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The Ostend Manifesto, also known as the Ostend Circular, was a document written in 1854 that described the rationale for the United States to purchase Cuba from Spain while implying that the U.S. should declare war if Spain refused. Cuba's annexation had long been a goal of U.S. slaveholding expansionists. -
Dissatisfied with the corrupt and inefficient Spanish administration, lack of political representation, and high taxes, Cubans in the eastern provinces united under the wealthy planter Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, whose declaration of independence in October 1868 and the Cry of Yara signaled the beginning of the Ten Years’ War. -
His unification of the Cuban émigré community, particularly in Florida, was crucial to the success of the Cuban War of Independence against Spain. He was a key figure in the planning and execution of this war, as well as the designer of the Cuban Revolutionary Party and its ideology. -
the Spanish sent the infamous General Weyler, known as "The Butcher," to Cuba to put down the insurrection. Weyler lived up to his name. To prevent the insurrectos from leading the population against Spanish rule, Weyler built concentration camps in which he imprisoned a large portion of the population. -
Yellow journalism was a style of newspaper reporting that emphasized sensationalism over facts. During its heyday in the late 19th century, it was one of many factors that helped push the United States and Spain into war in Cuba and the Philippines, leading to the acquisition of overseas territory by the United States. -
Cuban revolutionaries intercepted the letter from the mail and released it to the Hearst press, which published it on February 9, 1898, in the New York Journal. De Lôme's unflattering remarks about McKinley helped fuel this country's aggressive, warlike foreign policy. -
The USS Maine was a United States Navy ship that sank in Havana Harbor in February 1898, contributing to the outbreak of the Spanish–American War in April. Where, still to this day, no one knows who started the fire that caused the explosion. -
On April 25, 1898, the United States declared war on Spain following the Battleship Maine's sinking in Havana harbor on February 15, 1898. -
The battle took place in Manila Bay in the Philippines and was the first major engagement of the Spanish–American War. The battle was one of the most decisive naval battles in history and marked the end of the Spanish colonial period in Philippine history. -
The United States Navy, commanded by Commodore Winfield Scott Schley, trapped the squadron when it blockaded Santiago along with other major Cuban ports. American land forces began to attack the city from the north -
The Battle of San Juan Hill, also known as the Battle for the San Juan Heights, was a major battle of the Spanish–American War fought between an American force under the command of William Rufus Shafter and Joseph Wheeler against a Spanish force led by Arsenio Linares y Pombo. -
The Spanish admiral decided to attempt a breakout. On 3 July, four cruisers and two destroyers steamed out of Santiago de Cuba. The crew of the cruiser Oquendo scuttled their ship, and the two Spanish destroyers were sunk. The only Spanish ship to break the blockade was the cruiser Cristobal Colón -
In Puerto Rico, Spanish forces likewise crumbled in the face of superior U.S. forces, and on August 12 an armistice was signed between Spain and the United States. On December 10, the Treaty of Paris officially ended the Spanish-American War. -
American troops fighting in the Spanish-American War raised the United States flag in Puerto Rico formalizing U.S. control of the former Spanish colony -
The Treaty of Paris, signed on December 10, 1898, was a peace agreement between Spain and the United States that ended the Spanish-American War. Under the treaty, Cuba gained independence from Spain, and the United States gained possession of the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam. -
On February 4, what became known as the Philippine Insurrection began when Filipino rebels and U.S. troops skirmished inside American lines in Manila. Two days later, the U.S. Senate voted by one vote to ratify the Treaty of Paris with Spain. The Philippines were now a U.S. territory, acquired in exchange for $20 million in compensation to the Spanish. -
John F. Kennedy decided to place a naval “quarantine,” or blockade, on Cuba to prevent further Soviet shipments of missiles. Kennedy announced the quarantine on October 22 and warned that U.S. forces would seize “offensive weapons and associated materiel” that Soviet vessels might attempt to deliver to Cuba.