American History Trivia Questions and Answers
What was The Spanish–American War?
A: The Spanish-American War was a conflict in 1898 between
Spain and the United
States.
It was the result of American intervention in the what?
A: Cuban War of
Independence.
American attacks on Spain's Pacific possessions led to
involvement in the Philippine Revolution and ultimately to what?
A: The Philippine–American War.
In the late 1890s, American public opinion was agitated by
what?
A: Anti-Spanish propaganda led by journalists such as Joseph Pulitzer and
William Hearst.
They used "what" to criticize the Spanish administration of
Cuba?
A: Yellow journalism.
What ship mysteriously sank in Havana harbor?
A: The American battleship Maine.
Pressure from the Democratic Party and certain
industrialists pushed the
Republican President
William McKinley into a war he
had wished to what?
A: Avoid.
The United States sent an ultimatum to Spain demanding it
surrender control of what?
A: Cuba.
First Madrid, then Washington, formally declared what?
A: War.
The ten-week long war was fought where?
A: In both the Caribbean and the
Pacific.
American naval power allowed U.S. expeditionary forces to
disembark where?
A: In Cuba against a Spanish garrison already brought to its knees by nationwide
Cuban insurgent attacks.
The Spanish garrison was further wasted by what illness?
A: Yellow fever.
Numerically superior Cuban, Philippine, and American forces
obtained the surrender of whom?
A: Santiago de Cuba and Manila.
The result was the 1898 Treaty of Paris, negotiated on
terms favorable to who?
A: The U.S., which allowed temporary American control of Cuba.
The United States gained what?
A: Several island possessions spanning the globe.
The war began exactly fifty-two years after what other war
began?
A: Mexican-American War.
It was one of only how many American wars to have been
formally declared by Congress?
A: Five.
Before the Civil War Southern interests attempted to have
the U.S. purchase Cuba and make it what?
A: New slave territory.
After the US Civil War and Cuba's Ten Years' War, US
businessmen began monopolizing the devalued "what" in Cuba?
A: Sugar markets.
By 1894, what percentage of Cuba’s total exports went to
the US.?
A: 90%.
What percentage of Cuba’s imports came from the US.?
A: 40%.
Roosevelt served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in
1897–98 and was an aggressive supporter of what?
A: A war with Spain over Cuba.
The Cuba Libre movement had established offices in
Florida
and New York to do what?
A: Buy and smuggle weapons.
The first serious bid for Cuban independence, the Ten Years
War, erupted in what year?
A: 1868 and was subdued by the authorities a decade later.
A revolutionary, José Martí, continued to promote what
while he was in exile?
A: Cuban financial and political autonomy.
In early 1895, after years of organizing, Martí launched a
what?
A: A three-pronged invasion of the island.