy their own concerns. In any case, never perhaps the nation did not know similar unanimity.

There were however more true and sincere pressures incentive with the war. Confronted with the defeat and a lack of money and resources to continue to fight the Spanish occupation, the cuban revolutionists and their future president, Tomás Estrada Palma, deposited secretly 150 million Dollar S in an US bank to buy the independence of Cuba, which Spain refused. It negotiated then skilfully and made the propaganda of its cause near the American Congrès, possibly while guaranteeing to pay the invoice of an American intervention.

The Marine of the United States of America then had developed considerably, but had not on the occasion yet to be tested, and several old men dogs of war were enthusiastic with the idea to test and use their new tools. The navy had conceived plans to attack the Spaniards in Philippines more than one year before the beginning of the hostilities. The end of the Conquest of the West and the conflict on large scale with the Amerindian left the unoccupied army, and the staffs hoped that a new task would fall to them soon. Since key period old, certain American had thought that Cuba returned to them from right. Oneself-saying the theory of the Destinée proclamation made island, with the doors of the coasts of the Florida, a candidate very designated for the American expansion. The majority of the insular economy was already in the hands of America, and the majority of its trade, of which a good part was clandestine, was carried out with the United States. Some economic leaders them also incited with the conflict. According to the proper words of the senator of the Nebraska John Mr. Thurson: “The war with Spain could increase the trade and the incomes of each American railroad company; that could increase the production of each American factory; that could stimulate each branch of industry and the domestic trade. ”

In Spain, the government was not completely in discredit of the war. The United States was not a proven power, whereas the Spanish navy though decrepitates had a glorious past; it was thought that could be a challenge in the United States. There existed also a largely widespread concept near the aristocratic leaders Spanish that the armed and the marine with the United States, borrow of an ethnic co-education some, could not never survive such strong pressures.

The war

The February 15th 1898, an explosion took place aboard warship of US Navy US Maine, anchored in the port of Havana which ran quickly, resulting in the death of 266 men. The evidence as for the cause of the explosion was not very conclusive because contradictory, nevertheless, the American press, carried out by both newspapers New Yorkean, proclaimed that it was certainly a wretched act of sabotage made by the Spaniards. The press pushed the public to claim the war with this slogan: " You of Maine recall! Spain in hell! " ( Remember the Maine, To Hell with Spain! ). This chauvinistic feeling and warmonger took the name of Jingoïsme, expression invented in the United Kingdom in 1878. Thanks to the modern scientific projections, one agrees to say that this explosion was due to a spontaneous combustion of stores of powder too located close to sources of heat.

The fight between Spain and the United States was unequal. Admittedly on paper, Spain could appear powerful: 200 000 soldiers in Cuba and a fleet of armoured Cruiser S and Destroyer S higher of number than the US Navy. But the warships of this one much more recent and was involved better. Spain opposed in fact only one low resistance and military operations were rather short. It had placed, seems it its hopes in an outside assistance, a European intervention, which did not occur.

Most popular of all the American wars, the spendid little war , according to the expression of John Hay, is organized in the United States in worst confusion. The US Army counting only 28 183 men, one called upon volunteers who received only rifle S obsolete and missed tents and covers. Not having a Uniform S of summer, they left for the tropics with the heavy blue uniform in Laine! The first engagements were held not in Cuba but in Philippines, also Spanish possessions. The American squadron of the Pacific made up of 7 warships, ordered by the admiral George Dewey, sent by the bottom or captured, at the dawn of May 1st 1898, the Spanish fleet of 8 ships of the admiral Patricio Montojo by losing only one man (of a Heart attack) during the Bataille of Surges in bay of Manila.

In Cuba even, a task force of 17 000 men unloaded the June 20th 1898. Among them, there was a unit of volunteers - the Régiment of Cavalerie of the Rough Riders - ordered titrates some by the Colonel Leonard Wood and makes some by the lieutenant-colonel Theodore Roosevelt who had resigned of his station of assistant secretary off the Navy on May 7th, 1898 to join forwarding. The Spanish Armée could not benefit from its numerical superiority. It is true that they had only 13 000 men on the spot of the unloading and which they were very badly organized for the transport of their troops. In the combat which were held for the catch heights of the Collines San Juan, Theodore Roosevelt establishes his reputation of bold soldier and hero. These combat were hard and bloody besides, and the Americans, badly ordered, lack reinforcements, food and of Munition S, were “at the edge of a military disaster”, according to the opinion even of Roosevelt.

It is still on sea that the fate of the weapons was played: the American fleet ran in a few hours the Spanish ships of the admiral Cervera who tried to leave the port of Santiago of Cuba the July 13rd. Deprived of any naval support, the Spanish forces of Cuba capitulated the July 17th. Puerto Rico was occupied without resistance the July 25th by a quota of 500 men.

Finally, during this ten week old war, the American forces had lost 5 462 men including only 379 on the fields of Battle S while the Spanish forces deplored the losses of 2 generals, 581 officers and of 55 078 soldiers and sailors.

The August 12th 1898, the Spain accepted a Peace treaty preliminary putting an end to the hostilities at Cuba. The following day, Manila fell to the hands from the Americans helped by the Filipino insurrectionists. The treated of Paris signed the December 10th 1898 put an official term at this war.

Conclusion

With the treaty of Paris, Spain recognized the independence of Cuba, while yielding the Filipino , Puerto Rico and Guam in the United States, which paid 20 million dollars American in compensation. The same year, in an independent act, the United States annexed the islands of Hawaii. The following year, they acquired part of the archipelago of the Samoa. The United States suddenly had several territories beyond the North America.

The war of 1898 incontestably constituted a turning in the American history. The United States took seat in the great powers of planet. The Washington Post writes at the time a very penetrating leading article: “We have from now on to face a strange destiny. The taste of the empire at people is like the taste of blood for the animals of the jungle. That wants to say an imperial policy, a reappearing Republic taking its place in the middle of the nations out of weapons. ”

From now on the Americans could not be satisfied any more to deal but with their interior matters. The United States had established their supremacy on the the Caribbean and had extended their influence to the shores of the Asia. They had become a world power by the demonstration of their force and this one was going henceforth to affect the International policy of all the great powers.

See too

History of Cuba

External bonds

Films of time on the war Spanish-American and the Filipino insurection
Photographs of 1898
the war Spanish-American of 1898: An assumption of géostratégie compared, Stratisc.org

Simple: Spanish-American War

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