Lesson 2: War and Empire

Question 1

Atrocity Definition

Answer 1

act of cruelty and brutality

Question 2

Buffalo Soldiers Definition

Answer 2

a nickname for the African American members of the 9th and 10th Cavalries during the Spanish-American War

Question 3

Foraker Act Definition

Answer 3

a law passed by Congress in 1900 under which the United States gave Puerto Ricans a limited say in government

Question 4

Platt Amendment Definition

Answer 4

an amendment to the 1902 Cuban constitution that allowed the United States to intervene in Cuba

Question 5

Protectorate Definition

Answer 5

a nation whose independence is limited by the control of a more powerful country

Question 6

Reconcentration Definition

Answer 6

a policy of moving large numbers of people into camps for political or military purposes

Question 7

Rough Riders Definition

Answer 7

a nickname for a military unit organized by Theodore Roosevelt during the Spanish-American War

Question 8

Spanish-American War Definition

Answer 8

the war between Spain and the United States in 1898

Question 9

Theodore Roosevelt Definition

Answer 9

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) was the 26th President of the United States. He expanded the powers of the executive branch in domestic conflicts between big business and labor, and led the nation to take a more active role in foreign affairs. He was instrumental in the construction of the Panama Canal and won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1906.

Question 10

Yellow Journalism Definition

Answer 10

news reporting, often biased or untrue, that relies on sensational stories and headlines

Question 11

What was happening in Cuba that stirred President McKinley’s worries? How did yellow journalism influence the demands of American citizens for President McKinley to intervene?

Answer 11

President McKinley was worried about a looming war over Cuba, a Spanish-ruled island just 90 miles off the coast of Florida. Cuban patriots were in revolt against Spanish rule. Many Americans demanded that the President take action to help the Cubans. Almost every day, American newspapers reported stories of the cruelty and brutality of Spanish rule. The reports were often exaggerated, sometimes even made up. Nonetheless, they stirred American anger.

Question 12

Although previously resisting calls for war, when did President McKinley sign a declaration for a war against Spain? How would this war influence American imperialism?

Answer 12

At first, the President resisted calls for war. But at 4 A.M. on April 25, 1898, a weary McKinley signed a declaration of war against Spain. The brief war that followed would launch the United States on its own age of imperialism in the Caribbean and the Pacific.

Question 13

For many years, why has Cuba been in American interest? What did Secretary of State John Quincy Adams compare Cuba to in 1823? By the 1890s, which two islands remained from Spain’s once vast Western Hemisphere empire? How did Cuban rebels create the “storm” America was looking for?

Answer 13

For many years, Americans had looked longingly at Cuba. As early as 1823, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams had compared Cuba to a ripe apple. A storm, he said, might tear that apple “from its native tree”—the Spanish empire—and drop it into the hands of the United States. By the 1890s, Spain’s once-vast empire in the Western Hemisphere had shrunk to two islands in the Caribbean: Cuba and Puerto Rico. Then, Cuban rebels created the storm that Adams had hoped for.

Question 14

When was the Cuban rebellion in 1868 crushed? After the rebellion was crushed, how did cries for freedom spread to New York, through the efforts of people like Lola Rodríguez de Tió and José Martí?

Answer 14

In 1868, the Cuban people had rebelled against Spanish rule. The revolution was finally crushed after 10 years of fighting (1878). Some of the revolutionaries fled to New York where they kept up the battle for freedom. Puerto Rican–born Lola Rodríguez de Tió wrote patriotic poems in support of Cuban independence. José Martí worked day and night raising funds and giving speeches in support of Cuban independence. He told sympathetic Americans of the Cuban struggle for freedom in his newspaper, Patria.

Question 15

What happened in the 1895 Cuban Rebellion? When did José Martí pass away in the fighting? What did rebels do to Spanish sugar cane fields and mills? What did they hope would happen as a result?

Answer 15

In 1895, Martí returned to Cuba. With cries of Cuba Libre!—“Free Cuba!”—rebels launched a new fight against Spain. Martí was killed early in the fighting, but the rebels continued the fight and won control of much of Cuba. The rebels burned sugar cane fields and sugar mills all over Cuba. They hoped that this would make the island unprofitable for Spain and persuade the Spanish to leave. The rebels killed workers who opposed them. They even blew up some passenger trains.

