Jose's troops use guerrilla warfare to destroy property and hurt the Spanish economy rather than directly fighting their soldiers.

The Spanish use concentration camps as a way to intimidate and control the population, this backfires as the US uses this as motivation to bring the American people to their side and support the independence of Cuba.

January 1898 President McKinley sends the USS Maine to Havana Harbor as a show of force and to scare the Spanish forces.

February 15th the USS Maine is destroyed killing 266 of its over 300 passengers. This was believed to have been a mine at the time, but historians today theorize that it could have been an internal explosion that caused its destruction.

The US congress passes the teller amendment which stated that if Cuba were to gain its independence it would not become a state in the Union.

Washington orders the Spanish to discontinue the concentration camps and they comply, however due to continued bloodshed the US was forced to send in forces to liberate Cuba.

April 19th Congress declares war and gives the president permission to use lethal force in liberating Cuba.

May 1st Battle of Manilla was the first battle of the Spanish-American war.

The assistant secretary of the navy at the time Teddy Roosevelt had been the one who prepared the navy for the battle at Manilla by sending the troops they had at a base in Hong Kong.

June 22nd American troops landed near Santiago and laid siege to the city for several days until on July 3rd the Spanish third squadron engaged US forces and was defeated.

Teddy resigns as assistant secretary and forms the first US cavalry volunteer force and names it the "Rough Riders"

Teddy uses his Rough Rider cavalry to storm the Spanish forces on San Juan Hill forcing them to surrender.

After several military defeats to the US forces eventually both sides agree upon the 1898 Treaty of Paris stating that the US would be given: Puerto Rico, Guam and the Phillippines and Cuba would gain their independence for $20 million.