America in a World at War (Essay Sample)

America in a World at War Name Institution Subject Date The United States of America announced war on Spain after the Battleship Maine sank in Havana harbor on the 15th of February the year 1898. The battle stated on the 25th of April 1898 led to the treaty of Paris, which was signed on the 10th of December 1898. At the time, Spain had an overseas empire comprising Puerto Rico, Cuba, Guam, and the Philippines Islands, among other islands, all over which it lost control. After exploring, Spain was the first European countries sailing across the Atlantic Ocean westward and colonizing the Western Hemisphere Amerindian countries. This empire further extended to the Tierra del Fuego from the United States' eastern coast of Virginia, excluding the westward part of Alaska and California, and Brazil. It also comprised the Philippines Islands, among other island groups all over the Pacific Ocean (1). The United States had been interested in buying Cuba for a long time, which began earlier in 1898 and was accomplished after the ten years of war when large Cuban land tracts were bought by American sugar welfare. The U. S sugar tariff had diverse alterations then, which would favor the homegrown sugar products and aided in fomenting the rekindling of radical fervor by the year 1895. This led to more than $55 million U. S. investment in Cuba annually, mostly in sugar production. President Grover Cleveland's made a neutrality declaration on the 12th of June in 1895, even though the passion for war was still growing in the United States. The desire to get involved in the conflict increased in the U.S., especially when General Valeriano Weyler started implementing the famous reconcentration policy, which put the entire nation under martial law after moving its population to the central locations were then guarded by a Spanish troop (5). President Cleveland made a self-reversal on the 7th of December 1895 by declaring that the United States of America would intervene if Spain failed to terminate the crisis in Cuba. His successor, President William McKinley, who was inaugurated on the 4th of March 1897, rose to power with great anxiety about being part of the crisis after a letter by the then Spanish Foreign Minister criticizing the American President was published by the New York Journal on the 9th of February 1898. A swift movement of events, especially after the 15th of February U.S.S. Maine explosion. The American Congress passed a law that allocated over 50 million dollars to build up the American military power on the 9th of March, 1898. President McKinley ordered a blockade of Cuba on the 21st of April, 1898, after the United States Naval Court inquired and established that the U.S.S. A mine blew Maine. The United States of America declared war against Spain shortly after the blockade (7). Due to the war declared, the U.S. made an addition to the Teller Amendment to assert that it would not attempt a form of hegemony against Cuba. Commodore George Dewey sailed from Hong Kong two days later, with Emilio Aguinaldo, going for war. The war was officially started at the Battle of Manila Bay of the Philippines' Islands on the 1st of May when Commodore George Dewey was reported exclaiming, 'you may fire when ready, Gridley,' leading to the destruction of the Spanish fleet under Rear Admiral Patricio Montojo. He, Commodore Dewey, had little manpower that would not enable him to siege Manila. They had to maintain their operations as they waited for other U.S. troops to arrive at the place, which happened later in July. While sailing, the Charleston cruiser made a stop at Guam, where it accepted a surrender from its unaware Spanish governor, who had little information that his country was fighting. A peace procedure was agreed on and signed by the two parties on the 12th of August 1898, as both Maj. Gen. Wesley Merritt and Commodore Dewey led the army troops in assaulting Manila the very next day, after which they claimed of being unaware of the peace agreement (8). Andrew Summers Rowan contacted the then Cuban General, Calixto Garcia, who provided maps, intelligence, and core rebel officers who would coordinate the U.S. efforts on the Island. The United States North Atlantic Squadron started its journey to Cuba on the 22nd of April after receiving the terrifying news that a Spanish fleet under the command of Admiral Pascual Cervera had made an entry to Santiago from Cadiz, slipping by U.S. ships controlled by Winfield S. Schley and William T. Sampson. The U.S. North Atlantic Squadron arrived in Cuba later in May (5). The U.S. Squadron began the war in Cuba in the month of June when Guantanamo Bay was captured by marines, with more than 17,000 troops landing at Daiquiri and Siboney, on the east of Santiago de Cuba, which was then the Island's second-largest city. By this time, about 200,000 Spanish troops had been stationed on the island, comprising of more than 150,000 regular troops and over 40,000 