TIMES PAST

1898Teddy Rooseveltand the Rough Riders

at the top of San Juan

Hill, Cuba, July 1898

How the United States emerged from theSpanish-American War as a true global powerBY ANTHONY DEPALMA

On the night of Feb. 15, 1898,as most of the men aboardthe USS Maine were asleep intheir bunks, a huge explosionripped apart the steel hull of

the American warship and sent it to thebottom of the harbor in Havana, Cuba.

Even today, 115 years later, it's notclear what caused the explosion thatkilled 266 sailors and Marines. But thereis no doubt that the sinking of the Mainecontributed mightily to the start of theSpanish-American War two months later.

• WATCH A VIDEOThe U.S. SL Guantánamo

WWW.UPFR0NTMAGAZINE.COM

"Remember the Mainel To Hell WithSpain!" became a popular slogan that,combined with sensationalized news-paper reporting, stirred resentmentagainst the fading Spanish empireand built fervor for establishing anAmerican empire around the world.

Although the fighting lasted just 10weeks and wasn't much of a militarycontest, the Spanish-American War is apivotal moment in U.S. history, signalingthe emergence of the United States as aglobal power and ushering in what cameto be known as the "American century. "

"It is a turning point that marks thefirst time American expansion goes over-seas," says Louis A. Pérez Jr., a professor

An American cartoon from 1898 showingUncle Sam finishing off the Spanish empire

16 Sl)f Js'cUiyorkSiincs UPFRONT • WWW.UPFRONTMAGAZINE.COM

-i

\

Depiction of USS Mainedestroyed in Havana, Cuba (far left);headlines about the event (above)

at the University of North Carohna atChapel Hill and author of The War of

1898. Pérez says the Spanish-AmericanWar triggered an intense debate in theUnited States about what some saw asthe contradiction between Americandemocracy and intervention in theaffairs of other countries. More thana century later, we're still debatingAmerica's role in the world and wheth-er the U.S. should serve as the world'spolice officer (see Timeline, p. 18).

Causes of tiie WarThere is still no definitive answer to

what caused the explosion that sankthe Maine, but many Americans in1898 were convinced that Spain wasresponsible. While tensions had beenbuilding for some time between the twocountries, there had been no outrightconflicts between them.

The cause of much of the antagonismwas the situation in Cuba—one of Spain'soldest colonies, claimed by ChristopherColumbus on his first voyage in 1492.The Cubans began an unsuccessful10-year revolt in 1868 against Spanishrule. When another rebellion erupted in1895, Spain sent a new military leaderwhose harsh treatment of the Cubanpeople was reported in gory detail inAmerican newspapers like The New York

Journal and The New York World.

The sensationalized stories from Cubawere examples of what came to be knownas "yellow journalism." Americans sym-pathized with Cuba's struggle for inde-pendence, which many felt resembledAmerica's own fight for freedom againstthe British more than a century earlier.

There was another reason for theintense interest in Cuba. Every U.S. presi-

dent since John Quincy Adams (1825-29)had worried that Cuba, just 90 miles fromFlorida, could become a strategic threatif it fell into the wrong hands. Spain'scontinued presence there was a glaringexception to the Monroe Doctrine—apolicy introduced by President JamesMonroe in 1823 that said the U.S. wouldstep in if a European power interfered inthe affairs of North or South America.

By 1898, the Spanish empire that hadonce included territory on five continentsfrom Africa to the coast of North Americahad been reduced to just Cuba andPuerto Rico in the Caribbean, the SpanishSahara, a few islands in the Atlantic andPacific, and the Philippines. Filipinos, likeCubans, were fighting for independence.

As resentment against Spain inten-sified. President WiUiam McKinley(1897-1901) initially rejected the ideaof intervening in Cuba. McKinley knewthat the U.S. was not prepared for war.Its army was small, and since the CivilWar ended in 1865 had fought only inIndian skirmishes in the West.

