682 ★ CHAPTER 17 Freedom’s Boundaries, at Home and Abroad
war broke out, Roosevelt resigned his post as assistant secretary of the navy
to raise a volunteer cavalry unit, which rushed to Cuba to participate in the
fighting. Roosevelt envisioned his unit as a cross section of American society
and enrolled athletes from Ivy League colleges, western cowboys, representa-
tives of various immigrant groups, and even some American Indians. But with
the army still segregated, he excluded blacks from his regiment. Ironically,
when the Rough Riders reached the top of San Juan Hill, they found that black
units had preceded them— a fact Roosevelt omitted in his reports of the battle,
which were widely reproduced in the popular press. His exploits made Roos-
evelt a national hero. He was elected governor of New York that fall and in 1900
became McKinley’s vice president.
An American Empire
With the backing of the yellow press, the war quickly escalated from a crusade
to aid the suffering Cubans to an imperial venture that ended with the United
States in possession of a small overseas empire. McKinley became convinced
Hong Kong (British)
Manila
Dew
ey
FORMOSA(Taiwan)
(Japanese)
BRITISH NORBORNEOTH
SARAWA(British)K
CHINA
FRENCH
INDOCHINA
NETHERLANDS
EAST INDIES
PHILIPPINE
ISLANDS
Hainan
L uzon
Mindanao
South China
Sea
Sulu
Sea
Pacific
Ocean
Spanishfleet
May 1, 1898destroyed
Manila surrendersAugust 13, 1898
Dewey^
Manila
B a t a a n
C orregidor
0
0
200
200
400 miles
400 kilometers
THE SPANISH- AMERICAN
WAR: THE PACIFIC
THE SPANISH- AMERICAN
WAR: THE CARIBBEAN
Havana
Santiago
Tampa
U.S.S.February 1898 Maine sunk
PUERRICOTO
BAHAMAS
UNITED
STATES
CUBA
JAMAICA
(British)
HAITI
DOMINICAN
REPUBLIC
Caribbean Sea
Atlantic
Ocean
Pacific
Ocean
San Juan HillJuly 1, 1898
Spanish fJuly 3, 1898leet destroyed
Santiago
0
0
200
200
400 miles
400 kilometers
American victories
American forces
American naval blockade
Spanish forces
Spanish possessions
In both the Pacific and the Caribbean, the United States achieved swift victories over Spain in the
Spanish- American War.