The Spanish American War

The Spanish American War was fought between the Americans and Spanish on two fronts. It was after congress agreed on the sovereignty of Cuba that President William Mckinley decided to declare war on the Spanish who were occupying Cuba. That was on the 20th of August 1898. Four days later the Spanish declared war on the USA.
Though the war was primarily fought to liberate Cuba of its Spanish invaders, the first action actually took place in Phillipines.
Weeks before the decllaration of war, Theodore Roosevelt told Commodore George Dewey that if indeed the USA were to declare war on the Spaniards, he was to assemble his task force which was situated at Hong Kong at that time to sail to Manila Bay. Dewey accepted the job. He then trained his army and gave his battleships and cruisers a coat of grey paint. He then established secret contacts with Emilio Aguinaldo, the Phillipine nationalist. When war was declared, Dewey sailed to the Phillipines. Then on the 30th of April, he attacked Manila Bay. He mmanaged to destroy Admiral Montejo's fleet without suffering a single casualty to his men or fleet. On August the 13th, Dewey's forces, under the guidance of Emilio Aguinaldo and his irregulars, took control of Manila.

Meanwhile, in Cuba, the USA managed to win a swift victory over the Spanish. Though the Spanish were weak, but the the Army of The United States were grossly mismanaged.
In May, an army of 28,000 well trained recruits assembled in Tampa, Florida. Then another 200,000 hastily recruited soldiers were gathered along with the regulars. The place had become a mess. Soldiers were sitting around with minimal or no equipment. Soldiers had to wrestle for space. The angry Theodore Roosevelt quoted " No words could describe the lack of system and general mismanagement of affairs here."
Since Admiral Pascal Cervera's fleet was known to be in the Carribean waters, no invading army could safely make the trip into Cuba. Then on the 29th of May, American ships spotted Cervera's fleet at Santiago Harbor. They established a naval blockade.
Then in June, a 17,000 strong force unde the command of General William Shafter landed at nearby Daiquiri. From there they pressed on towards the city. Destroying the ill armed Spanish army. On the 1st of July they managed to smash through Spanish defenses and stormed San Juan hill. They were now within striking range of Santiago Harbor.
Upon recieving wind of this, Cervera decided to run the blockade and get out of Santiago Harbor. But the 5 battlecruisers and 2 destroyers under the command of Admiral William T Sampson and Commodore Winfield, managed to hound Admiral Cervera's fleet down and destroyed it. Only one American was lost in the battle.
With that, Santiago surrendered on the 17th of July. Then on August the 12th, Spain agreed to get out of Cuba and to cede the islands of Guam and Puerto Rico to the United States. The next day, on the 13th of August, Manila fell. The futur of the Phillipines was to be separately decided in a peace conference on the 1st of October.