Question 16

What did Spain do in response to the 1895 Cuban Rebellion? How did the new Governor General Valeriano Weyler use reconcentration and other brutal tactics to stop the revolt?

Answer 16

In response, Spain sent a new governor to Cuba, General Valeriano Weyler (WAY ee lair). Weyler used brutal tactics to crush the revolt. In a policy known as reconcentration, his men moved about half a million Cubans into detention camps so that they could not aid the rebels. At least 100,000 Cubans in reconcentration camps died from starvation and disease.

Question 17

As Americans saw the revolt in Cuba, why did their concern increase? Why was Cuba a necessity to most Americans?

Answer 17

In the United States, people watched the revolt in nearby Cuba with growing concern. The United States had vital economic links to the island. Americans had invested about $50 million in Cuban sugar and rice plantations, railroads, tobacco, and iron mines. American trade with Cuba was worth about $100 million a year.

Question 18

What were the different opinions on the conflict in Cuba between Americans? What did Senator Henry Cabot Lodge compare the Cuban rebels to?

Answer 18

Opinion split over whether the United States should intervene in Cuba. Many business leaders opposed American involvement. They thought that it might hurt foreign trade. Other Americans, however, sympathized with Cuban desires for freedom. They called on the government to take action. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts compared the Cuban rebels to the Patriots in the American Revolution.

Question 19

How did Joseph Pulitzer’s World and William Randolph Hearst’s Journal help increase American sympathies for the people of Cuba? Why did these yellow journalists report on Spanish atrocities?

Answer 19

The press whipped up American sympathies for the people of Cuba. Two New York newspapers— Joseph Pulitzer’s World and William Randolph Hearst’s Journal—competed to print the most grisly stories about Spanish atrocities, or wartime acts of cruelty and brutality. The publishers knew that war with Spain would boost sales of their newspapers.

Question 20

How did Hearst and Pulitzer attract readers?

Answer 20

To attract readers, Hearst and Pulitzer used yellow journalism, or reporting that relied on sensational stories and headlines. Often, these reports were biased or untrue. According to one story, a photographer bound for Cuba told Hearst that there was no war. “You supply the pictures,” Hearst supposedly replied. “I’ll supply the war.” News stories described events in Cuba in graphic and horrifying detail.

Question 21

Why did Grover Cleveland want to avoid war with Spain?

Answer 21

Despite growing pressure, President Cleveland wanted to avoid war with Spain. He called the war fever in the United States an “epidemic of insanity.” Stories in the press, he grumbled, were nonsense.

Question 22

True or False: When William McKinley became President in 1897, he also tried to keep the country neutral. However, remaining neutral would soon become difficult.

Answer 22

True

Question 23

After fighting broke out in Havana in 1898, why did President McKinley send the Maine to Cuba?

Answer 23

In 1898, fighting broke out in Havana, the Cuban capital. Acting promptly, President McKinley sent the battleship Maine to Havana to protect American citizens and property there.

Question 24

What happened of February 15, 1898, concerning the battleship the Maine?

Answer 24

On the night of February 15, the Maine lay at anchor in Havana harbor. Just after the bugler played taps, a huge explosion ripped through the ship. The explosion killed at least 260 of the 350 American sailors and officers on board.

Question 25

What did yellow journalists claim the cause of the explosion of the Maine was? What are the speculated causes of the explosion? How did yellow journalism yet again cause an uproar of cries for war.

Answer 25

The yellow press pounced on the tragedy. “DESTRUCTION OF THE WARSHIP MAINE WAS THE WORK OF AN ENEMY,” screamed one New York newspaper. “THE WARSHIP MAINE SPLIT IN TWO BY AN ENEMY’S SECRET INFERNAL MACHINE?” blared the front page of another. The real cause of the explosion remains a mystery. Most historians believe that a boiler blew up or that there was an accident in the ship’s own ammunition hold. But Americans, urged on by Pulitzer and Hearst, clamored for war. “Remember the Maine!” they cried.

Question 26

What did President McKinley do in an effort to avoid war? When did Congress declare war on Spain?

Answer 26

Still hoping to avoid war, McKinley tried to get Spain to talk with the Cuban rebels. In the end, however, he gave in to war fever. On April 25, 1898, Congress declared war on Spain.

Question 27

How long did the Spanish-American war last? From which areas did the fighting span?

