Cuba's revolt had continued in different forms since the 1860s. The United States increasingly asserted the Monroe Doctrine while recovering from the Civil War and absorbing Mahan's arguments about sea power. Spain had granted Cuba substantial autonomy by January 1898, but feared that abandoning the island outright would advertise weakness across its remaining empire. Germany, France, Britain, Portugal, and Italy all represented potential imperial predators, so Madrid treated defense of Cuba as connected to the survival of possessions elsewhere.
Chapter · 4:42-8:53
Cuba, the Monroe Doctrine, and the road to war
Cuba's revolt coincided with growing American regional ambitions and Spain's fear that yielding one colony would expose the rest of its empire.