Span American War

The Spanish-American War

The Spanish-American War was a war between America and Spain. The war lasted about 3 and a half months and finally ended on August 12, 1898 when Spain finally surrendered. There were many factors that led to the Spanish-American War, one of them being the sinking of the U.S battleship Maine. Maine was a battleship that was stationed in Havana, Cuba and it was suddenly blown up. Many people blamed the explosions on the Cubans but a U.S Naval study published a theory that it was blown up by internal combustion. President William McKinley eventually declared war on Spain on April 25, 1898. Three days before that he sent a squadron of naval forces to set up a blockade in Cuba.

At the beginning of the war there were about 200,000 Spanish troops, about 75,000 of them being trained Spanish military and the other 125,000 were just voluntary civilians. While on the American side, we only had around 25,000 being spread out throughout small posts all over the country. Later on our military presence increased to about 260,000. Most of them being volunteers and knowing very little about military fighting, while some didn't know anything. They started chanting "On to Havana!" which was unusual for General Nelson A. Miles.

The U.S Navy was sent out to make a blockade in Cuba after the sinking of the U.S battleship. Their main plans were to block out all major seaports, but it widened into overtaking the base in the Philippines and eventually taking over the island. The Spanish fleet looked very large on maps, but when they actually on the sea they had very little naval ships. In 1898 the Spanish only had four armored cruisers, and three destroyers watching over the seas. While on the opposite side of the battle, the Americans had four battleships and two armored cruisers, which were overwhelmingly superior. As the war continued, the Americans got word of a Spanish fleet under Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete and caused them to panic, The word got around and called for alot more protection from the commander of the North Atlantic Squadron, Rear Admiral William Thomas Sampson.

Since Sampson coudnt watch two military ports at the same time. The Spanish Navy was prevented from entering Cienfuegos harbor in May 1898 because the squadron from Virginia barely made it. By June 1 the port of Santiago de Cuba was finally