What Caused The Spanish American War

The Spanish American war was fought in 1898, but the conflicts causing the war started in 1895. First off, you should know that Cuba is located 90 miles south of the shores of Florida, and this was also around the time that America stopped employing isolationism. Also, key figures in this war that we will be discussing are Theodore Roosevelt, San Juan Hill, Rough Riders- which I will say more about later- McKinley, William Jennings Bryan, and Emilio Aguinaldo. In 1895, Cuba was rebelling against Spain. Spain was using brutal force to stop the rebellion, which the U.S. covered in several newspapers, which was propaganda to make us dislike Spain and feel sympathy towards the rebels. After a lot of people saying we should …show more content…
Leading the charge was William Shafter, an American General. Also in this group was Theodore Roosevelt and his “Rough Riders” a group of cowboy-like handpicked soldiers. They landed on the coast of Santiago, forcing Cervera’s fleet to flea out of the harbor. This all lead to one of perhaps the most significant battles of U.S. history, the battle of San Juan Hill. After the fleet left, the U.S pursued. One month later, after fighting through Spain’s outer defenses, we arrived at the bottom of San Juan Hill. There were 500 Spaniards on top and 8,000 U.S soldiers at the bottom. That may seem completely unfair, but they had the geographic advantage. In Thermopylae, 300 Greek soldiers stood up against 10,000 immortal Persian soldiers (immortals being the “navy seals” of Persia). But anyways, that a different story. General Shafter put Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough riders in charge of the attack. “Shafter hoped to capture El Caney before besieging the fortified heights of San Juan Hill, but the 500 Spanish defenders of the village put up a fierce resistance and held off 10 times their number for most of the day. Although El Caney was not secure, some 8,000 Americans pressed forward toward San Juan Hill.”