The Spanish-American War was the conflict between the United States and Spain that ended Spanish colonial rule in the Americas and resulted in U.S. acquisition of territories in the western Pacific and Latin America. It was one of only eleven US wars to have been formally declared by Congress. The Spanish–American War began in 1898 between Spain and the United States, the result of U.S. intervention in the Cuban War of Independence. U.S. attacks on Spain's Pacific possessions led to involvement in the Philippine Revolution and ultimately to the Philippine–American War.
The war originated in the Cuban struggle for independence from Spain, Revolts against Spanish rule had been occurring for some years in Cuba. There had been war scares before, as in the Virginius Affair in 1873. In the late 1890s, US public opinion was agitated by anti-Spanish propaganda led by journalists such as Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst which used yellow journalism to criticize Spanish administration of Cuba. Spain’s brutally repressive measures to halt the rebellion and American sympathy for the rebels rose. The growing popular demand for U.S. intervention became an …show more content…
The defeat and collapse of the Spanish Empire was a profound shock to Spain's national psyche, and provoked a thorough philosophical and artistic revaluation of Spanish society. This turned the nation’s attention away from its overseas colonial adventures and inward upon its domestic needs, a process that led to both a cultural and a literary renaissance and two decades of much-needed economic development in Spain. The victorious United States, on the other hand, emerged from the war a world power with gained several island possessions spanning the globe and a rancorous new debate over the wisdom of expansionism and a new stake in international politics that would soon lead it to play a role in the affairs of Europe
The war originated in the Cuban struggle for independence from Spain, Revolts against Spanish rule had been occurring for some years in Cuba. There had been war scares before, as in the Virginius Affair in 1873. In the late 1890s, US public opinion was agitated by anti-Spanish propaganda led by journalists such as Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst which used yellow journalism to criticize Spanish administration of Cuba. Spain’s brutally repressive measures to halt the rebellion and American sympathy for the rebels rose. The growing popular demand for U.S. intervention became an …show more content…
The defeat and collapse of the Spanish Empire was a profound shock to Spain's national psyche, and provoked a thorough philosophical and artistic revaluation of Spanish society. This turned the nation’s attention away from its overseas colonial adventures and inward upon its domestic needs, a process that led to both a cultural and a literary renaissance and two decades of much-needed economic development in Spain. The victorious United States, on the other hand, emerged from the war a world power with gained several island possessions spanning the globe and a rancorous new debate over the wisdom of expansionism and a new stake in international politics that would soon lead it to play a role in the affairs of Europe