The Spanish-American War was between the United States and Spain in 1898. The virtual annihilation of indigenous peoples within the continental United States

by the early 1900's allowed national attention to turn outward. Interest in developing markets in China and plans for a canal through Central America set the stage for a new level of expansionist strategizing. The Caribbean was a region with a strong economic relationship to the U.S., and had long been regarded by many as a natural extension of our republic. By the late 1890's American citizens owned about fifty million dollars' worth of Cuban property, primarily in the sugar, tobacco, and iron industries. By the late nineteenth century the nation was left only a few scattered possessions in the Pacific, Africa, and the West Indies. Much of the empire had gained its independence and a number of the areas still under Spanish control were clamoring to do so. The Spanish government did not have the financial or the manpower resources to deal with these revolts and thus turned to expedients of building camps to separate the rebels from their rural base of support. The Spaniards also carried out many executions of suspected rebels and harshly treated villages and individuals thought to be supporting them. By the end of the 1890s the rebels had mostly been defeated and Cuba was returning to a relative peace. In the long run, however, Spain's position was completely untenable. These events in Cuba coincided in the 1890s with a struggle for readership between the American newspaper chains of Hearst and Pulitzer. Sections of the American people began pushing for intervention. There were other pressures pushing towards war. The United States Navy had recently grown considerably, but it was still untested. The Navy had drawn up plans for attacking the Spanish in the Philippines over a year before hostilities broke out. The end of western expansion and of large-scale conflict with Native Americans also l

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