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President Pierce
Diplomats suggusted to President Franklin Pierce that the United States should Cuba from Spain. -
Cubans rebelled
Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, a sugar mill owner, and his followers proclaimed independence, beginning the fights. -
End of the 10 year war
The constitutional organs of the Cuban government ended. The remaining leaders among the insurgents started negotiating for peace in Zanjón, Puerto Príncipe. -
José Martí
José Martí ,a Cuban poet and journalist in exile in New York, launched revolutions. He organized Cuban resistance against Spain using an active guerilla campaign and destroyed property. He provoked U.S. intervention to help the rebels to free Cuba -
Hearst’s New York Journal
Hearst’s New York Journal and Pulitzer’s New York World printed exaggerated accounts by reporters such as James Creelman. Of the “Butcher” Weyler’s brutality. Stories of poisoned wells and of children being thrown to the sharks deepened American sympathy for the rebels. (known as yellow journalism) -
General Valeriano Weyler
Spain responded to the Cuban revolt by sending General Valeriano Weyler to Cuba to fix everything to how it was. -
President McKinley
President William McKinley took office in 1897. He tried to avoid the war. -
U.S.S. Maine to Cuba
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Enrique Dupuy de Lôme
The New York Journal published a private letter written by Enrique Dupuy de Lôme, Who was the Spanish minister to the United States. A Cuban rebel had stolen the letter from a Havana post office and leaked it to the newspaper, which was thirsty for scandal. The de Lôme letter criticized President McKinley, calling him “weak” and “a bidder for the admiration of the crowd.” Only a few days after the publication of the de Lôme letter, American resentment toward Spain turned to outrage. -
Harbor of Havana
President McKinley had ordered the U.S.S. Maine to Cuba to bring home American citizens in danger from the fighting and to protect American property. The ship sblew up in the harbor of Havana. More than 260 men were killed. -
Force against Spain
McKinley asked Congress for authority to use force against Spain. -
Declared War
The United States declared war against spain. -
Commodore George Dewey
Commodore George Dewey gave the command to open fire on the Spanish fleet at Manila, the Philippine capital. Dewey’s men destroyed every Spanish ship. Dewey’s victory allowed U.S. troops to land in the Philippines. Over the next two months, 11,000 Americans joined forces with Filipino rebels led by Emilio Aguinaldo. -
City of Santiago
American forces landed in Cuba and began to converge on the port city of Santiago. -
San Juan Hill
The first part of the battle, on nearby Kettle Hill, uphill charge by the Rough Riders and two African-American regiments, the Ninth and Tenth Cavalries. Their victory cleared the way for an infantry attack on the strategically important San Juan Hill. -
Puerto Rico
General Nelson Miles landed unopposed at Guánica, located in the southern coast of the island, on July 25, 1898, with the first contingent of American troops. Opposition was met in the southern and central regions of the island but by the end of August the island was under United States control. -
John Hay
The United States and Spain signed an armistice, a cease-fire agreement, on August 12, ending what Secretary of State John Hay called “a splendid little war.” (actual fighting only lasted 15 weeks) -
Manila
At Manila Bay in the Philippines, the U.S. Asiatic Squadron destroys the Spanish Pacific fleet in the first battle of the Spanish-American War. Nearly 400 Spanish sailors were killed and 10 Spanish warships wrecked or captured at the cost of only six Americans wounded. -
United States and Spain
United States and Spain met in Paris to agree on a treaty. At the peace talks, Spain freed Cuba and turned over the islands of Guam in the Pacific and Puerto Rico in the West Indies to the United States. Spain also sold the Philippines to the United States for $20 million. -
Treaty of Paris
The annexation (philippines) question was settled with the Senate’s approval of the Treaty of Paris. The United States now had an empire that included Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines.
