The Spanish-American War was a conflict between the United States and Spain that ended with the loss of Spains overseas empire and the United States emerging as a world power. The war originated in the Cuban struggle for independence from Spain, which began in February 1895. The Cuban conflict was injurious to U.S. investments in the island, which were estimated at $50 million, and almost ended U.S. trade with Cuban ports, normally valued at $100 million annually. On the insurgent side, the war was waged largely against property and led to the destruction of sugarcane and sugar mills. Popular pressure for intervention was reinforced by Spain’s evident inability to end the war by either victory or concession. After the U.S. battleship Maine exploded and sank in Havana harbor under mysterious circumstances on February 15, 1898, U.S. military intervention in Cuba became likely.
The reasons for the war were many, but there were two immediate ones: Americas support for the ongoing struggle by Cubans and Filipinos against Spanish rule, and the mysterious explosion of the battleship U.S.S. Maine in Havana Harbor. On April 21, 1898, the United States declared war against Spain. It would be the first overseas conflict fought by the U.S. It involved major campaigns in both Cuba and the Philippine Islands. Representatives of Spain and the United States signed a peace treaty in Paris on December 10, 1898, which established the independence of Cuba, ceded Puerto Rico and Guam to the United States, and allowed the victorious power to purchase the Philippines Islands from Spain for $20 million. The war had cost the United States $250 million and 3,000 lives, of whom 90% had perished from infectious diseases.