irregular troops, among other volunteers. The rebellious group in Cuba comprised of around 50,000 people who would help the U.S. troops in navigating the Island as they executed their plans amidst the war. The United States had little army strength of around 26,000 personnel and had to pass the Mobilization Act on the 22nd of April, allowing an irregular army of around 130,000 volunteer fighters and a regular army of close to 70,000 personnel. The U.S. troops arrived at Daiquiri on the 22nd of June, after which they were joined by over 5,000 revolutionaries, including Calixto Garcia. The number of volunteers in an army was later increased to 200,000 (9). After arrival, the U.S. troops organized themselves and attacked the San Juan heights on the 1st of July 1898. The alighted troopers, which included the Rough Riders under the command of Lt. Col. Theodore Roosevelt and African-American Ninth and Tenth cavalries, rose up against Kettle Hill as the Brigadier Gen. Jacob Kent led forces rose up against San Juan Hill, inflicted over 1,700 casualties, and drove the Spanish troops off the Island to the inland. Admiral Cervera progressed before the U.S. commanders would decide on the next step and was overpowered by Schley. The Spanish troops concurred with the free surrender of more than 23,500 troops in the city on the 16th of July. Shortly after that, Maj. Gen. Nelson Miles traveled to Puerto Rico from Guantanamo as his forces arrived at Ponce and started marching unopposed towards San Juan (3). Another peace treaty was signed in Paris by representatives of both the United States of America and Spain on the 10th of December 1898, establishing that Cuba would be independent after the treaty. The treaty ceded both Guam and Puerto Rico to the United States and further allowed whoever emerged victorious among the two to secure the Philippines Islands from Spain for around $22 million. Up to that point, the United States had paid a cost of more than $245 million and over 3,000 lives, who mostly died after getting infectious diseases on the battleground (4). Several changes happened later on, including the designation of Gen. John Joseph Pershing as the supreme commander of the then-American troops in France, after the creation of the American Expeditionary Forces. Pershing realized that the United States was ill-prepared to transport vast numbers of soldiers and essential equipment to the anterior, where rations, supplies, trained soldiers, and equipment were all lacking on the battleground. The ships that would transport American soldiers to Europe were limited, leading to army personnel pressing into general service voyage ships, German ships, and even worse, borrowing ships from allied troops to transport soldiers from Virginia, New Jersey, and New York. The American military command structures and necessary organizational strategies limits were taxed into the transportation of enormous troop numbers and quick equipment supplies in an efficient and quick process (10). The American Expeditionary Forces was not fully participating in the front line of the battle until when the first division of the well-trained A.E.F. troops entered the trenches at Nancy in France, although the first American troop landed in Europe early in June 1917. Pershing's desire of having an American force that would execute its mandate independently without the influence of any other allied force, which he had for an extended period of time, was not achieved until he got well trained troops with adequate equipment supply reaching them in good time in Europe. Each troop training institution in the United States of America put their best troop personnel to the front as Perishing put training facilities in France, which helped in further combat training of the new troop arrivals (1). The American divisions were employed to supplement British and French units in both staging attacks and protecting their positions on German positions. The first United States of America victory was at Cantigny in the May of 1918, when A.E.F. commandants increasingly presumed solitary control over the American troops in the war. By the July of 1919, several French troops had been assigned to offer military support to the A.E.F. operations. Perishing commanded the first American Army, which comprised of around 500 000 men in seven main divisions, during the Battle of St. Mihiel, which began on the 12th of September 1918. This is the largest ever successful military offensive action undertaken by the United States troops up to date. It was then succeeded by the famous Battle of Argonne, which went on from the 27th of September to the 6th of October 1918, on which Pershing was in charge of more than a million soldiers from both France and America. They recovered around two hundred and fifty square miles of French territory which had been seized by the German army (12). The A.E.F. had grown to one of the then-best modern combat-proven armies of the world by the 11th of November 1...