Living in Puerto Rico, I was aware that the Spanish-American War had played a large part in the history of Puerto Rico.
In 1898, Puerto Rico was a colony of Spain and poised to receive independence from Spain in the latter part of 1898.
Unfortunately, the incident with the USS Maine in Havana changed those plans.
Puerto Rico was invaded by the American Army during the final weeks of the short war and ceded to America as part of the treaty with Spain, along with Cuba, Guam and the Philippines.
In my research, I discovered that some of the military actions had taken place very near to where I live. I was keen to discover if I could locate any relics from the war. As I dug deeper into the research, it became clear that there was a lot more to it than I had originally thought. I decided I would commit some time and energy into learning more.
I discovered a book written in Spanish by a Puertorican Artillery Officer named Angel Rivero. He had served as a battery commander in one of the Spanish forts in San Juan and had intimate knowledge of everything that had happened during the war.
After the United States took over the island, Rivero went into the private sector and did quite well for himself, inventing a soda beverage called Kola-Champagne that is sold here and to this day and remains very popular.
About 15 years after the war, he began to compose a chronicle dealing with the Spanish-American war and published it about 1921. He was given full access to the Spanish Archives in Madrid and interviewed many participants, both from Spain and America. His account is one of the most detailed that I have read and offers many personal stories from the veterans of that war.
While my initial goal was to learn more about the war in Puerto Rico, I went beyond the island and studied the conflicts in Cuba and the Philippines, as well.
I was inspired by other TreasureQuest bloggers to write a series of articles and post them in the TQ blog section. What good is all this knowledge if it cannot be shared? Greg was kind enough to let me post it and what you see below is the result of my research.
It is not in chronological order. The closest thing to an order would be to work your way backwards through the categorie listings. They are more or less in the right order but, again, my feeble knowledge of posting made them come out in reverse!
I did find that there are a number of versions of the "truth" out there with some accounts completely opposed to others. What I concluded was that the truth lay somewhere in between and this is the view that I have attempted to reveal.
At this point in time I do not anticipate adding any more articles to the blog. I will be occasionally enhancing them with more information as I continue to learn more.
I simply hope that they will serve to enhance the knowledge of this short but significant war where America lost more soldiers to disease than to combat. It was the first time (I believe) America had taken land by conquest and it marked the emergence of America as a global power.
In 1898, Puerto Rico was a colony of Spain and poised to receive independence from Spain in the latter part of 1898.
Unfortunately, the incident with the USS Maine in Havana changed those plans.
Puerto Rico was invaded by the American Army during the final weeks of the short war and ceded to America as part of the treaty with Spain, along with Cuba, Guam and the Philippines.
In my research, I discovered that some of the military actions had taken place very near to where I live. I was keen to discover if I could locate any relics from the war. As I dug deeper into the research, it became clear that there was a lot more to it than I had originally thought. I decided I would commit some time and energy into learning more.
I discovered a book written in Spanish by a Puertorican Artillery Officer named Angel Rivero. He had served as a battery commander in one of the Spanish forts in San Juan and had intimate knowledge of everything that had happened during the war.
After the United States took over the island, Rivero went into the private sector and did quite well for himself, inventing a soda beverage called Kola-Champagne that is sold here and to this day and remains very popular.
About 15 years after the war, he began to compose a chronicle dealing with the Spanish-American war and published it about 1921. He was given full access to the Spanish Archives in Madrid and interviewed many participants, both from Spain and America. His account is one of the most detailed that I have read and offers many personal stories from the veterans of that war.
While my initial goal was to learn more about the war in Puerto Rico, I went beyond the island and studied the conflicts in Cuba and the Philippines, as well.
I was inspired by other TreasureQuest bloggers to write a series of articles and post them in the TQ blog section. What good is all this knowledge if it cannot be shared? Greg was kind enough to let me post it and what you see below is the result of my research.
It is not in chronological order. The closest thing to an order would be to work your way backwards through the categorie listings. They are more or less in the right order but, again, my feeble knowledge of posting made them come out in reverse!
I did find that there are a number of versions of the "truth" out there with some accounts completely opposed to others. What I concluded was that the truth lay somewhere in between and this is the view that I have attempted to reveal.
At this point in time I do not anticipate adding any more articles to the blog. I will be occasionally enhancing them with more information as I continue to learn more.
I simply hope that they will serve to enhance the knowledge of this short but significant war where America lost more soldiers to disease than to combat. It was the first time (I believe) America had taken land by conquest and it marked the emergence of America as a global power.
Steve in PR has no blog entries to display.
