Timeline
- 1895: Cuban nationalists revolt against Spanish rule
- 1896: Spanish General Weyler (the "Butcher") comes to Cuba.
- 1897: Spain recalls Weyler
- Early 1898: USS Maine sent to Cuba
- February 9, 1898: Hearst publishes Dupuy du Lome's letter insulting McKinley.
- February 15, 1898: Sinking of the USS Maine
- February 25, 1898: Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt cables Commodore Dewey with plan: attack the Philippines if war with Spain breaks out
- April 11, 1898: McKinley approves war with Spain
- April 24, 1898: Spain declares war on the US
- April 25, 1898: US declares war on Spain
- May 1, 1898: Battle of Manila Bay (Philippines)
- May, 1898: Passage of the Teller Amendment. July 1, 1898: San Juan Hill taken by "Rough Riders"
- July 3, 1898: Battle of Santiago Spain's Caribbean fleet destroyed. July 7, 1898: Hawaii annexed
- July 17, 1898: City of Santiago surrenders to General William Shafter
- August 12, 1898: Spain signs armistice
- August 13, 1898: US troops capture Manila
- December 10, 1898: Treaty of Paris signed US annexes Puerto Rico, Guam, Philippines.
- January 23, 1899: Philippines declares itself an independent republic Led by Emilio Aguinaldo, the self-declared Filipino government fights a guerilla war against the US that lasts longer than the Spanish-American War itself.
- February 6, 1899: the Treaty of Paris passes in the Senate
- 1900: Foraker Act Some self-government allowed in Puerto Rico.
- 1901: Supreme Court Insular Cases
- March 1901: Emilio Auginaldo captured.
- 1901: Platt Amendment
- 1902: US withdraws from Cuba
- 1917: Puerto Ricans given US citizenship
Quotes people said in the WAr :
"We can no longer afford to disregard international rivalries now that we ourselves have become a competitor in the world-wide struggle for trade."
- U.S. Department memorandum,1898
"The guns that thundered off Manila and Santiago left us echoes of glory, but they also left us a legacy of duty. If we drove out a medieval tyranny only to make room for savage anarchy we had better not have begun the task at all. It is worse than idle to say that we have no duty to perform, and can leave to their fates the islands we have conquered. Such a course would be the course of infamy. It would be followed at once by utter chaos in the wretched islands themselves. Some stronger manlier power would have to step in and do the work, and we would have shown ourselves weaklings, unable to carry to successful completion the labors that great and high-spirited nations are eager to undertake."
-Theodore Roosevelt,1899
"Once the United States is in Cuba who will drive it out?"
-Cuban revolutionary Jose Marti, 1895
"In the time of darkest defeat, victory maybe nearest."
-William McKinley
"Cuba ought to be free and independent, and the government should be turned over to the Cuban people."
-William McKinley
- U.S. Department memorandum,1898
"The guns that thundered off Manila and Santiago left us echoes of glory, but they also left us a legacy of duty. If we drove out a medieval tyranny only to make room for savage anarchy we had better not have begun the task at all. It is worse than idle to say that we have no duty to perform, and can leave to their fates the islands we have conquered. Such a course would be the course of infamy. It would be followed at once by utter chaos in the wretched islands themselves. Some stronger manlier power would have to step in and do the work, and we would have shown ourselves weaklings, unable to carry to successful completion the labors that great and high-spirited nations are eager to undertake."
-Theodore Roosevelt,1899
"Once the United States is in Cuba who will drive it out?"
-Cuban revolutionary Jose Marti, 1895
"In the time of darkest defeat, victory maybe nearest."
-William McKinley
"Cuba ought to be free and independent, and the government should be turned over to the Cuban people."
-William McKinley