Background to Spanish-American War 1898 video by the U.S. Department of the Army

The SpanishAmerican War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States. While many historians and experts routinely include the indigenous struggles for independence in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippine Islands under this heading, the name Spanish-American War (explicitly suggesting the period of US military involvement, as it does) narrowly refers to the US-sponsored punctuation to the late-nineteenth-century turmoil in the Spanish colonies.[6]

Ostensibly fought over the issue of Cuban independence, the four-month war developed into a global conflict as the U.S. Navy sought to dislodge Spain from longstanding colonial outposts in both the Caribbean and the South Pacific. Its outcome—with temporary administrative authority over Cuba and indefinite colonial authority over Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines ceded to the U.S. through the December 10, 1898 Treaty of Paris[7]—had long-range implications for both belligerent parties. For Spain, the conflict, thereafter referred to as the Disaster, contributed to the further weakening of the Restoration Government, the eventual rise of the Primo de Rivera dictatorship, and Spains military insignificance in the twentieth century. The victorious United States, however, gained several island possessions spanning the globe and a modern navy capable of defending them.

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP-xR75wnsY)

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