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In the 1890s, Cuba's long struggle for independence from Spain filled American newspapers. Spanish reconcentration policies caused mass suffering, American businesses feared for their Cuban investments, and sensational 'yellow journalism' demanded action. On February 15, 1898, the battleship USS Maine, sent to Havana to protect American citizens, exploded and sank in the harbor, killing most of its crew. Though the cause was never settled, the rallying cry 'Remember the Maine' swept the country, and in April 1898 the United States declared war on Spain.
The war was short and one-sided. On May 1, Commodore George Dewey's squadron destroyed the Spanish Pacific fleet at Manila Bay in the Philippines. In Cuba, American forces, including Theodore Roosevelt's volunteer Rough Riders and Black regular regiments, won the war's major land battle on July 1 at San Juan Hill outside Santiago, and the Spanish Caribbean fleet was destroyed two days later. By August, Spain asked for peace.
The Treaty of Paris, signed in December 1898, ended the Spanish Empire in the Americas. Spain relinquished its claim to Cuba, which came under American occupation before becoming independent in 1902, and Spain ceded Puerto Rico and Guam to the United States and sold the Philippines for twenty million dollars. Americans fiercely debated the result: expansionists celebrated new naval bases and markets, while anti-imperialists warned that ruling overseas peoples without their consent betrayed American principles.
The war announced the United States as a global power with possessions in the Caribbean and the Pacific. It made Theodore Roosevelt famous, strengthened the navy, and set off the Philippine-American War, as Filipinos who had fought Spain for independence now resisted a new ruler. By 1924 the United States remained the dominant power in the Caribbean basin and a Pacific colonial power, roles that began in 1898.
Britannica: Spanish-American War
Office of the Historian: The Spanish-American War, 1898
Britannica: Battle of San Juan Hill