Still, many felt that with the nationalready stretching across North America,the restless American spirit neededanother frontier to conquer. Theodore

Roosevelt, who was then assistant secre-tary of the Navy, openly supported war."I should welcome almost any war,"Roosevelt said, "for I think this countryneeds one."

Under increasing pressure to act.President McKinley had ordered the Mazneto Havana to protect the sizeable Americaninvestments in Cuba's sugar, tobacco, andmining industries. The battleship's sink-ing provoked greater resentment of Spain,and on April 25,1898, Congress approveda declaration of war.

The first major battle was wagedin the Philippines, where CommodoreCeorge Dewey led American naval forc-es against Spain's aging Pacific fleet inManila Bay. Dewey destroyed most of theslower, wooden-hulled Spanish ships injust six hours.

Dewey's victory energized America as itprepared to send troops to Cuba. Worriedabout yellow fever, ttie Army believed thatblacks, because of their roots in coun-tries with warm climates, had a naturalimmunity to the mosquito-borne disease.It recruited large numbers of African-Americans, calling them the "immunes."

Some Americans were so eager tofight that they couldn't wait to join the

FEBRUARY 18, 2013 17

TIMELINE .AJOR U.S. WARS &NTERVENTIONS AFTER 1898

1917-18 1941-45World War I

Three years intothe conflict, theU.S. declares war onGermany in 1917. Anarmistice is declareda year later.

World War i M

The U.S. enters thewar in Europe andAsia after Japanattacks Pearl Harborin Hawaii; Germanyand Japan surrenderto Allied forces in1945.

1950-53 1960S-75Korean War Vietnam War -Communist NorthKorea invades SouthKorea in 1950. U.N.forces, led by theU.S., defend theSouth, while Chinabacks the North. Thewar, in which 36,000Americans die, endsin a stalemate.

The U.S. sendstroops to aid SouthVietnam in its waragainst CommunistNorth Vietnam,which is supportedby the Soviet Unionand China. By 1975,58,000 Americanshave died.

regular army, which required severalmonths of training. Theodore Rooseveltresigned from the Navy and organizeda group that included college studentsand Southwestern cowboys and ranch-ers, many of whom alreadyknew how to shoot rifles andride horses. He called them theRough Riders.

Spain had the disadvantageof trying to fight a war fromacross the Atlantic, while theU.S. could send troops fromFlorida to Cuba in a day.American Marines stormedGuantánamo Bay on the eastern shoreof Cuba in June (establishing a U.S.presence that continues to this day),whfle the main invasion force landedabout 20 miles east of Santiago, Cuba'ssecond-largest city.

Roosevelt led the Rough Riders in anattack against dug-in Spanish troops out-side Santiago. The scene was paintedby American artist Frederic Remington,

1 Shouidwelcomeaimost

any war.'-TEDDY

ROOSEVELT

although not quite accurately. Rooseveltand his volunteers didn't charge up SanJuan Hill, as Remington depicted, butup nearby Kettle Hill. They later joinedtroops that had already engaged the

Spanish at San Juan Hill.

It mattered litfle. Roosevelt'sreputation as a war hero wasestablished. (After the war, whenMcKinley ran for re-election, hechose Roosevelt as his runningmate. And when McKinley wasassassinated in 1901, Rooseveltbecame president.)

Following decisive defeats inSantiago and the Philippines, Spain sur-rendered on July 17. Peace talks in Parisin December led to the final dissolutionof the old empire. Spain granted Cubaits independence. It ceded the islands ofPuerto Rico in the Caribbean and Guamin the Pacific to the U.S., and sold thePhilippines to the U.S. for $25 million.

The leader of the Filipino insurgents,Emilio Aguinaldo, initially welcomed the

Americans as liberators. But when theU.S. kept control ofthe nation. Aguinaldobegan attacking American troops. Theinsurgents were defeated after threeyears, but the war cost the lives of 4,000Americans and set off a ferocious debateat home about American imperialism.The U.S. didn't grant the Philippinesindependence until after World War II.

Although Cuba won its independencefrom Spain in 1898, American troopsremained there until 1902. After with-drawing, the U.S. still claimed the rightto intervene in Cuban affairs if the coun-try got into financial or political difficulty.

