The Spanish-American War, 1898 by Albert Nofi (Combined Books, 1996)
An account of the Spanish-American War of 1898. This resulted in Spain losing its remaining colonies: Cuba, Puerto Rico and The Philippines and the United States becoming a global power. Cuba, Puerto Rico and The Philippines came under American occupation and administration. (The US also annexed Hawaii in 1897 following a popular revolt). Cuba and the Philippines became independent eventually (and Hawaii became American’s 50th State) but Puerto Rico remains, 120 years later, under US administration: neither independent nor incorporated into the USA.
A revolt, ‘The Ten Years War’, broke out in Cuba in 1868. The 19th Century Spanish Army had a lot of experience of dealing with insurgencies and the revolt was put down, but it did lead eventually to the abolition of slavery.
Cuban nationalists realise that US intervention was key to success. In American they organised themselves and influenced public opinion. Another revolt broke out in Cuba in 1895. The Cuban National Hero Jose Marti was one of its leaders and one of its early casualties. American public opinion supported the Cubans against Spanish and the ‘Yellow Top’ newspapers were full of (sometimes invented) stories of Spanish atrocities, although both sides had a policy of ruthlessly moving peasants into ‘safe areas’.
Relations between the USA and Spain deteriorated. Efforts were made to improve these and as part of this the battleship USS Maine visited Cuba. The US and Spain were prepared to accept autonomy for Cuba but the insurgents would not. Then one night in February 1898 the USS Maine blew up and sank in Havana harbour. Two months later, after negotiations failed, the USA declared war on Spain.
An account of the Spanish-American War of 1898. This resulted in Spain losing its remaining colonies: Cuba, Puerto Rico and The Philippines and the United States becoming a global power. Cuba, Puerto Rico and The Philippines came under American occupation and administration. (The US also annexed Hawaii in 1897 following a popular revolt). Cuba and the Philippines became independent eventually (and Hawaii became American’s 50th State) but Puerto Rico remains, 120 years later, under US administration: neither independent nor incorporated into the USA.
A revolt, ‘The Ten Years War’, broke out in Cuba in 1868. The 19th Century Spanish Army had a lot of experience of dealing with insurgencies and the revolt was put down, but it did lead eventually to the abolition of slavery.
Cuban nationalists realise that US intervention was key to success. In American they organised themselves and influenced public opinion. Another revolt broke out in Cuba in 1895. The Cuban National Hero Jose Marti was one of its leaders and one of its early casualties. American public opinion supported the Cubans against Spanish and the ‘Yellow Top’ newspapers were full of (sometimes invented) stories of Spanish atrocities, although both sides had a policy of ruthlessly moving peasants into ‘safe areas’. Relations between the USA and Spain deteriorated. Efforts were made to improve these and as part of this the battleship USS Maine visited Cuba. The US and Spain were prepared to accept autonomy for Cuba but the insurgents would not. Then one night in February 1898 the USS Maine blew up and sank in Havana harbour. Two months later, after negotiations failed, the USA declared war on Spain.
Nofi’s book contains eight chapters, dealing with the main naval and military campaigns:
The naval campaign in the Philippines, the US mobilisation and expedition to Santiago de Cuba, the naval campaign in Cuba, the land campaign in Cuba, the land campaign in Puerto Rico and the land campaign in the Philippines (where the US found themselves fighting a native insurgency).
Each chapter contains numerous pictures and maps and a number of ‘sidebars’: short articles which describe the main characters, issues and events.
For example ‘Why did the USS Maine blow up? This has always been controversial. Nafi thinks is likely that it was sunk by a mine, as the contemporary official enquires concluded, rather than because a spontaneous fire in the coal bunker (common at the time) spread to the adjacent ammunition bunkers (a design fault in this class of warship). By who placed the mine? The US blamed the Spanish, who had the least to gain from it, but the Cuban insurgents had both the means and the motive to do it. [In modern Cuba it is claimed that US blew the Maine up themselves to justify taking control of Cuba].
The book also contains orders of battles for the armies and navies and tables of specifications, equipment, and performance for the navies.
The Spanish Pacific and Atlantic fleets were destroyed, at Manila and Santiago de Cuba respectively, with minimal lose to the US. Nafi describes this but also what the Spanish could have done differently to make the most of their resources.
The key decision of the war was when Admiral Cervera took the Spanish Altantic Fleet from Cadiz to Martinique and then to Santiago de Cuba where he was blockaded by the superior US Atlantic Fleet. Nafi states that Cervera’s best option would have been to be ‘a fleet in being’ off the Azores with the US forced to cover the potential threat to Cuba, Puerto Rico and the East Coast of the United States.
Nafi describes how the US expanded its small regular army, using the National Guard and volunteers. The problems of getting expeditionary forces to Santiago de Cuba, Puerto Rico and The Philippines are described.
Nafi thinks that America’s great achievement was the rapid and effective expansion of its Army. Something it repeated in the First and Second World War. However logistics and medical services were a problem of the Americans. “The surrender of Santiago [on 17 July] probably saved the United States from a major military disaster.” The flow of food and medicine was improving but infections from yellow fever, malaria and dysentry (from bad food and water) were reaching epidemic proportions. A ‘Round Robin’ letter from officers and an even more strongly worded letter from Theodore Roosevelt critical of he solution proposed by War Secretary Alger were leaked to the American press and caused a public outcry.
This book is a model of military history writing. It contains the information and descriptions needed to create games and scenarios from the war. My copy suffered from a problem that I find is common to American books: the binding broken while I was reading it.
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