Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Spanish-American War

Episode Date: August 19, 2022

Wars are often notable points that punctuate the historical timeline. It is a period of tragedy, drama, and often geopolitical changes.  However, there are some wars that have been all but forgotten from history.  One such war was a brief conflict that lasted less than four months and was fought between the United States and Spain in the summer of 1898. Learn more about the Spanish-American war and how the impact of that war is still felt today on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Subscribe to the podcast!  https://link.chtbl.com/EverythingEverywhere?sid=ShowNotes -------------------------------- Executive Producer: Darcy Adams Associate Producers: Peter Bennett & Thor Thomsen   Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere Update your podcast app at newpodcastapps.com Search Past Episodes at fathom.fm Discord Server: https://discord.gg/UkRUJFh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EverythingEverywhere Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/everything-everywhere-daily-podcast/ Everything Everywhere is an Airwave Media podcast." or "Everything Everywhere is part of the Airwave Media podcast network Please contact [e-mail] to advertise on Everything Everywhere. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wars are often notable points that punctuate the historical timeline. It's a period of tragedy, drama, and often geopolitical changes. However, there are some wars that have been all but forgotten from history. One such war was a brief conflict that lasted less than four months and was fought between the United States and Spain in the summer of 1898. Learn more about the Spanish-American War and how the impact of that war is still felt today on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day and tonight. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the Thurline podcast from NPR. To understand why Spain and the United States went to war, you have to understand where both countries were prior to the outbreak of war in 1898. The 19th century was not so good for Spain.

just a hundred years earlier, they had one of the largest empires in the world. Then, in the early 19th century, it came under the control of France and Napoleon Bonaparte, and then proceeded to have several civil wars in the following decades. While there was turmoil back home, they progressively lost almost all of their colonies. By 1898, the remains of the Spanish Empire consisted mostly of scattered islands throughout the world. Some of these islands were still pretty significant. They included Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and some smaller islands in the Pacific. As the Spanish Empire unwound, the strength of the Spanish military dwindled as well.

As Spain spent the 19th century in decline, the young United States was in ascendance. It was growing in population and economic strength. Moreover, the United States had become the dominant trading partner for many former Spanish colonies, particularly the current Spanish colony of Cuba. 90% of Cuban exports went to the United States, and the U.S. was responsible for 40% of Cuban imports. American companies had invested a significant amount of money in Cuba, and generally there was a great deal of support in the United States for Cuban independence. There was also a growing desire among some Americans that the U.S. start to militarily flex their muscles to reflect their newfound economic power. In 1890, the United States had surpassed Great Britain to become the world's largest economy, yet it wasn't really reflected in its international status.

These pro-interventionist Americans wanted the United States to join the cool country club, and get some overseas colonies of their own. Moreover, the Monroe Doctrine made the U.S. suspicious of any remaining European influence in the hemisphere. The focal point of the conflict was centered around Cuba. Cuba had been of interest to the United States

for decades. The U.S. was very serious about buying Cuba from Spain before the Civil War, intending to turn it into a state. Northern states nixed the idea when the southern states insisted that it be admitted as a slave state. Unrest in Cuba had also been simmering for decades. There was a major revolt

in 1868, which was quashed by the Spanish, who were able to put all of their attention on Cuba, having lost pretty much every other colony that they had. The incident which eventually led to war began in 1895. Cuban revolutionaries, led by the independence leader Jose Marti, attempted a three-pronged invasion of Cuba from the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, and Florida. The United States, in an attempt to remain neutral, prevented the attack which came from Florida. Jose Marti led the movement called the Cuba Lever or Free Cuba Movement. The Spanish were brutal in their repression of the uprising. They created concentration camps where rebels were sent, and thousands of people died of disease.

