The Spanish-American War

USS Olympia and her squadron mates smash the Spanish in the Battle of Manila Bay. "The storm of shot and shell launched against the Spaniard was desructive beyond all description," enthused Lt. J.L. Stickney, who watched the fight from on board the flagship.

C O M M E N T A R Y

The Spanish-American War of 1898 was a classic exercise in imperialism. It all seemed so easy at first, that first dabbling of the toes in the poisoned river. In the 5-month conflict, the U.S. chalked up lopsided wins in which the enemy took heavy casualties, while the American ships led charmed lives. At Manila Bay on May Day, there were no casualties in the Asiatic Squadron, which had annihilated its opposition. Again at Santiago, total annihilation was meted out to the Spanish. The toll: 1 killed and a handful of wounded, none critically, no serious damage to any U.S. ship. In the land war, seemingly with little effort, vast swathes of territory fell to the conquering Army and Marines. Here was the seductive, easy-win phase of empire-building. It was only later that the intransigent truths about administering a great native population with only a few civil servants in faraway tropical countries, began to sink in.

By contrast, the Spanish conflict was a push-over for the U.S. Cocky and vigorous, newly outfitted with a modern steel navy, and supplied with all the necessities for a "splendid little war," the U.S. swaggered into a fight with war spirit whipped up by the "Yellow Press" of Hearst and Pulitzer. But the giant publishers were not the originators of the buzz around imperialism. It was in the air as never before during the 1880s and 1890s. Prominent British imperialists extolled the civilizing virtues of the White Man's Burden to young Theodore Roosevelt and other influential Americans. It seemed like an easy win -- and it was, in the short term. For Roosevelt it was all a bully romp, a rite of manhood. For the press barons it menat a huge boost in circulation and influence. Concern for the long-term consequences of their tactics did not seem to bother most American citizens of the time, however. Cuban independence was the call to arms for the American people: bringing the benefits of democracy and free markets to Cuba. During the war, the American military cooperated well with the local insurgents (who had been in spitting distance of winning before the U.S. intervention). But after the victory, the U.S. repudiated its promise, taking over the country for several years, buying up Cuban land and concerns, and handing off to a suitably repressive puppet regime with several binding conditions. Known as the Platt Amendment, these hobbled real independent action for Cuba by vesting control of finances and foreign policy in U.S. hands. Uncle Sam thus ran Cuba as a semi-colonial client state, intervening and invading it 15 times in the next 30 years. In the same period, the U.S. occupied Haiti for 19 years, and governed it in pursuit of unbridled exploitation that was at times reminiscent of the Belgians in Congo. But for many U.S. citizens, Cuba became a party resort, sort of a Latin Las Vegas, seeming almost as much a part of the American sphere as the Florida Keys. American mafiosi on the lam often settled in Cuba temporarily and seemed to fit right in with the local culture of Yanqui plunderers and settlers. Guam and Puerto Rico were annexed outright and remain U.S. territories to this day.

By means of the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, President Roosevelt asserted the U.S.' right to intervene at any time in the Americas and send in troops to restore order and secure U.S. vital interests. This policy was invoked frqunetly during the period 1905-1934. Some would say the process continues but in a subtler guise.

The Hawaiian Islands had seen their queen deposed by a coup led by Anglo sugar planters in a premature bid to unite with the U.S. 5 years before, but the government of President Grover Cleveland refused to grant recognition; indeed received Queen Lili'uokalani with great ceremony. In a great example of cultural insensitivity, the queen had been imprisoned and held under house arrest, denied access to her beloved ukuleles for some 3 years. But immediately after the war in August 1898, McKinley flashed the green light for annexation on the terms offered. The Hawaiian Islands became U.S. territory by an understanding with Sanford Dole and other U.S. businessmen who had backed the coup. The newspaper that announced the annexation in screaming headlines, also contained Honolulu's first confirmation of the Santiago lightning-stroke, 11 days after the battle. Queen Lili'uokalani spent many years seeking redress, but money counted for more than justice in the corridors of power, then as now. Though the queen was received with great ceremony at the White House, she died unredressed. She is remembered yet as an inspiration by the Hawaiian native people.

A spirited Japanese woodblock print of the Battle of Manila Bay. The Japanese warships in port were cheering on the Americans, and some of that bloodthirsty spirit comes through here. Print courtesy the MIT Museum.    Enlarged view

Meanwhile on the other side of the pond, a similar situation had come about in the Philippines. The Filipino insurgents had been close to winning their long war against Spain when Admiral Dewey butted in and injected the U.S. into the situation. On July 25th an army of 12,500 under Maj. Gen. Wesley Merritt landed to receive the Spanish surrender. The Filipino insurgents, however, were not keen to exchange one colonial master for another. Although Merritt wired home that the Filipinos were well able to handle their own affairs, policy in Washington had hardened and he was ordered to get tough. Soon after Emilio Aguinaldo's forces incited a long guerrilla war against the Americans. This rebellion, known in the U.S. as the Philippine Insurrection, was suppressed brutally over a period of 4 years (estimated 250,000 civilian casualties; mopping-up operations continued through 1913). The Olympia's big guns were turned to slaughtering native insurgents over a period of years. Even Teddy Roosevelt, who had agitated for the war and based his political career on his heroism in it, grew quite disturbed by the enormous casualty count of the Philippine conflict. The Philippine archipelago remained a U.S. colony until 1946. Aguinaldo, leader of the 1898-1911 insurgents, lived to see his country free after 43 years of American occupation; he had long since mellowed toward American rule. Many Filipinos were heroes of resistance to the 4-year Japanese occupation, and the U.S. granted full independence soon after the victory over Japan, though it refused to tender veterans' benefits to Filipino fighters, and has never ceased to meddle in internal Philippine politics.

With all the empire building going on in 1898, the U.S. took immediate steps to build up its naval fleet and fleet installations such as supply depots, coaling facilities, telegraph stations, drydocks, and support vessels. At right, a white-hot ingot is taken to be forged into Harvey armor plate at Bethlehem Steel, c. 1898. By the time of WWI, the country had made a massive investment in shipbuilding, servicing, and other fleet support facilities. The keystone in this imperial infrastructure was the Panama Canal, completed by the U.S. 1911-1914 and opened just as war erupted in Europe.

The coup plotting which shrouded the birth of the Republic of Panama would credit the Dulles brothers; but it was all the doing of TR and his henchmen in the "ought" decade of the 20th century. And it has been a durable foundation of U.S. economic strength. When a Panamanian came along who insisted the sovereignty of the Canal Zone revert back to Panama (Omar Torrijos), right-wing operatives brought Torrijos' plane down in a CIA-approved hit. The Canal Zone remained a caricature of the ex-pat colonial life, frozen in time, right through its final days under the Stars and Stripes. And American intervention bloomed as late as 1989 with a lightning war and brief occupation.

As suggested above, the naval success of the Spanish War opened the Congressional taps for the further building up of the U.S. fleet and its facilities. Now America had a globe-girdling empire, she needed the network of coaling stations, communications stations, and bases to support her ever-swelling fleet. The trend was all toward rapid growth of the fleet and the war industry under Roosevelt's progressive-at-home, imperialist-abroad formula.

Flying the signal "Follow the flag", Commodore Schley's flagship, the USS Brooklyn, leads the pack in a hard-hitting assault on the stampeding Spaniards. In newly-painted ships puffing pungent plumes of coal-smoke, with red-and-gold silk battle flags cracking at the mastheads, the Spanish fought with desperation, caught in a steel trap. This painting: Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.   Enlarge.