Age of empire · 1868-1902

1898: Cuba, the Philippines and the end of Spain's empire

Cubans and Filipinos fight for independence from Spain. In 1898 the United States joins in, wins a short war and takes Spain's last colonies. Students ask whether 1898 brought liberation or a new kind of empire.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
13–16
On the map
3 steps, AD 1880 to AD 1898
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

Cubans and Filipinos fight for independence from Spain. In 1898 the United States joins in, wins a short war and takes Spain's last colonies. Students ask whether 1898 brought liberation or a new kind of empire.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Describe the independence struggles in Cuba and the Philippines before 1898.
  • Explain the causes and results of the Spanish-American War of 1898.
  • Debate whether the United States became an empire after 1898.
2

Explore the map

15 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1880

Spain's last colonies

Open the map in 1880 and find Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines, Spain's last large colonies. Roughly how far is each of them from Madrid?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1898

The Caribbean war

Open the map in 1898 and zoom in on Cuba. Find Havana in the west and Santiago de Cuba in the east, where the main fighting took place in July 1898.

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1898

Across the Pacific

Zoom out over the Pacific in 1898. Find Hawaii, Guam and the Philippines. The United States took all three that year. Why would a navy want islands across an ocean?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

15 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. José Martí warned that the United States might take Cuba for itself. Why did many Cubans both want and fear US help?
  2. Newspapers blamed Spain for the Maine explosion before anyone knew the cause. How can the press push a country into war?
  3. Filipino revolutionaries declared independence in June 1898. Why did the United States not recognise it?
  4. The United States paid Spain $20 million for the Philippines. Was that fair to Filipinos? Explain.
  5. Can a country rule colonies and still call itself a land of liberty? Discuss.
4

Game round

10 min

No Rule History ruler fits 1898. Play Abraham Lincoln, the US president a generation earlier, and his rounds on union and freedom. Then compare with President McKinley's choice to keep the Philippines: would Lincoln have agreed?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

€19 per month unlocks every worksheet, every live lesson and the class workspace. The free lesson prints without a subscription.