An Introduction to the Spanish American War of 1898

An Introduction to the Spanish American War of 1898

The sparking of warfare between two or more parties that tend to clash with each other upon the pretext of a particular contention in possible concern to racial, political or national ideological is something that the world has experienced frequently over the course of written history. More often than not, moreover, these wars have come to a grudging end as a result of the signing of various treatises and agreements based on propagating lasting peace between the number of parties involved in the particular war. We will, however, consider the chain of events leading up to and continuing during the war before addressing the relevance of such documents in concern to the Spanish American War. Take into consideration, for instance, the fact the Spanish American war; a war incepted primarily as a result of the [still unresolved] sinking of a US Battleship within the water of Havana on a peace mission.

The Spanish American War: the triggering mechanism

The USS Maine was destroyed in the Havana harbor, Cuba, on February 15, 1898. The USS Maine was a second-class battleship that had been built between 1888 and 1895. The battleship was sent to Havana during the first month of the year 1898, one of the prime factors for this initiative on the part of the US navy being to protect American interests within and during the long-standing revolt of the Cubans against the Spanish government. On the evening of the 15 of the very next month [February], however, the forward gunpowder magazines of the Maine exploded, consequently causing her to rapidly descend in an inferno that left nearly three-quarters of the battleship's crew dead (The Naval Historical Center, 1998). In spite of the fact that the precise cause of this momentous tragedy remains unsettled to this day, contemporary American popular opinion [at the time] fervently blamed Spain. It was barely surprising, thus, that [the Spanish American] war followed within a few months.

It would also be relevant to here acknowledge the fact that one of the more relevant features of this war was that it was, practically exclusively, a war that was waged upon water. In addition to several smaller clashes, the Spanish American War basically featured two major naval battles, ‘one in the Philippines and the other off Cuba’ (The Naval Historical Center, 1998). While the Spanish American was eventually incepted as a result of the sinking of the USS Maine, it must be considered that ties between the two nations had been growing hostile for quite a considerable period of time before the sinking. Take into consideration, for instance, the fact that the Cuban revolutions, which the Cubans had long been attempting in order to free themselves from Spanish rule was something that the US supported. While the US’s support and concern for Cuba was primarily fueled by the increasingly inhumane measures being taken by Spanish government in order to calm the Cuban revolutions, it must be acknowledged that the presence of American citizens no the island was an even more crucial factor for opposing Spain.

Chain of consequences: the battle at Manila Bay & a relevant document

In addition the significant political contentions in Cuba, moreover, another of the grounds upon which the US opposed Spain was the latter’s ruling of the Philippine Islands, also a region that revolted, though unsuccessfully. The sinking of the USS Maine was rendered an especially significant disaster as a result of the fact that the battleship had been sent to the waters of Havana so as to ensure the safety of US citizens on the island in addition to overseeing possible revolutions. The board of inquiry that the US Navy subsequently set up eventually came to the conclusion that the explosion had been caused by the detonation of a mine under the vessel. It wasn’t too long before the prevalent American sentiment in concern to the guilt of Spain in regard to the destruction of the USS Maine culminated into the collectively conclusive US decision to go to war with Spain.

Indeed, it was only a couple of months later, on the 1st of May, 1898, when Commodore George Dewey's flagship Olympia led seven U.S. Navy cruisers and gunboats into Manila Bay before dawn. 8 a: m of the same morning saw the location and destruction of virtually the entire Spanish naval force in the Philippines at the hands of Dewey's Asiatic Squadron. Furthermore, Dewey had managed to ‘eliminate any threat that the Spanish Navy could have posed to U.S. Far Eastern commerce and placed Spain's centuries-long rule of the Philippines in grave jeopardy’ within only a few hours (The Naval Historical Center, 1998). Of even more significance in concern to the naval capabilities was the fact that the damage to the American ships was