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The Spanish-American War was a brief but bloody war, that profoundly changed America and especially Spain. The US emerged as victors in the conflict and it became an Imperial power and expanded overseas for the first time in its history. The Spanish who were defeated in the war experienced even greater changes. For 400 years Spain had been an Imperial power, their defeat destroyed their Empire and had important domestic consequences for the country. This article discusses the impact of the defeat by America on Spain, it will identify how it altered the country’s culture, politics, and economy.
==Background==
The Spanish Empire had been established in the aftermath of Columbus discovery of the New World. The resources of the Americas allowed the kingdom of Spain to become a global power. Until the mid-seventeenth century, Spain was the leading European power. The struggle for supremacy in Europe weakened Spain and it was increasingly impoverished and militarily weak. Despite this, the Spanish were able to maintain an empire, which included most of Central and Latin America, the Philippines, and some enclaves in Africa. Napoleon conquered Spain in 1806 and this weakened its hold over Latin America and by 1830 it had lost all its possessions in Central and Latin America. However, despite this, the Spanish kingdom still controlled Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Marianas, and the Philippines <ref>Hendrickson, Kenneth E., Jr, The Spanish–American War (Greenwood, Greenwood Publishing, 2003), p. 67<.ref>. These overseas possessions were very important to the Spanish economy and Madrid concentrated on the development of these colonies. Spain was convulsed by a series of civil wars in the nineteenth century but it was still able to hold its remaining empire together. From the late nineteenth century, there was growing resistance to Spain in its remaining colonies. In Cuba and the Philippines, there were nationalist revolts. Many international observers were sympathetic to these rebels as they believed that Spain was no longer fit to have an Empire. The Spanish army brutally repressed the rebels, especially in Cuba, where the Spanish governor establish a system of concentration camps in a bid to quell the rebellion. American public opinion was appalled by the behaviour of the Spanish and there were demands for a war with Spain to liberate Cuba. The controversial Spanish tactics in Cuba played into the hands of those in Washington D.C. and elsewhere who wanted the US to become an Imperial power. America was well prepared for expansion after 1898 because it already had experience in expanding beyond its borders in the 19th century<ref> Hendrickson, p. 113</ref>. For example, it had secured the lands of the Indian and Mexican territory in what is now the South-West of the United States. The American political class and public believed in the concept of Manifest Destiny. This was the belief that that the Republic had a right to expand in the name of progress and it persuaded the public to support overseas expansion. Furthermore, the economy and industry had made such progress that they allowed American to intervene beyond its border<ref> Hendrickson, p. 11</ref>. In 1898, those American Imperialists were given an excuse to attack Spain. The USS Maine was docked in Santiago de Cuba (Cuba) when it exploded and sank with the loss of hundreds of sailors and marines. This was probably an accident but the popular press used it as a pretext to invade Cuba and attack other Spanish possessions<ref> Paterson, Thomas G. "United States Intervention in Cuba, 1898: Interpretations of the Spanish–American–Cuban–Filipino War," The History Teacher, Vol. 29, No. 3 (May 1996), pp. 341–361</ref>.
[[File: Uss olympia manila.jpg|200px|thumb|left|A postcard showing the Battle of Manila Bay]]
==Spanish American War==
American had long planned this war and they launched a series of naval and amphibious assaults on the Spanish Empire. The US navy seized the island of Guam after a brief battle and then attacked the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay, in the Philippines. The Spanish army was involved in a guerrilla war with Filipino patriots. The US navy attacked and destroyed the Spanish Pacific fleet and quickly destroyed it with little casualties, this meant that the Spanish forces were cut-off from any reinforcements and supplies and surrounded by guerrillas. The Spanish governor was obliged to surrender and American forces landed unopposed in Manila. In the Caribean, a US expeditionary force landed on Puerto Rico and quickly occupied the island with only limited resistance <ref> Trask, David F., The war with Spain in 1898 (U of Nebraska Press, Nebraska, 1996), p. 124</ref>. There was more Spanish resistance on the island of Cuba. The American navy blocked the Spanish navy in the port of Santiago de Cuba, while the US expeditionary force landed on the south coast of Cuba. They intended to surround, the Spanish army and fleet at Santiago de Cuba and force them to surrender. The Spanish commander General Linares, established a defensive line centred on San Juan Hill. The US army during the Battle of San Juan Hill was able to break through the Spanish lines and besiege the Spanish in Santiago de Cuba, that had been suffering greatly because of an ‘outbreak of Yellow Fever’ <ref>Trask, p. 115</ref>. A month later the Spanish commander surrendered. The war lasts only ten weeks and Spain lost nearly all of its possession apart from isolated enclaves in Morocco, which it still holds to this day.