The Spanish-American War

The Spanish American War was a war that lasted 3 months. This is how it all started. In the time period of 1508 and 1890 Spain had a lot of land in the Americas (North America, South America, and Central America). By 1898 Spain only had 2 colonies left which were Cuba and Puerto Rico.

I got this map from the internet:http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/carib.htm

People in Cuba wanted independence. The Americans were on the rebel side. President William McKinley sent out a boat called the U.S.S Maine. He was scared that the Americans in Cuba were not safe.  So, he sent the ship to Cuba to help the Americans that live there.

I got this picture from the internet: http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-last-sunset-of-the-maine-1898-the-uss-maine-a-pre-news-photo/463958791#the-last-sunset-of-the-maine-1898-the-uss-maine-a-predreadnought-picture-id463958791

When the U.S.S Maine got there all the crew were scared because they thought the Spanish planted a mine to keep them away. At 9:40 PM on February 15, 1898 the boat exploded.  

I got this picture from the internet: http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/navalbattles1800s/p/ussmaine.htm

But they did not know if it was a mine that blew them up or if it was something else. After the ship blew up some of the Spanish went down to look for any evidence of a mine but they didn’t find anything. They still thought that a mine blew it up so they sent out a report that said a mine blew the ship up but didn’t say who did it. 

After that, President McKinley said “you have to let Cuba be independent or there’ll be a war,” but, the Spanish refused and that’s what started the war. The war went on for 3 months and a lot of people died.

The Americans won and got Puerto Rico and part of Cuba.

  

75 years after the war ended people looked in the boat (the U.S.S Maine) and found that the boat didn’t get blown up by a mine, it blew up because they stored the coal next to the weapons which caused a fire.

I think that the Spanish American War was interesting because I think how it started was interesting.