House recognizes Cuba's independence, April 13, 1898

[Mika]

Gotta love the use of the word "independence" that actually means under US control.

House recognizes Cuba's independence, April 13, 1898
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0410/35692.html

On this day in 1898, the House passed a resolution recognizing Cuba’s independence from Spain. The vote was 325-19. The House and Senate conferred for a week over the final wording before the measure was sent on April 19 to President William McKinley.

The resolution demanded that Spain — as a colonial power — immediately withdraw from Cuba.

It authorized McKinley to use the U.S. military to force Spain off the Caribbean island, “with the purpose of securing permanent peace and order there and establishing by the free action of the people thereof a stable and independent government of their own.”

With this, the House set in motion a series of events that swiftly brought the United States into direct conflict with Spain. The day after McKinley signed the joint congressional resolution, Madrid broke off diplomatic relations with Washington. Then, on April 24, Spain declared war on the United States.

The House responded the next day, declaring that a state of war had existed between the U.S. and Spain since April 21.

This was only the second time that the House issued a formal declaration of war. The first was the War of 1812, fought against the British.

The ensuing four-month conflict spread far from Cuban shores. The U.S. Navy successfully dislodged Spain from its long-standing colonial outposts in both the Caribbean and the South Pacific.

John Hay, the U.S. ambassador in London, wrote his friend Theodore Roosevelt to declare that, from start to finish, it had been “a splendid little war.”

The clear-cut U.S. victory gave Washington temporary administrative control over Cuba and indefinite authority over Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines — with long-term geopolitical consequences.

Source: Historian, Clerk of the U.S. House

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[flamingdem]

1. .. and the cynicism continues to this day!

I guess that day was commemorated with Hillary Clinton's statements.

[protocol rv]

2. They don't seem to know about the dead Philipinos

The US went on to crush a revolt in the Philipines, killing tens if not hundred of thousands of Philipinos, in what some could call a genocidal campaign. Unfortunately, US students are never taught this in their history books.

[Judi Lynn]

3. We also weren't taught about the unbelievable genocide right here in our own country,

and about the use of U.S. military against striking workers, etc., etc., etc. We weren't taught about the massacres of miners, railroad workers, etc, etc., etc.

From what I've heard, the U.S. has found the Philippines irresistable, violently attacking them at various times to keep them subservient to U.S. interests.

Considering what has actually happened involving this country and other countries, our own history taught in schools is more like a very short comic book written for slow-witted children, not at all close to reality. It has been an intentional attempt to keep us all in the dark, all ignorant, all unable to protest hideous actions against helpless people until we find out about it decades later, if ever.