Editing Spanish–American War (section)

===Aftermath in Spain===
{{Blockquote|Described as absurd and useless by much of [[historiography]], the war against the United States was sustained by an internal logic, in the idea that it was not possible to maintain the [[Restoration (Spain)|monarchical regime]] if it was not from a more than predictable military defeat|author=Suárez Cortina|title=La España Liberal|source=<ref name=Suárez>Suárez Cortina, Manuel (2006). "The survival of the monarchical regime... it led liberals and conservatives to opt for defeat as a guarantee that it was thus possible to safeguard the Crown. [...] The logic of war was thus subject to a basic task: to preserve the integrity of the inherited patrimony and to safeguard the throne of the [[Alfonso XIII|child-king]]. [(translated from Spanish)]" La [https://www.sintesis.com/data/indices/9788497564154.pdf España Liberal (1868–1917). Política y sociedad] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230712101533/https://www.sintesis.com/data/indices/9788497564154.pdf |date=July 12, 2023 }}. Madrid: Síntesis. {{ISBN|84-9756-415-4}}.</ref>}} A similar point of view that is shared by Carlos Dardé:{{Blockquote|Once the war was raised, the Spanish government believed that it had no other solution than to fight, and lose. They thought that defeat —certain— was preferable to revolution —also certain—. [...] Granting independence to Cuba, without being defeated militarily... it would have implied in Spain, more than likely, a military coup d'état with broad popular support, and the fall of the monarchy; that is, the revolution|title=La Restauración, 1875–1902. Alfonso XII y la regencia de María Cristina|source=<ref name=Dardé>Dardé, Carlos (1996). p. 116. La Restauración, 1875–1902. Alfonso XII y la regencia de María Cristina. Madrid: Historia 16-Temas de Hoy. {{ISBN|84-7679-317-0}}.</ref>}}

As the head of the Spanish delegation to the Paris peace negotiations, the liberal [[Eugenio Montero Ríos]], said: "Everything has been lost, except the Monarchy". Or as the [[Spain–United States relations|U.S. ambassador in Madrid]] said: the politicians of the dynastic parties preferred "the odds of a war, with the certainty of losing Cuba, to the dethronement of the monarchy".<ref>Suárez Cortina, 2006, p. 146-147.</ref> There were Spanish officers in Cuba who expressed "the conviction that the government of Madrid had the deliberate intention that the squadron be destroyed as soon as possible, in order to quickly reach peace<ref>Dardé, 1996, p. 121.</ref>".

Although there was nothing exceptional about the defeat in the [[Belle Époque|context of the time]] ([[Fashoda Incident|Fachoda incident]], [[1890 British Ultimatum]], [[First Italo-Ethiopian War]], [[Greco-Turkish War (1897)]], [[Century of humiliation]], [[Russo-Japanese War]]{{nbsp}}...{{nbsp}}among [[International relations of the Great Powers (1814–1919)#Imperialism|other examples]]), in Spain the result of the war caused a [[national trauma]] due to the affinity of peninsular Spaniards with Cuba, but only in the ''intellectual class'' (which gave rise to [[Regenerationism]] and the [[Generation of '98]]), because the majority of the population was illiterate and lived under the regime of ''[[Cacique#Caciquismo and caudillismo|caciquismo]]''.

The war greatly reduced the Spanish Empire. Spain had been declining as an imperial power since the early 19th century as a result of Napoleon's invasion. Spain retained only a handful of overseas holdings: [[Spanish West Africa]] ([[Spanish Sahara]]), [[Spanish Guinea]], [[Spanish Morocco]], and the [[Canary Islands]]. With the loss of the Philippines, Spain's remaining Pacific possessions in the [[Caroline Islands]] and [[Mariana Islands]] became untenable and were sold to Germany<ref>{{Cite book|last=Roberts|first=J. M.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/870590864|title=Europe 1880–1945|publisher=Taylor & Francis Group|year=2013|isbn=978-1-317-87962-6|editor-last=Hay|editor-first=Denys|edition=3rd|series=General History of Europe|publication-place=London|pages=128–129|oclc=870590864|id={{ProQuest|<!-- insert ProQuest data here --> }}}}</ref> in the [[German–Spanish Treaty (1899)]].

