AP® United States History review sheet from Aim for Five (aimforfive.com/us-history/units/7/7-3)
Unit 7 · Topic 7.3
7.3 The Spanish–American War
In 1898 the U.S. went to war with Spain, sparked by Cuba's war for independence, sensational 'yellow journalism' and the explosion of the USS Maine. The quick victory gave the U.S. Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines and control over Cuba, followed by a long, brutal war to defeat Filipinos fighting for independence.
Key terms
- yellow journalism
- USS Maine
- Treaty of Paris (1898)
- Philippine–American War
- Platt Amendment
See it on a map: 1898: Hawaii · 1898: Hawaii and the war with Spain
Causes of the war
- Cuba's revolt: Cubans rebelled against Spanish rule in 1895. Spanish General Valeriano Weyler forced civilians into 'reconcentration' camps, where many thousands died of disease and hunger.
- Yellow journalism: newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst (New York Journal) and Joseph Pulitzer (New York World) printed exaggerated, sensational stories about Spanish cruelty to sell papers and build war fever.
- The de Lôme letter (February 1898): a private letter by Spain's minister to the U.S. calling President McKinley weak was stolen and published by Hearst.
- The USS Maine: on February 15, 1898, the battleship exploded in Havana harbor, killing more than 250 American sailors. A U.S. Navy inquiry blamed a mine, and papers cried 'Remember the Maine!' A 1976 study led by Admiral Hyman Rickover pointed instead to an accidental coal-bunker fire inside the ship, though the cause has never been settled.
- Economic and strategic interests: Americans had millions of dollars invested in Cuban sugar, and expansionists saw a chance to gain bases and territory.
A 'splendid little war'
Congress declared war in April 1898. It also passed the Teller Amendment, promising that the U.S. would not annex Cuba.
The first big blow fell in the Philippines, another Spanish colony. Commodore George Dewey's fleet destroyed the Spanish squadron in Manila Bay on May 1, 1898. In Cuba, U.S. troops including Theodore Roosevelt's volunteer 'Rough Riders' and Black regulars of the 9th and 10th Cavalry (the 'Buffalo Soldiers') fought at San Juan Hill and Kettle Hill in July, and the U.S. Navy destroyed Spain's Caribbean fleet off Santiago. Fighting was over by August.
John Hay, then ambassador to Britain and soon secretary of state, called it a 'splendid little war'. Far more American soldiers died of diseases like yellow fever and typhoid than in combat.
The Treaty of Paris and its results
In the Treaty of Paris (December 1898), Spain gave up Cuba and ceded Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines to the U.S., which paid Spain $20 million for the Philippines. After fierce debate (7.2), the Senate ratified the treaty in February 1899 by just one vote more than the needed two-thirds.
Cuba became independent in name, but the Platt Amendment (1901), which the U.S. required Cuba to put in its constitution, let the U.S. intervene in Cuban affairs, limited Cuba's treaty-making and gave the U.S. a naval base at Guantánamo Bay. It lasted until 1934.
Puerto Rico became a U.S. territory. The Foraker Act (1900) set up a government with a governor appointed by the U.S., and the Jones Act (1917) made Puerto Ricans U.S. citizens.
The Philippine–American War
Filipinos led by Emilio Aguinaldo had been fighting Spain and declared independence in 1898. When the U.S. decided to keep the islands, war broke out in February 1899. U.S. forces fought a brutal counterinsurgency war, burning villages and moving civilians into camps, much like the Spanish methods Americans had condemned in Cuba. Aguinaldo was captured in 1901, and the U.S. declared the war over in 1902, though fighting continued in some areas for years.
More than 4,000 American soldiers and around 20,000 Filipino soldiers died, and historians' estimates of Filipino civilian deaths, mostly from disease, hunger and violence, start at about 200,000. The Philippines gained independence only in 1946.
Worked examples
Try each one yourself first, then open the solution.
- Example 1
Ranking causes
Short-answer practice: Explain the most important cause of the Spanish–American War, and support your choice.
Show the solutionHide the solution
- Step 1: Pick one cause and say clearly that it is the most important.
- Step 2: Support it with specific evidence.
- Step 3: Briefly explain why it mattered more than another cause; this shows reasoning, not just recall.
Answer: Model answer: The most important cause was American public opinion, inflamed by yellow journalism. Newspapers owned by Hearst and Pulitzer filled their pages with exaggerated stories of Spanish atrocities in Cuba, and after the USS Maine exploded in February 1898, they blamed Spain without evidence. This public pressure pushed a reluctant President McKinley to ask for war. Economic interests in Cuban sugar mattered, but business leaders were divided about war, so they alone would not have caused it.
Common mistakes
- Saying the Maine was proven to be sunk by Spain. The cause was never proven, and later studies point to an internal explosion.
- Forgetting the Philippine–American War. The fight against Filipino independence lasted far longer and killed far more people than the war with Spain.
- Thinking Cuba became a U.S. colony. The Teller Amendment barred annexation; the Platt Amendment created a protectorate instead.
On the exam
- Questions often ask how the war marked a turning point in U.S. foreign policy, from continental expansion to an overseas empire.
- Yellow journalism cartoons and headlines are common sources. Explain the purpose: selling papers and building support for war.
Connected topics
Videos
Check yourself
4 questions on 7.3 The Spanish–American War. Pick an answer to see if you got it, and why.
Which of the following most contributed to American public support for war with Spain in 1898?
The Philippine–American War (1899–1902) began mainly because
Source 1: "Shall we occupy new markets for what our farmers raise, our factories make, our merchants sell—aye, and please God, new markets for what our ships shall carry? . . . The Opposition tells us that we ought not to govern a people without their consent. I answer, The rule of liberty that all just government derives its authority from the consent of the governed, applies only to those who are capable of self-government. . . . Would not the people of the Philippines prefer the just, humane, civilizing government of this Republic to the savage, bloody rule of pillage and extortion from which we have rescued them?"
Source 2: "We hold that the policy known as imperialism is hostile to liberty and tends toward militarism, an evil from which it has been our glory to be free. We regret that it has become necessary in the land of Washington and Lincoln to reaffirm that all men, of whatever race or color, are entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We maintain that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. We insist that the subjugation of any people is 'criminal aggression' and open disloyalty to the distinctive principles of our Government."
Source 1: Albert J. Beveridge, Indiana Republican who was elected to the U.S. Senate a few months later, "The March of the Flag" campaign speech, September 1898. Source 2: Platform of the American Anti-Imperialist League, October 1899.
Beveridge's claim that consent of the governed "applies only to those who are capable of self-government" was used most directly to justify
"It is not true that the United States feels any land hunger or entertains any projects as regards the other nations of the Western Hemisphere save such as are for their welfare. . . .
Chronic wrongdoing, or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society, may in America, as elsewhere, ultimately require intervention by some civilized nation, and in the Western Hemisphere the adherence of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine may force the United States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an international police power."
Source: President Theodore Roosevelt, Annual Message to Congress, December 6, 1904.
The policy in the excerpt was most similar to
0 of 4 answered