Answer 27

The Spanish-American War lasted only four months. The battlefront stretched from the nearby Caribbean to the distant Philippine Islands off the coast of Southeast Asia.

Question 28

Two months before the Spanish-American war was declared, what preparations did Theodore Roosevelt tell Commodore George Dewey to take?

Answer 28

Two months before the war started, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt had begun making preparations for a possible war with Spain. Roosevelt quickly realized that a conflict with Spain would be fought not only in the Caribbean but wherever Spanish sea power lay. The Philippine Islands, a Spanish colony and Spain’s main naval base in the Pacific, would be a major military objective. Roosevelt believed it was important to attack the Spanish in the Philippines as soon as war began. He wired secret orders to Commodore George Dewey, commander of the Pacific fleet.

Secret and confidential. Order the squadron … to Hong Kong. Keep full of coal. In the event of declaration of war Spain, your duty will be to see that the Spanish squadron does not leave the Asiatic coast, and then offensive operations in Philippine Islands.

—Theodore Roosevelt, Telegram, February 25, 1898

Question 29

After listening to Roosevelt’s instructions, what did Commodore George Dewey do immediately after the war was declared? What attack did Dewey make on April 30, 1898 in Manila harbor? In July, how did American ground troops, along with Filipinos led by Emilio Aguinaldo, capture Manila?

Answer 29

Dewey followed Roosevelt’s instructions. Immediately after war was declared, the Commodore sailed his fleet swiftly to Manila, the main city of the Philippines. On April 30, 1898, Dewey’s ships slipped into Manila harbor under cover of darkness. There, the Spanish fleet lay at anchor. At dawn, Dewey told his flagship commander, Charles Gridley, “You may fire when you are ready, Gridley.” Taking their cue, the Americans bombarded the surprised Spanish ships. By noon, the Spanish fleet had been destroyed. By July, American ground troops had landed in the Philippines. As in Cuba, local people there had been fighting for independence from Spain for years. With the help of these Filipino rebels, led by Emilio Aguinaldo (ah gwee NAHL doh), the American forces quickly captured Manila.

Question 30

What condition were American soldiers in when they arrived in Cuba during the Spanish-American War?

Answer 30

Meanwhile, American troops had also landed in Cuba. The expedition was badly organized. Soldiers wore heavy woolen uniforms in the tropical heat, and they often had to eat spoiled food. Yet, most were eager for battle.

Question 31

What was Roosevelt’s regiment the Rough Riders? Why was this regiment different from others?

Answer 31

None was more eager than Theodore Roosevelt. When the war broke out, Roosevelt resigned his position as Assistant Secretary of the Navy. He then organized the First Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, later called the Rough Riders. The Rough Riders were a mixed crew, ranging from cowboys to college students and adventurers.

Question 32

What happened at the Battle of San Juan Hill?

Answer 32

The Rough Riders joined regular troops in the most notable land battle of the war. During the fight for the key Cuban city of Santiago, Americans had to gain control of the San Juan Heights overlooking the city. Under withering fire, charging American forces took two strategic hills. African American members of the 9th and 10th Cavalries, nicknamed Buffalo Soldiers, played a major role in the bloody victory. John J. Pershing, commander of the 10th Cavalry, later described how the troops united in what came to be called the Battle of San Juan Hill.

White regiments, black regiments, regulars and Rough Riders, representing the young manhood of the North and South, fought shoulder to shoulder, unmindful of race or color, … mindful of their common duty as Americans.

—John J. Pershing, quoted in The Life of General Pershing (MacAdam)

Question 33

What happened two days after the Battle of San Juan Hill?

Answer 33

Two days later, the Americans destroyed the Spanish fleet in Santiago Bay. The Spanish army in Cuba surrendered. American troops then landed on Puerto Rico and claimed the island.

Question 34

When did Spain surrender? How many casualties did America have? How many died from illness? What were the differing views on the war?

Answer 34

Spain was defeated. On August 12, Spain and the United States agreed to end the fighting. American losses in battle were fairly light—379 killed. However, more than 5,000 Americans died of other causes, such as yellow fever, typhoid, and malaria. John Hay, who was soon to become Secretary of State, summed up American enthusiasm for the war. “It’s been a splendid little war,” he wrote. A malaria-ridden veteran of the war had a different view: “I was lucky—I survived.”

