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Spanish-American War 1964 Views


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Your #1 video for all things Spanish-American War.

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Transcript

00:07

Spanish-American War.

00:11

Hey everyone… make love, not war…

00:15

Being the Treaty of Paris, I know a little something about keeping the peace.

00:20

Things were a mess before I came along to make everybody play nice.

00:24

So here’s what happened… Cuba and Spain were having a bit of a tiff.

00:29

Cuba wanted their independence… Spain not so much.

00:33

And just like an adult separating two kids who are fighting,

00:37

America decided to step in and intervene.

00:41

Although… America might have actually been a third child in this scenario.

00:46

They were certainly acting immaturely. They didn’t stick their noses in because they

00:50

were being dramatically affected by the war themselves…

00:53

...instead, it was really just an itch they felt they had to scratch.

00:58

Believe it or not, people… ahem, Roosevelt… were actually delivering public addresses

01:03

about how soft American men had become.

01:09

And it wasn’t just because of the invention of the Tootsie Roll.

01:12

Okay, so there were a couple of reasons the U.S. got involved, other than their irrepressible

01:17

need to get all up in everybody’s business.

01:22

First, it would benefit Americans for trade purposes. If Cuba could win the war and get

01:27

Spain out of its hair…

01:30

…shipping products back and forth between the two nations would become

01:33

much safer and easier and more profitable.

01:37

And second… a U.S. ship exploded off the coast of Cuba, and it was blamed on a supposedly

01:42

Spanish naval mine. They didn’t have absolute proof that it

01:46

was indeed a Spanish mine…

01:48

…but when a country is looking to put a little hair on its chest, it can’t always

01:53

be bothered to acquire proof.

01:57

Once the American public got wind of this tragedy…

02:00

…they were totally behind a U.S. declaration of war.

02:05

It was time to head over to Cuba to stave off the Spanish, guns a-blazin’.

02:10

With America’s mighty military in the picture, the war didn’t last long.

02:14

The Spanish fleet was crippled before the year was over…

02:18

…and there were thousands of others who had died on the mainland.

02:21

Most of them had been killed because of the campaign run by the likes of Teddy Roosevelt

02:26

and his “Rough Riders.”

02:27

I am not making that name up.

02:30

Guess they must have had a bad case of saddle sores.

02:35

And that’s where I came into play.

02:37

I was drawn up in the city of Paris…

02:39

hence my name…

02:40

in late 1898 after the full surrender of the Spanish…

02:44

…which declared Cuba independent...

02:46

as well as a handful of other countries.

02:48

It was a fantastic development, first of all because freedom is groovy…

02:54

…but also because it meant that all that shooting and killing could end.

02:58

Whatever happened to the “Brotherhood of man,” people?

03:05

Anyway, the U.S. is no longer at war,

03:07

so they’ll have to bide their time until the next one knocks at their door.

03:13

I’m sure they won’t have to wait long. In the meantime…

03:17

Peace out.

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