Spanish-American War

1. What connections did the U.S. have to Cuba in the late 1800s? List at least two.
People in the 1800's hoped that cuba would become another slave territory for the united sates. President Polk tried to buy Cuba from Spain to make this happen, however Spain turn it down.
Cuba was also really close to the tip of Florida (90 miles) so the Us thought it would be perfect to have in their possesion (sugar that comes from cuba is needed in the Us)


2. What were the Spanish “reconcentration camps”?
During the Spanish American war the spainish were not able to figure out who the nationalist forces were, so it was out of the questionto catch them. So the spanish decided to cut them off from the public who provided them with food and supplies. To do this the Spanish set up Reconcentration Camps, the people in these camps were Cuban pesants. The camps were small towns were people were cramed together with little food for the mass amount of people, not enough housing and the sanitation was very poor. These camps were a lot alike the the concentration camps that showed up in WWII were the Jews were kept by the Nazis.


3. List three reasons why the United States went to war with Spain in Cuba.
a. The US secretly wanted Cuba as its own because of the Sugar that was grown there. The businessmen were promoting this the most because they had stock over there.
b. The sinking of the USS Main, but mostly because of the yellow jernalism that propelled the people to believe that it was really Spain the bombed it.
c. By going to war with Spain American was given the chance to gain new territories other than Cuba, like Guam and the Philippines (increase trade with Asia) and they would get puerto Rico.

4. Which do you believe was the most important reason? Why?
I believe that the gaining of the new colonies was the maine reason. By having more territories in other places it increases trade with countries in higer power, it allows the US to have a naval presents in different parts of the world without having to worry about competing with other countries. Also by having these territories the US will no longer look like a new country, this shows that the Us is moving forward to become a great power in the world.

5. What did the Teller Amendment say?

6. Why was a portion of the Spanish-American War fought in the Philippines?
At this time the Filipinos were also fighting for there freedom, from spain. So Dewey thought that by giving these people weapons they would help fight, the same way that the african americans did in the civil war (having them fight for their cause rather than watching from behind.)

7. Dewey’s victory in ___Manila __sparked an outpouring of _pride which led to more volunteers __in the United States.

8. Why did Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders want to fight in Cuba?
Roosevelt and the rough riders wanted to fight in Cuba because they needed to raise awarness to America and win so that people would sign up to join the army. Spain had almost double the numbers of america at this time.

9.
a. Why were many African-Americans eager to serve in the Spanish-American War?
African Americans wanted to raise the status of blacks in the Us by showing that they could win the wars. They hoped that it would gain African American communties new respect and chip away at the wall of discrimination.

b. What forms of discrimination and prejudice did they encounter?
African Americans were not allowed to volunteer to be in the army they had to be in special units. In the army they wer not allowed to rank above a certain point. Balck groups were not allowed to fight in Cuba only one group saw the carribean (from Mass.)