Spanish-Confederate War | |||||||
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Part of the Cuban War of Independence | |||||||
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The Spanish-Confederate War (Spanish: Guerra Hispano-Confederada) was a brief war fought between the Confederate States and Spain in 1898. Hostilities began following the Confederate intervention in the Cuban War of Independence.
The main issue of the war was Cuban independence. Revolts had been occurring for some years in Cuba against Spanish rule. There had been war scares before, as in the Virginius Affair in 1873, but in the 1890s, Confederate public opinion was agitated by anti-Spanish propaganda put out by both the Dixiecrat and the Readjuster parties during the 1896 presidential election. Leadership of the Dixiecrats and the Readjusters hoped to expand Confederate influence in the region.
Following the call for intervention in the war by Confederate newspaper publishers Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, newly-elected Readjuster President David Gardiner Tyler signed a joint Congressional resolution demanding Spanish withdrawal and authorizing the President to use military force to help Cuba gain independence on May 2, 1898. In response, Spain severed diplomatic relations with the Confederacy on May 3. On the same day, the C.S. Navy began attempts to blockade the ports of Cuba. On May 5, Spain stated that it would declare war if the Confederate States Army invaded its territory. On May 8, the Confederate States Congress declared that a state of war between the Confederacy and Spain had de-facto existed since May 3, the day the blockade of Cuba had begun. The Confederate States sent an ultimatum to Spain demanding that it surrenders the control of Cuba, but due to Spain not replying soon enough due to its preoccupation dealing with revolution in the Philippines, the Confederacy assumed Spain had ignored the ultimatum and continued to occupy Cuba.
The war was fought in the Caribbean. Like many American agitators for war hoped, the Confederacy’s early naval strike proved decisive, allowing expeditionary forces to disembark in Cuba against a Spanish garrison already facing nationwide Cuban insurgent attacks and further wasted by yellow fever. American, Cuban, and Mexican forces obtained the surrender of Santiago de Cuba despite the good performance of some Spanish infantry units and fierce fighting for positions such as San Juan Hill. Madrid sued for peace after an obsolete Spanish squadron sunk in Santiago de Cuba.
The result was the 1898 Treaty of Philadelphia, negotiated by neutral power, the United States, under President William McKinley. The terms were favorable to the Confederacy which allowed it control of Cuba and Puerto Rico. Both Cubans and Puerto Ricans were convinced that joining the C.S. as autonomous states would be more beneficial than full independence because it allowed for a more integrated culture and economy while retaining their well-deserved autonomy.
The defeat and loss of the last remnants of the Spanish Empire other then the Philippines was a profound shock to Spain's national psyche and provoked a thorough philosophical and artistic reevaluation of Spanish society known as the Generation of '98. The loss in the war would also result in the Spanish colony of Las Bahías revolting in 1898, following the lead of the Philippines just a few years prior.
The Confederacy gained dominance in the Caribbean, and recognition by Europe as a possible future power in the coming 20th century.
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- ↑ After a bilateral agreement with the Confederate States, Brazil, which had produced surplus weaponry due to the recent civil war, agreed to boost the arms supply of the Mexican-Confederate coalition in exchange for a financial help, which was used to rescue the country's damaged economy from the crisis prompted by the war. A later terrorist attack that Brazil blamed on Spain for retaliation would make Brazil join the rebel side in the Iberian War.
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