The Spanish soldier [[Julio Cervera Baviera]], who served in the [[Puerto Rico campaign|Puerto Rican campaign]], published a pamphlet in which he blamed the natives of that colony for its occupation by the Americans, saying, "I have never seen such a servile, ungrateful country [i.e., Puerto Rico]&nbsp;... In twenty-four hours, the people of Puerto Rico went from being fervently Spanish to enthusiastically American.... They humiliated themselves, giving in to the invader as the slave bows to the powerful lord."<ref>{{Harvnb|Negrón-Muntaner|2004|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=3bbp-8X0U9YC 11]}}, citing {{citation|author=Julio Cervera Baviera|title=La defensa militar de Puerto Rico|year=1898|pages=79–80}}</ref> He was purportedly challenged to a [[duel]] by a group of young Puerto Ricans for writing this pamphlet.<ref>{{citation|url=http://home.coqui.net/sarrasin/pers2.htm#anchor134043|title=Protagonistas de la Guerra Hispano Americana en Puerto Rico Parte II – Comandante Julio Cervera Baviera|publisher=1898 La Guerra Hispano Americana en Puerto Rico|access-date=February 6, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080130100035/http://home.coqui.net/sarrasin/pers2.htm#anchor134043|archive-date=January 30, 2008|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}} (an excerpt from {{Harvnb|Carreras|Tafunell|2004}})</ref>

Culturally, a new wave called the Generation of '98 originated as a response to this trauma, marking a renaissance in Spanish culture. Economically, the war benefited Spain, because after the war large sums of capital held by Spaniards in Cuba and the United States were returned to the peninsula and invested in Spain. This massive flow of capital (equivalent to 25% of the gross domestic product of one year) helped to develop the large modern firms in Spain in the steel, chemical, financial, mechanical, textile, shipyard, and electrical power industries.<ref>Albert Carreras & Xavier Tafunell: ''Historia Económica de la España contemporánea'', pp. 200–08, {{ISBN|8484325024}}.</ref> However, the political consequences were serious. The defeat in the war began the weakening of the fragile political stability that had been established earlier by the rule of [[Alfonso XII]].

A few years after the war, during the reign of [[Alfonso XIII]], Spain improved its commercial position and maintained close relations with the United States, which led to the signing of commercial treaties between the two countries in 1902, 1906 and 1910. Spain would turn its attention to [[Spanish Africa (disambiguation)|its possessions in Africa]] (especially northern [[Morocco]], Spanish Sahara and Spanish Guinea) and would begin to rehabilitate itself internationally after the [[Algeciras Conference]] of 1906.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://studylib.es/doc/6871128/las-relaciones-pol%C3%ADticas--econ%C3%B3micas-y-culturales-entre-e...|title=Las relaciones políticas, económicas y culturales entre España y los Estados Unidos en los siglos XIX y XX|date=July 24, 2017|last=Bernal|first=Antonio Ñiguez|language=es|website=studylib.es}}</ref> In 1907, it signed a kind of defensive alliance with France and the United Kingdom, known as the [[Pact of Cartagena]] in case of war against the [[Triple Alliance (1882)|Triple Alliance]].<ref>By which, with the transfer of technology from the United Kingdom and France, the Spanish government was able to begin to rebuild the fleet and built the {{sclass|España|battleship|1}} and projected the {{sclass|Reina Victoria Eugenia|battleship|1}} that were canceled by the beginning of the First World War. When the Great War broke out in 1914, the [[Italian entry into World War I|Italian government declared its neutrality]] so that the Spanish government had scope to [[Spain during World War I|also declare its neutrality]] in the conflict.</ref> Spain improved economically because of [[Spain during World War I|its neutrality]] in the [[First World War]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/spain.htm |title=Spain During the First World War |last=McEvoy |first=William P. |year=2003 |publisher=FirstWorldWar.com |access-date=2009-07-16 |archive-date=June 12, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060612213421/http://firstworldwar.com/features/spain.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>