Abstract
In 1898 Spain lost the last colonial possessions of its old Empire: Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, the Marianas, Carolines and Palau Islands. Why did it happen? It could be argued that a mistaken colonial policy and questionable economic measures pushed the colonies away from the metropolis, though not vice versa. The importance of the nationalist movements in Cuba, in the Philippines and in Ponape could also be remarked upon. These interlinking problems would probably have ulimately led to the independence of the colonies, but this would have happened in another way and at another time, without outside intervention and with less traumatic results for Spanish society and for the islands’ population. If the loss of the colonies occurred precisely in 1898 it was because in that year the United States decided to intervene in the colonial problems of Spain for political, economic, strategic and international reasons.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Arturo Giráldez and Dennis Flynn, ‘Trade between China, the Philippines and the Americas, 16th–18th centuries’, in Dennis Flynn and Arturo Giráldez (eds), Metals and Monies in an Emerging Global Economy (Aldershot Ashgate, 1997); Dennis Flynn, World Silver and Monetary History in the 16th and 17th Centuries (Aldershot Ashgate, 1996).
Patricio Hidalgo, Encomienda, tributo y trabajo en Filipinas (1570–1608) (Madrid, Ed. Polifemo, 1995); John Phelan, The Hispanization of the Philippines: Spanish Aims and Filipino Responses, 1565–1700 (Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1959).
Leslie E. Bauzon, Deficit Government. Mexico and the Philippine Situado, 1606-1804 (Tokyo, The Centre for East Asian Cultural Studies, 1981).
Josep M. Fradera, ‘El estanco de tabaco y la reforma de la hacienda filipina, 1760–1860’, and ‘Fiscalidad y ruptura política en Filipinas, 1864–1888’ (Oviedo, 1996); Ed. de Jesús, The Tobacco Monopoly in the Philippines. Bureaucreatic Enterprise and Social Change, 1766–1880 (Quezon City, Ateneo de Manila, Manila University Press, 1980).
R.E. Welch, Response to Imperialism: the United States and the Philippine American War, 1899–1902 (Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1979), p. 82. Shirley Jenkins, American Economic Policy towards the Philippines (Stanford, Stanford University Press, 1954), p. 32.
Josep M. Delgado, ‘La Compañía General de Tabacos de Filipinas ante el 98’, in Consuelo Naranjo and Miguel Angel Puig Samper, La nación soñada: Cuba, Filipinas y Puerto Rico ante el 11198 (Madrid, Editorial Doce Calles, 1996).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1999 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Elizalde, M.D. (1999). 1898: the Coordinates of the Spanish Crisis in the Pacific. In: Smith, A., Dávila-Cox, E. (eds) The Crisis of 1898. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-27091-0_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-27091-0_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-27093-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-27091-0
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)