Have you ever heard about the Spanish-American War?

The Spanish-American War was fought between the United States and Spain. The United States and Spain went to war over problems in a country called Cuba.

map found at: https://www.ezilon.com/maps/images/caribbean/Cuban-map.gif

You see, back in the time of the early explorers (You've heard of Christopher Columbus, right?), Spain was the first country to send explorers to the west. As they explored, they conquered the native people and took over their land and resources.

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/24/bc/f6/24bcf61b7e4a6f1a4c8301f138714956--spanish-armada-colombo.jpg

Spain began their exploration and take overs on these small islands off of what is now the coast of the United States. Cuba is one of the islands that they held onto.

map found at: http://holidayplanners.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/caribbean-map1.jpg

Picture was found at: https://i.pinimg.com/736x/24/bc/f6/24bcf61b7e4a6f1a4c8301f138714956--spanish-armada-colombo.jpg

The Cubans began to resent the treatment they received by the Spanish rulers and tried to revolt, but the revolt didn't work and the Cubans were put into concentration camps. (Many Cubans died in these camps.) (Cause #1)

http://images.slideplayer.com/34/8372812/slides/slide_6.jpg

Meanwhile in America...

The Industrial Revolution had brought people into big cities. Other countries began to come to America to provide them with needed products. This gave America power that it had not had before.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BW77ik5wGLE/VUGPxzZca9I/AAAAAAAACVs/qY60KXuzC9k/s1600/BASF%2BFactory%2B(1881).JPG

Since the time of the American Revolution, America has been trying to expand from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. This concept is known as Manifest Destiny.

Now that America has reached that goal, they have decided that they want to expand America beyond the boarders of the continent, and they are looking for places where America and their ideals can expand.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.history.state.gov/milestones/westward.jpg

There wasn't a lot of unclaimed land around America, so the United States had to look at the islands that were close to the continent. A fight with Spain could help accomplish that since Spain had control of some of the islands.

http://www.worldatlas.com/img/areamap/continent/north_america_map.gif