USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -In 1898 Cuba was a geopolitical aberration. Lying only 90 miles from the Florida keys, astride the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico, it was separated from Spain by the vast expanse of the Atlantic Ocean. Yet Cuba remained one of Spain’s two colonies in the New World. (The other was Puerto Rico.)

Detailed explanation-2: -The port city of Tampa served as the primary staging area for the United States troops bound for the war in Cuba. The arrival of over 30, 000 troops, including Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders cavalry unit, changed Tampa from a small town into a city.

Detailed explanation-3: -Cuba is located in the northern Caribbean at the confluence of the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Cuba is south of the eastern United States and the Bahamas, west of the Turks and Caicos Islands and Haiti and east of Mexico. The Cayman Islands and Jamaica are to the south.

Detailed explanation-4: -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.

Detailed explanation-5: -Its northernmost point is only about 100 miles or so south of Florida across the Strait of Florida. Many people claim Cuba is just 90 miles south of Key West, Florida’s southernmost point. In fact, a popular tourist spot in Key West called the Southernmost Point Buoy has the words “90 Miles to Cuba” painted on it.