Question 35

What was stated in the peace treaty following the Spanish-American War?

Answer 35

In a peace treaty signed in Paris in December 1898, Spain agreed to grant Cuba its freedom. Spain also gave the United States two islands: Puerto Rico in the Caribbean and Guam in the Pacific. Finally, in return for $20 million, Spain handed over the Philippines to the United States.

Question 36

What debate was held before the Senate approved the treaty? What were the different sides of the argument? What was the result?

Answer 36

Before the Senate approved the treaty, a great debate occurred. Many Americans objected to the treaty. They said it violated American principles of democracy by turning the United States into a colonial power. Expansionists favored the treaty. They said that the navy needed bases in the Caribbean and the Pacific. They pointed out that the Philippines and Puerto Rico offered new territory for American businesses. Also, many Americans agreed with President McKinley, who said that the United States would “uplift and civilize and Christianize [the Filipinos].” In fact, most Filipinos already were Christians. Urged on by McKinley, the Senate narrowly approved the peace treaty in February 1899. At last, the United States had acquired a true overseas empire.

Question 37

Remember: Spanish and American representatives signed the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898. The treaty concluded the Spanish-American War.

Answer 37

Spanish and American representatives signed the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898. The treaty concluded the Spanish-American War.

Question 38

What had America promised Cuba before the Spanish-American War began? What fears and ideas made America not keep that promise? What did they decide in the end? What was the Platt Amendment? What was a protectorate?

Answer 38

Americans had to decide how to rule their new territories. When the war with Spain began, the United States pledged to “leave the government and control of [Cuba] to its people.” That promise, however, was not kept. After the war, American soldiers remained in Cuba while the United States debated. Many in Congress believed that Cuba was not ready for independence. American business leaders feared that an independent Cuba might threaten their investments there. In the end, the United States let the Cuban people write their own constitution. However, Cuba had to accept the Platt Amendment. The amendment allowed the United States to intervene in Cuba and gave the United States control of the naval base at Guantanamo Bay. In effect, the amendment made Cuba an American protectorate, a nation whose independence is limited by the control of a more powerful country. The United States pulled its army out of Cuba in 1902. However, American soldiers would return to Cuba in 1906 and again in 1917.

Question 39

What was the Foraker Act, which set up the government in Puerto Rico? What improvements did America make in Puerto Rico after Puerto Ricans were accepted as citizens in 1917? Despite these reforms, what did many Puerto Ricans hope for?

Answer 39

In Puerto Rico, the United States set up a new government under the Foraker Act of 1900. The act gave Puerto Ricans only a limited say in their own affairs. In 1917, Puerto Ricans were made citizens of the United States. Americans set up schools, improved healthcare, and built roads on the island. Even so, many Puerto Ricans wanted to be free of foreign rule.

Question 40

Why did Filipino naturalists, led by Emilio Aguinaldo, feel betrayed by the United States after the Spanish-American War?

Answer 40

Filipino nationalists had begun fighting for independence long before the Spanish-American War. When the United States took over their land after the war, Filipinos felt betrayed. Led by Emilio Aguinaldo, they now fought for freedom against a new imperial power: the United States. Aguinaldo, who had fought beside the Americans against Spain, accused the United States of forgetting its beginnings. The United States, he said, was using military force to keep the Filipinos from attaining “the same rights that the American people proclaimed more than a century ago.”

Question 41

The Philippine-American war was the first what? When did this war end and how?

Answer 41

The Philippine-American War was the first all-out Asian war in which the United States fought. It dragged on for years. At one point, about 60,000 American troops were fighting there. Finally, Aguinaldo was captured in 1901, and the war came to an end officially in 1902.

Question 42

What were the casualties and effects of the Philippine-American War?

Answer 42

The Philippine-American War was longer and more costly than the Spanish-American War. More than 4,000 Americans died in the Philippines. Nearly 20,000 Filipino soldiers were killed. Another 200,000 civilians died from shelling, famine, and disease.

Question 43

In 1902, what type of government did America set up in the Philippines? Why were Filipinos not made citizens? When did Filipinos gain independence?

Answer 43

In 1902, the United States set up a government in the Philippines similar to the one in Puerto Rico. Filipinos, however, were not made American citizens because the United States planned to give them independence in the future. It was not until 1946, however, that the United States allowed Filipinos to govern themselves.