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HIST 112 US 1877- present Chapter 19 Part 3 Spanish American War continued — Transcript

by History Class with Dr. W · 1,818 words · 346 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:01[Music]
0:10this
0:10is a picture or painting of
0:13the destruction of the maine
0:17we might note that obviously it is done
0:19for dramatic
0:20effect you can clearly see the bodies of
0:23the american sailors flying through the
0:25air to their deaths
0:28i'm not sure that if we were to see this
0:31live and in person that
0:32it would have looked quite like that but
0:34obviously the artist is interested
0:36in kind of tugging at our heartstrings
0:39and emphasizing the human
0:41toll of this disaster
0:44but i want to point out that
0:47archaeologists and historians in
0:49studying
0:50the maine have determined that in fact
0:53it was not
0:54attacked by the spanish as everyone
0:57presumed at that
0:58time in fact it was some sort of problem
1:01in the boiler room in the holds of the
1:03ship
1:04one of the boilers exploded and that set
1:07alight
1:08all of the armaments and explosives down
1:12below in the ship and so in fact
1:17this was not carried out by the spanish
1:20but in historical terms that almost
1:23doesn't matter because what everyone
1:25thought
1:26and assumed was that the spanish had
1:28done it and so we were going to act
1:30on that assumption and as we will see
1:33what that means
1:34is a declaration of war against spain
1:42after the destruction of the maine it
1:45seems almost inevitable that the united
1:47states was going to declare war
1:49mckinley attempted one last time to
1:52patch up relations with spain but those
1:56efforts
1:56fell short and on april 21st 1898
2:00mckinley declared war
2:04ambassador john hay even at that time
2:07referred to
2:09what becomes known as the
2:10spanish-american war or the spanish
2:12cuban-american war
2:14as a splendid little war
2:17we might note that those terms are
2:21almost oxymorons can any war be splendid
2:24can any war in fact be little but this
2:28tells you
2:28a good bit about how the war was
2:32viewed and in fact how the war was
2:34carried out
2:35when john hay refers to this war as a
2:38splendid little war
2:39what he means is that it was relatively
2:42short-lived
2:44relatively one-sided and was in fact a
2:47resounding victory
2:48for the united states so in terms of the
2:52combat we might point out a few things
2:54i mentioned the war was relatively
2:58brief lasted from april through august
3:02in 1898 uh
3:06the first major battle of the war was a
3:09naval
3:10engagement the battle for manila and
3:13actually the painting that you see here
3:15is a nice dramatic rendering of what
3:17that battle
3:18might have looked like and the united
3:21states achieved a quick
3:23victory in manila this is the capital
3:26city in the philippines
3:28all the way across the pacific
3:31the other battle of note is known as the
3:34battle of san juan hill or san juan
3:37heights
3:38uh and this has been cemented in
3:42uh american memory because it it was the
3:45scene
3:46of teddy roosevelt and his rough riders
3:49teddy roosevelt leading the charge up
3:52san juan hill
3:53um teddy roosevelt and we'll talk much
3:56more about him
3:56shortly was already
4:00known as this very robust outgoing
4:03outdoorsy sort of figure and when the
4:06spanish-american war
4:07broke out roosevelt recruited
4:11a core drawn largely from his old
4:14football buddies and other friends
4:16from his college days known as the rough
4:20riders
4:20and he led them into battle charging up
4:24san juan hill
4:27well this war known as a splendid little
4:29war
4:30uh ended on august
4:3412th 1898
4:37but for being a splendid little war we
4:39might note that more than
4:405 americans died about fifty four
4:44hundred americans died
4:47three hundred and seventy nine of those
4:49were combat
4:50deaths the other five thousand
4:54plus died as perhaps you can imagine
4:57from disease particularly malaria
5:01and yellow fever remember this war is
5:04being
5:04fought largely in cuba or in the
5:08philippines places like that
5:10in the dead of summer it's incredibly
5:13hot
5:13it's incredibly humid tropical
5:16conditions
5:17mosquitoes were everywhere and disease
5:20ran rampant and so conditions during
5:24this war even though it is
5:25short-lived even though it is a
5:26one-sided victory for the united states
5:29the conditions were horrific
5:35the united states achieved victory in
5:37the spanish-american war
5:39and that victory was sealed in the
5:42treaty of paris 1898
5:44which ended the war this is
5:47truly a momentous moment in american
5:50history a great turning point
5:52moment in american history because
5:55it marks the moment when the united
5:58states crosses that boundary from
6:01a sort of isolated nation keeping to its
6:04own devices
6:05to becoming a imperial nation and in
6:09many ways a
6:09a world power so the treaty of paris in
6:121898
6:13is a tremendously important treaty
6:16in our history in essence what it does
6:20is marks
6:20spain's defeat and our victory
6:24and so the united states is going to
6:25take from spain at the end of this war
6:28a number of what remained of spain's
6:31colonies
6:31at that time notably puerto rico
6:35guam and wake island and puerto rico
6:39clearly the most important among
6:41these i'll show you a map in a few
6:43moments but puerto rico
6:46really is the gateway to the caribbean
6:49and it becomes a very
6:50important american outpost
6:53the united states also obtained the
6:56philippines
6:57um in similar fashion although it was
7:00noted at the time that this was
7:02a purchase the united states paid
7:0515 million dollars to obtain the
7:07philippines
7:08that was thought to be important in the