Reports of Spanish brutality made it back to the United States, where they were picked up by newspapers who sensationalized the story. This was probably the high point for what was known as Yellow Journalism. There was a big newspaper war in New York between the city's two largest publishers, Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal. Yellow journalism was basically the clickbait of its era. Newspapers would create sensational headlines to try to spur sales and publish scandalous articles, often with an eye for outrage more than accuracy. The term yellow journalism is believed to come from the phrase,

Yellow Kid Journalism, which was a way of identifying both of the newspapers in New York because they both ran the same comic strip called The Yellow Kid, which depicted a small boy who wore a large yellow nightshirt. The President of the United States in 1895, Grover Cleveland, wanted nothing to do with getting involved in any foreign wars. His successor, however, William McKinley, had a totally different view of America's role in the world. I don't think it's accurate to say that yellow journalism of the era was responsible for the war, as they didn't create the circumstances surrounding it. And there's no evidence that the McKinley administration was swayed at all by such newspapers,

but it certainly did sway public opinion. U.S. attitudes throughout 1897 and early 1898 move strongly in favor of the Cuban independence movement and against Spain. The event which changed everything occurred on February 15, 1898, when the armored cruiser, the USS Maine, exploded and sank in the harbor of Havana, killing 268 sailors. The initial investigation claimed that the Maine had been hit by a mine in the harbor. However, many naval officers disagreed and subsequent investigations placed the blame on the a fire in the ship's coal bunker, which ignited the ammunition magazine. In 1974 investigation by the Navy, led by Admiral Hyman Rickover, concluded that the magazine explosion theory was most probably correct. What really caused the explosion didn't matter to the

newspapers, however. American sailors dying in a Spanish harbor was all the proof they needed. They began publishing reports of Spanish plots to destroy the ship. Theories were published as facts. The public began to chant the rally and cry, remember the main to hell with Spain. While public demand for the war was rising, both Republican and Democrat leaders in Congress did not favor intervening in Cuba, nor did most business leaders.

The McKinley administration offered to mediate peace between the Cuban rebels and the Spanish, but they also let it be known that, ultimately, the United States supported an independent Cuba. The Spanish were in a tough spot. If they lost Cuba, it would be very unpopular back home and probably lead to the collapse of the government and maybe even the monarchy.

However, if it came to war with the United States, they knew it would be a lopsided affair, and they ran the risk of losing everything. The European powers, save for Britain, supported Spain, but their support didn't go any further than verbal encouragement. Spain didn't particularly want a civil war in Cuba and was actually willing to grant autonomy and home rule, but it wasn't willing to go so far as to grant independence. By April of 1898, the pressure to do something to end the war in Cuba, if for human humanitarian reasons, if nothing else, got to a point where President McKinley finally asked Congress

on April 11th for authorization to use military force. On April 19th, both houses of Congress passed the Teller Amendment, which stipulated that if U.S. forces should be used in Cuba, it was not for permanent annexation or control over Cuba. The same resolution authorized U.S. military force to help the Cuban people achieve independence. When Spain got wind of this, they severed diplomatic relations with the United States, which resulted. in the U.S. placing a naval blockade on Cuba, and on April 23rd, Spain declared war on the United States of America. On April 25th, Congress declared that a state of war existed between the United States and Spain. As I said before, the United States was not a great military power at this time,

but then again, neither was Spain. The U.S. Navy, however, was pretty good with modern steel coal-fired chips. The Spanish Navy still had mostly wooden ships. This came to a head with the opening cell of the war which took place in Asia, not Cuba. The U.S. Navy had been planning for this eventuality for a couple of years. On May 1st, Admiral George Dewey attacked the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay in the Philippines. The Battle of Manila Bay was an incredibly lopsided affair. The U.S. lost one sailor, and that was because he died of heatstroke. Spain had 77 killed and 271 wounded, with eight ships sunk. Even the Spanish shore guns weren't able to hit the American ships. While the Americans had taken out the Spanish Navy in the Pacific, they didn't have the ground forces to take Manila yet.

