USA HISTORY

AMERICAN IMPERIALISM(1890 1919)

THE SPANISH AMERICAN WAR

[SOURCES]
Which was NOT a cause of the Spanish American War?

(A) Protection of US business interests in Cuba

(B) Yellow journalism exaggerating news reports

(C) ** US acquired Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines

(D) The explosion of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor

EXPLANATIONS BELOW

Concept note-1: -Painting depicting the sinking of the USS Maine. In order to prevent the possibility of US annexation of Cuba, Congress passed the Teller Amendment, which proclaimed that the United States would help the Cuban people gain their freedom from Spain but would not annex the island after victory.

Concept note-2: -The reasons for war were many, but there were two immediate ones: America’s support the ongoing struggle by Cubans and Filipinos against Spanish rule, and the mysterious explosion of the battleship U.S.S. Maine in Havana Harbor.

Concept note-3: -Representatives of Spain and the United States signed a peace treaty in Paris on December 10, 1898, which established the independence of Cuba, ceded Puerto Rico and Guam to the United States, and allowed the victorious power to purchase the Philippines Islands from Spain for $20 million.

Concept note-4: -Guam, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico became territories of the United States as part of the terms of the Treaty of Paris that officially ended the Spanish-American War of 1898.