Brief though it was, the Spanish-American War had lasting repercussions.In a letter to Roosevelt, Secretary of StateJohn Hay referred to it as "a splendidlittle war." The easy victory over Spainforced European powers to take seri-ously America's threats to enforce theMonroe Doctrine. President Rooseveltthen took steps that made the MonroeDoctrine even more far-reaching.

18 EljfJîrtuJJorkSimes UPFRONT • WWW.UPFRONTMAGAZINE.COM

1989-90PanamaThe U.S. invadesPanama to overthrowmilitary dictatorManuel Noriega, who'dbeen indicted on drugtrafficking chargesin the U.S. Noriega'sforces are crushed,and he eventuallysurrenders.

1990-91- Persian Gulf WarThe U.S. leads amultinational coalitionagainst Iraq afterIraq invades Kuwait;iraq surrenders, butSaddam Hussein(above) is left in power,setting the stage foranother war a decadelater.

1994BosniaYugoslavia breaksapart. The U.S. bombsBosnia, a formerYugoslav republic,to prevent ethniccleansing by Serbs andsends troops as part ofa NATO peacekeepingforce.

2003-11IraqClaiming Iraq hasweapons of massdestruction, a U.S.-ledcoalition invades andoverthrows SaddamHussein. No suchweapons are everfound.

2001-1AfghanistanAfter the 9/11 attacks,the U.S. invadesAfghanistan toroot out Al Qaedaterrorists and theTaliban. PresidentObama says mostof the 66,000 U.S.troops now there willleave by 2014.

Known as the Roosevelt Corollary,the new policy put all the nations ofNorth, South, and Central America onnotice that the U.S. would intervenein any country that showed "chronicwrongdoing" that might make it pos-sible for a European power to take over.

Vietnam, Iraq, & AfghanistanMany Americans opposed the idea of

the U.S. becoming an imperial power."Anti-imperiahsts" believed that con-trolling overseas colonies contradictedAmerica's traditional policy of non-intervention in world affairs, and wouldlead the nation into endless conflicts.

Many scholars see parallels betweenwhat happened in the wake of theSpanish-American War and more recentAmerican interventions abroad, fromVietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan. In somecases American troops sent to help settleconflicts were not welcomed with openarms, leading to long wars that dividedAmerica and drained its resources.

"The similarities are eerie," says Pérez,the author and scholar. "If you lookat some of the texts of anti-imperialistspeeches, you would think they are talk-ing about Iraq and Afghanistan," not thePhilippines and Cuba.

The 1898 war also leftissues that are unresolvedto this day. The fate ofPuerto Rico's status, forexample, was the subject ofa nonbinding referendumin November. A majority ofPuerto Ricans favored chang-ing the island's status from aU.S. commonwealth to the51st state (seep. 21).

Then there's Cuba, whose relation-ship with the U.S. has been troubledsince 1898. For decades after the war,Washington supported Cuban dicta-tors whose corruption and ruthlessnessstoked resentment against the U.S. thatFidel Castro used to gain support for hisrebel movement in the 1950s. In 1961,

Fidel Castro in 1959

two years after Castro seized controlof Cuba and began to align it with theCommunist Soviet Union, he orderedthe alteration of a soaring monument tothe victims of the Maine that had been

erected on the Havanawaterfront in 1926. Bustsof presidents McKinley andRoosevelt were chiseledout, and a bronze Americaneagle was removed.

Castro added a newbronze plaque that summedup the resentment still feltby some Cubans about theSpanish-American War. In

Spanish, the inscription reads: "To the vic-tims of the Maine who were sacrificed bythe voracity of the imperialists and theirdesire to gain control of the island of Cuba.February 1898-February 1961." •

Anthony DePalma is the former Mexico

Bureau Chief for The Times and author of

"The Man Who Invented Fidel. "

FEBRUARY 18, 2013 19

Copyright of New York Times Upfront is the property of Scholastic Inc. and its content may not be copied or

emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission.

However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.