During the late 1800s and early 1900s America reached a point as a nation where getting involved in one war drastically changed other country’s prospects of them and led them on a coarse to become a world power. This war was known as the Spanish American War and the aftermath of the war led to the official end to Spanish colonial rule in the United States and the U.S gaining more land. While on a quest to become a world power the Spanish America War was a huge breakthrough, showing that the U.S could works its way out of tough situations and in the end come out on top even through events such as the sinking of the Maine, the Spanish surrendering, and the territory’s the U.S acquired afterwards.
To begin with, the first event that ended up actually drawing America into this brief war was the sinking of the Maine. On the Night of February 15th, 1898 at approximately 9:40p.m the U.S battleship the Maine was destroyed.3 The explosion happened that night while the ship was at anchor in Havana Harbor, and was believed to have been caused by a mine exploding, presumable set of by a Spanish solder.3 The explosion ripped the bottom half of the ship of causing it to skink and killing 266 men including the staff on board.3, 4 At …show more content…
The Treaty of Paris singed on December 10th 1898 renounced all of Spain’s claims to Cuba, gave the United States Guam and Puerto Rico and transferred over the Philippians to America for 20 million dollars.5 At first President McKinley was skeptical about getting involved in the Philippians but eventually agreed because the public favored the idea to much for him to deny.4 Having this land gave the United States a leg up over other nations now having land across the world they could use for various purposes such as setting up military bases and eventually brought in a wave of American