HIST 2620 1nd Edition Lecture 10 Outline of Last Lecture I First Colonial Acquisitions II Rise of the New Navy III Evolution of the New Navy IV Increases in U S Power V Events leading up to Spanish American War VI Causes of the Spanish American War Outline of Current Lecture I Causes of the Spanish American War II Conduct of War III Ending the War IV Cuba V Chinese Relations VI Japanese Relations VII Theodore Roosevelt Foreign Affairs Current Lecture These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best Used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute I Causes of the Spanish American War Humanitarianism economic interest Yellow Journalism fanning the flames and Sinking of the Maine After the sinking of the Maine 8th of March Congress put forth 50 million dollars McKinley did not want to go to war with Spain before the sinking of the Maine There were those beating the drum for war but the ships sinking and those casualties cause McKinley to send demands to Spain o 1st Spain needs to pay indemnity for the ship o 2nd Spain ends the concentration camps they are using to control the rebels that resulted from the tanking of Cuban economy o 3rd Spain stop fighting with rebels and begin negotiatons with them o 4th Spain commit itself to granting independence to Cuba Spain answer conciliatory except for the demand for independence of Cuba Meanwhile there is a drumbeat for war by Yellow Journalists McKinley finds himself in the position where he has little choice but to request from congress the declaration of war Apr 11 1898 he requests the declaration on Apr 14 they declare war but add the Teller Amendment which stated that the United States would not use the war to gain any territory in Cuba for them II Conduct of War AS far as the U S is concerned the war begins on the 20 th of April down to the 2nd of August 1989 114 days is the length of the Spanish American War John Hay called it a Splendid little war The first real action against the Spaniards will not be taken at Cuba it will be taken in the Philippine Islands The Assistant secretary of the Navy was Theodore Roosevelt he sends 5 cruisers and a couple of gunboats with Commodore George Dewey to wait for war to begin Roosevelt tells him to make his way to the manila Philippines which were a colony of Spain Dewey attacks the Spanish squadron there and quickly defeats them Arrived at the harbor in 30th Apr beings attack May 1 when finished the Spanish squadron would lose 381 men The targeting fro the Americans wasn t good but they took them by surprise and the fleet wasn t that good to begin with Americans were supposed to continue to Manila on land but doesn t have enough land forces So he has to wait until June 30th before U S army troops arrive AS the army troops made their way to manila they stopped at Guam Had no idea war had been declared and just took it with no violence 10 000 U S troops involved in this 30 June 13 August fighting in Manila until they finally give up and give the territory to the U S Emilio Aguinaldo a Philippian fighter thought the u s takeover would make him free An American blockade on Santiago Cuba until July the Spaniards try to get away July 3 the Americans descend and completely destroy the troops The U S will send ashore some marines to watch over the Spanish fleet They will eventually take over Guantanamo bay Cuba A naval victory for the U S Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt The U S army at this time had 28 000 regular troops 100 000 militia and 200 000 more recruited for action Roosevelt s group the Rough Riders first volunteer cavalry regimen Roosevelt was the Assistant Secretary of the Navy How did he get involved with a land force He wanted to get involved in the fighting but wouldn t give him commission so he put together volunteer group He uses his array of connections form Harvard University to get Ivy League athletes and he uses his former position as commissioner of NYC to get convicts in his group He was also a rancher out west so he got Native Americans and sharp shooters to be a part of his group This First volunteer Calvary regimen had horses on one ship and the people on another The horses didn t end up in the same place so only Roosevelt rode horse The Battle of San Juan Hill not where the actions took place just a larger feature on the topography Roosevelt and his group go up a smaller hill Pebble hill and fund it difficult to make any headway against the Spanish A contingent of black troops was responsible for saving the roughriders and Teddy Roosevelt from death With their held they win this battle and the land war III Ending the War Treaty of Paris 1898 Cuba is freed from Spanish control and the Teller amendment makes sure they don t receive any CUBAN territory BUT they do take control of Guam Puerto Rico and the U S pays Spain 20 million for the Philippine Islands The U S does not grant independence to the Philippines so a guerilla war breaks out against the U S in 1899 This is a dirty hard fought guerilla war The U S ends this war win crushing guerilla strength At the beginning of this war the U S army had side arms that were very small and they were fighting these soldiers that were chewing on narcotics Out of the fight the U S army went in with the Colt weapon company to design a semi automatic 45 caliber weapon Colt 1911 When you shoot somebody with this size gun it knocks the enemy down The U S gets THE best side arm Why did McKinley not give independence for the Pilipino When taking to a Methodist church he says we could not give them back to Spain cowardly could not turn them to European enemies bad business and could not leave them to themselves anarchy so what we had to do was educate civilize and Christianize them U S isn t finished with Cuba IV Cuba Written into the Cuban constitution under U S Pressure When approving and passing the army appropriations bill they also pass the Platt Amendment They use pressure to get the Cubans to put this into the CUBAN constitution 1 The principal provisions of the amendment say that Cuba will NOT sign any foreign treaty that threatened it s own independence The U S will be involved in that determination of threats to their independence 2 The amendment also said that when entering into debt they must be able to pay 3 Vibe would allow the U S to intervene to preserve Cuban independence protect life liberty and property In their constitution they allow third party intervention by the