7:10sense that
7:11the united states had not fought this
7:13war as an imperial war to
7:16claim colonies even though that is
7:19essentially what they're doing and
7:22cuba we must note becomes independent
7:25uh at the end of this war the united
7:27states does not
7:28obtain cuba like it does these other
7:32colonies
7:33and again there had been much to do
7:36heading into the war that
7:39the united states was not interested in
7:41taking cuba
7:42as a colony many american congressmen if
7:45they were going to support the war
7:47they wanted it made clear the united
7:49states was not going to take
7:50cuba and yet in an interesting
7:54twist and we're going to have to talk
7:56more about this as we go along
7:58the united states really didn't want to
8:00see cuba
8:01independent i mentioned previously
8:04the united states didn't necessarily
8:06object to spain
8:08maintaining control what they objected
8:10to was the methods
8:11that spain was using and now in the
8:14aftermath
8:15cuba is independent but the united
8:17states had grave concerns
8:19about an independent cuba
8:22we were convinced and again this goes
8:24back to the
8:26racist ideology of the day we were
8:28convinced that cuba would not be able to
8:30handle itself that cuba would fall
8:32into chaos and anarchy and that there
8:34would be all kinds of problems
8:36down there and so the united states
8:40in the interest of overseeing affairs in
8:42cuba maintaining some sense of control
8:45in cuba the united states forced the
8:48cubans as they wrote their new
8:50constitution in 1901
8:52to accept something called the plat
8:55amendment
8:56it's a very important idea so note this
8:59plat amendment in 1901 written into the
9:02cuban
9:03constitution this amendment
9:06said that the united states had the
9:09authority to intervene
9:11in cuba whenever it saw fit
9:15the precise wording is perhaps even a
9:17little more interesting the united
9:18states
9:18has the right to intervene in cuba
9:20whenever cuba's
9:22independence is threatened that's an
9:25interesting
9:26twist right the united states can
9:28intervene when
9:29cuba's independence is threatened
9:33essentially this gives the united states
9:36carte blanche anytime we think we need
9:40to intervene in cuba
9:42for whatever reasons we have the right
9:44to do that and in fact the united states
9:46did
9:46intervene in cuba many times over the
9:50life of this amendment it eventually was
9:53abrogated by both sides in the 1930s
9:56that is it was done away with in the
9:581930s
9:59but between this time and then the
10:02united states intervened in cuba many
10:04times
10:09we'll look for a moment at a couple of
10:10images uh
10:12derived from this war uh this is one
10:16image depicting the charge up san juan
10:19hill or
10:20san juan heights one of the things that
10:24is always pointed out in this image is
10:26the prominence of
10:27african-american soldiers the so-called
10:30buffalo soldiers who
10:32were frequently stationed at the front
10:34of the line
10:36and there were accusations of using
10:39black soldiers as cannon fodder so to
10:42speak and you do see in this picture a
10:44number of them have
10:45fallen we might also note the figure
10:48on the right hand side of the picture
10:50riding the horse
10:51which we may presume to be teddy
10:54roosevelt although it's not
10:56certain from this picture
11:03here we have a much clearer rendering of
11:06teddy roosevelt in his heroic moment
11:10again the charge up san juan hill here
11:12he is with his rough riders
11:14and again you can read into this as much
11:17as you like
11:18but clearly the war itself would not
11:22have looked quite like this
11:24either we have high drama teddy
11:27roosevelt
11:28um pristine and clean standing bright
11:32front and center in this picture as
11:34explosions and what not go off around
11:37him
11:37i'm sure that the war in actuality was
11:40much dirtier than this and didn't look
11:42quite so glamorous but
11:45recall that it is in the wake of this
11:48war that teddy roosevelt becomes
11:50uh probably the most famous figure in
11:53america becoming one of its great heroes
11:56and not long after this in fact becoming
11:59president
12:00of the united states
12:04and this map gives you a sense of the
12:06growing reach
12:08of the united states abroad again we are
12:11moving past
12:12that isolationist tradition
12:15that had defined united states diplomacy
12:18up to this point
12:20we see in the 1890s especially
12:23any number of cases in which the united
12:26states
12:27annexed territories and in particular
12:30you can
12:30see those places that were taken over
12:34after the spanish-american war so you
12:37look
12:37west across the pacific wake island guam
12:40and of course the philippines the
12:43hawaiian islands right there in the
12:44middle in the little box
12:47also formally taken in 1898 although the
12:51annexation occurred
12:52in 1893 but the annexation was signed by
12:57mckinley in 1898
12:58and then if you look to the east or the
13:01right hand side
13:02you may see puerto rico which as i
13:06mentioned
13:06is the gateway of the caribbean
13:09and stretches american influence in
13:12another direction
13:13so just note that this
13:17uh whole idea marks a tremendous
13:20transition in america's view of itself
13:23and america's
13:24role in the world we now have all of
13:28these colonies
13:30spreading across the globe there are
13:33people
13:34in all of these places in many cases
13:36they were independent they have their
13:38own
13:38governments they have their own ways of
13:40doing things and
13:42now we are going to have to figure out
13:45how are we going to control them what
13:47does all of this
13:48[Music]
14:00mean
14:04[Music]
14:09you

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