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===Transition (as US colony)===

===Transition (as US colony)===

By 1895 200,000 Spanish soldiers were in Cuba.<ref>Encyclopedia of Military History, Dupuy & Dupuy, 1979, Pg 908</ref>  Americans were shocked at how Spain sent tens of thousands of Cubans to concentration camps, where many died of starvation or disease. After increasing tension between the United States and Spain.  When the USS Maine blew up while docked in Cuba, Spain was blamed and the United States declared the Spanish American War.  President McKinley approved this Resolution of Congress:  

Cuban natives revolted against Spanish rule fighting for 10 years from 1868 to 1878.  Discontent again came to a head when on February 23rd, 1895 constitutional guarantees were suspended.  Open revolt ensued which led to stringent, but unsuccesful measures taken by the Spanish to stop the rebellion.  The Spanish had 200,000 men on the island to keep order.<ref>Encyclopedia of Military History, Dupuy & Dupuy, 1979, Pg 908</ref> After initial Spanish efforts to stop the fighting by fencing in the insurgent areas with barbed wire and entrenchments didn't work, General Valeriano Weyler established what are now known as concentration camps, where noncombatants were swept up from their homes and confinded under abominable conditions. Americans were shocked to hear of the loss of life at these camps through disease or starvation. America demanded that Weyler be recalled.  Spain acquiesced in October 1897, but tensions between the two countries still ran high.  When the USS Maine blew up while docked in Havana Harbor in Cuba on February 15, 1898, Spain was blamed and the United States declared the war.  President McKinley approved this Resolution of Congress:  

:Whereas the abhorrent conditions which have existed for more than three years in the island of Cuba, so near our own borders, have shocked the moral sense of the people of the United States, have been a disgrace to Christian civilization, culminating, as they have, in the destruction of a United States battle ship, with 266 of its officers and crew, while on a friendly visit in the harbor of Havana, and cannot longer be endured ...

:Whereas the abhorrent conditions which have existed for more than three years in the island of Cuba, so near our own borders, have shocked the moral sense of the people of the United States, have been a disgrace to Christian civilization, culminating, as they have, in the destruction of a United States battle ship, with 266 of its officers and crew, while on a friendly visit in the harbor of Havana, and cannot longer be endured ...