PARIS, TREATY OF (1898)

PARIS, TREATY OF (1898). The Paris Treaty of 1898 terminated the Spanish-American War. Under its terms Spain relinquished all authority over Cuba and ceded to the United States Puerto Rico, the Philippine Islands, and Guam in exchange for $20 million as the estimated value of public works and nonmilitary improvements in the Philippines. Hostilities had been suspended 12 August, and on 1 October the five U.S. commissioners, headed by former Secretary of State William R. Day, opened negotiations with the Spanish commissioners in Paris. The most difficult questions encountered were the disposition of the Philippines, which Spain was reluctant to relinquish, and of the $400 million Spanish debt charged against Cuba, which the Spanish wished assumed by either Cuba or the United States. Eventually Spain yielded on both points. An attempt by the U.S. commissioners to secure the island of Kusaie in the Carolines was blocked by Germany, which had opened negotiations for the purchase of these islands. The treaty was signed 10 December. The Senate, after bitter debate over the adoption of an imperialistic policy, exemplified in the annexation of the Philippines, consented to ratification by a close vote on 6 February 1899. The United States subsequently fought a three-year war to suppress the Filipino independence movement.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Beisner, Robert L. Twelve against Empire: The Anti-Imperialists, 1898–1900. Chicago: Imprint Publications, 1992.

Pratt, Julius W. Expansionists of 1898: The Acquisition of Hawaii and the Spanish Islands. New York: P. Smith, 1951.

Julius W. Pratt/T. G.

See also Philippine Insurrection; Philippines; Spain, Relations with; Spanish-American War; Treaties with Foreign Nations.