Signing of the Treaty of Paris

Date: December 10, 1898 • Location: Topes de Collantes, Cuba

Spanish–American War: The Treaty of Paris is signed, officially ending the conflict. Spain cedes administration of Cuba to the United States, and the United States agrees to pay Spain $20 million for the Philippines.

The Spanish–American War was an armed conflict fought between the United States and Spain in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and eventually resulted in the U.S. acquiring Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines, and establishing a protectorate over Cuba. It represented U.S. intervention in the Cuban War of Independence and Philippine Revolution, with the latter later leading to the Philippine–American War. The Spanish–American War brought an end to almost four centuries of Spanish presence in the Americas, Asia, and the Pacific; the United States meanwhile not only became a major world power, but also gained several island possessions spanning the globe, which provoked rancorous debate over the wisdom of expansionism.