Atlantic Warfare Yesterday : 389 



a small dog upon an elephant. It was fortunate that the next quarrel 

 America took up was with a distracted and declining power. 



America took up this quarrel in the first place because a nuisance 

 was being committed at her doorstep. For a long time the fire of 

 revolt against Spanish rule had flared up here and there in Cuba and 

 then died or been extinguished but it broke into flame in 1896. Not 

 even the repressive and cruel measures instituted by General Weyler 

 in command of the Spanish troops could dampen the flames this 

 time. Weyler's method was to make war not only on the rebel troops 

 but also the civilian population, which he began to shut up in large 

 concentration camps where they starved and died of disease in great 

 numbers. In those days at the turn of the century Weyler's methods 

 were not so well known and widely employed as they have since 

 become. Instead of putting out the fire Weyler scattered sparks that 

 began to burn brightly in America where sympathy and support for 

 the Cubans developed rapidly. After American protest Weyler was 

 recalled in 1897 but the revolt went on and, with mounting hostiHty 

 toward Spain, the navy kept growing in an atmosphere of tension 

 and expectancy. 



In February, 1898, the USS Maine exploded while she was at anchor 

 at Havana Harbor with a loss of 260 lives. After an American naval 

 inquiry had been conducted it was reported that the explosion was 

 due to a submarine mine. This conclusion was anticipated by the 

 American press and public and the clamor for war increased to such 

 a point that on April 11 McKinley recommended intervention in Cuba 

 to the Congress, asked for authority; a joint resolution was signed 

 on April 20 and war was formally declared on the 25th. 



Toward the end of the month it was known that a small Spanish 

 fleet of four armored cruisers and three torpedo-boat destroyers under 

 Admiral Cervera had left the Cape Verde Islands. Nothing further was 

 learned about the course and destination of this fleet. The United 

 States populace then living had had little or no experience with war 

 and the excitement and alarm which spread along the Atlantic sea- 

 board was incommensurate either with the size of the Spanish fleet 

 or any particular place along the Atlantic coast being hit by its shells. 

 On May 12 the alarm subsided as rapidly as it had arisen for then Cer- 

 vera was reported off Martinique. 



In the meantime the army had taken San Juan Hill on July i. Theo- 

 dore Roosevelt, who had appeared as the assistant secretary of the 

 navy during the year leading up to the Spanish War, had thrown 

 down his pen in Washington and, doing a "quick change" that would 



