The lost of Cuba

Knowing very little  History , I found myself wondering what event in History I could choose.  I then remembered one of my mother´s favorite sayings: “More was lost in Cuba”. When things went wrong and there was no going back, it was some sort of consolation to know that, as catastrophic as it seemed, there were worse things in life.

So, the lost of Cuba. As in any historical event it is important to know a little bit of its context, a little background. After the Industrial Revolution great amounts of goods flooded the European markets creating the need to expand to new markets. That was accomplished by the European nations by dividing the world among then though different agreements and treaties such as the one signed in the Berlin Conference witch divided Africa or others about Asia, China… That avoided open conflict, although not without some clashes.

However, during this period USA didn´t expand on Africa or Asia, but on the Pacific and Caribbean Sea; and it is in that expansion that we can find the ground for the Spanish lost of Cuba, since Spain had colonies in those seas ( Cuba and Puerto Rico in the Pacific, and Philippines, las Carolinas and the Marianas in the Caribbean) .

In fact, several North American presidents had expressed an interest on buying those territories before the lost of the island.

The events unchained on the 15^th of February 1898, when the battleship Maine blew up in the port of La Habana. This fact was blamed on Spain by the USA authorities and taken as an excuse to demand the liberation of Cuba which the Spanish government refused to do.

Taking those demand as a provocation the Spanish government declared war to USA; little did they know that previously to this declaration USA had positioned battleships in The Philippines and Guam, or that a naval blockade had been declared in Cuba three month prior to the war.

Looking at this context we can understand this war was lost from the beginning. Our most important question is, in any case, “Why was this so significant?”

As a matter of fact, this was for many historians the beginning of the North American empire.  Spain had to turn Cuba, Puerto Rico and Guam to the United States and had to sell almost all its colonies; but the old beast had long been crumbling,. A new colossus was being born, as eager of power as its predecessor.