However, given that the Spanish were now completely cut off, it was only a matter of time. On August 13th, the Americans took Manila from the Spanish but refused to let Filipino independence forces into the city. And this began a much longer, much more bloody, and even lesser-known war, the Philippine-American War. But that I'm going to have to leave for a future episode. On June 20th in Guam, Americans showed up, and the Spanish who were there didn't even know that they were at war. The Americans fired two shots at one of their forts, and the Spanish apologized for not returning the salute because they had no gunpowder. Guam was surrendered without a fight, as there hadn't been a single Spanish warship in Guam for over a year and a half. Back in the Caribbean, the Spanish fleet was holed up in the harbor of Santiago, on the southern coast of Cuba, just west of Guantanamo Bay.

The first American soldiers landed in Cuba on June 10th in Guantanamo Bay. The goal was to land U.S. forces, move on Santiago to capture the city, and force the Spanish fleet to move into open water. Eventually, 15,000 Americans landed in Cuba and moved on Santiago. On July 1st, the biggest engagement of the war was fought outside of Santiago. The Battle of El Carnie and the Battle of San Juan Hill were fought by 8,400 Americans, including all four of the active units of Buffalo soldiers, and most famously, the first United States. state's volunteer cavalry, known as the Rough Riders. The second in command of the unit was former Secretary of the Navy and future U.S. President, Theodore Roosevelt. However, a few people

realized that the Rough Riders weren't in fact riding anything, as transportation issues had left most of their horses back in Florida. The Battle of San Juan Hill was really nothing more than a mass frontal attack on a numerically inferior Spanish force. The Americans had over 8,000 men with four Gatling guns versus only 521 Spanish. It was not the heroic victory that later chroniclers would make it out to be. The land assault worked, and on July 3rd, the Spanish fleet in Santiago moved out. The Battle of Santiago de Cuba ensued where the Americans, like the Battle of Manila, annihilated the Spanish fleet.

Every one of the Spanish ships were sunk, save for one, and that one was scuttled by the captain. There was a small conflict in Puerto Rico in late July, but other than that, that was the war. On August 12th, a ceasefire was called, and a Treaty of Peace in Paris, was signed on December 10th. The actual fighting lasted all of 16 weeks. Only 385 Americans died in combat versus about 7 to 800 Spanish. The biggest killer, by far, was disease,

in particular, yellow fever. Over 2,000 Americans and 15,000 Spanish died from various diseases. For Spain, this was the final nail in the Imperial Coffin. They lost Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines, and various islands in the Pacific, which are now part of the nation of Micronesia. The U.S. gained its first territories outside of continental North America,

save for Hawaii, which was actually annexed in the middle of the war. Cuba became fully independent in 1902 and signed a perpetual lease with the United States to allow for a naval base in Guantanamo Bay, which it still has today. American soldiers toasted an independent Cuba with a new drink using Cuban rum and American Coca-Cola that they called a Cuba Libre. The U.S. occupation of the Philippines resulted in a much larger war, as the Filipinos, after 330 years of Spanish rule, weren't particularly keen on acquiring another colonial master. While this war was the end of a 400-year-old empire for the Spanish, it can be

considered the start of the United States foreign military involvement. It was also the first time since the civil war that the country had a common enemy, serving to help unify the North and the South. For the most part, the Spanish-American War is overlooked and forgotten in both Spain and the United States. Save for a few historical high points such as the sinking of the main and the rough riders, most people know little to nothing about it. The war set Cuba on the path to independence, and after several decades did the same for the Philippines. It also added Guam and Puerto Rico as U.S. territories. Most importantly, this very brief war served as an inflection point in the histories and trajectories of both the United States and Spain. Everything Everywhere

Daily is an airwave media podcast. The executive producer is Darcy Adams. The associate producers are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett. I just wanted to extend a big thank you to everyone who is supporting the show over at Patreon.com. I have show merchandise available there, including hoodies, t-shirts, and stickers. Plus, it really just helps me get this show out every single day, including, of course, weekends and holidays. Remember, if you leave a review or send me a boostagram, you too can have it read on the show.