Part of his strategy called for the acquisition of colonies in the Caribbean Sea that would serve as coaling and naval stations, being strategic points of defense upon the construction of an Isthmusian canal.

The idea of annexing the Dominican Republic failed to receive the approval of the U.S. Senate and Spain did not accept the 160 million dollars which the U.S. offered for Puerto Rico and Cuba.

[12] On April 21, 1898, the Gaceta de Puerto Rico published a decree signaling martial law for the island, suspending all constitutional rights in the preparation for war.

On May 10, when Yale returned to San Juan Bay, Rivero-Méndez ordered his men to open fire on the steamer with an Ordoñez 15 centimeter cannon, in the first attack against American forces in Puerto Rico during the Spanish–American War.

The American naval commanders believed the bulk of the Spanish fleet under Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete was steaming from the Cape Verde Islands to the Antilles and ultimately to Puerto Rico.

Sampson intended to intercept and destroy the Spanish squadron and then move on to attack secondary shore targets- San Juan's castles, forts and batteries.

Terror, a Spanish destroyer docked in San Juan for repairs, attempted to cover the cruiser's escape with a torpedo attack but was thwarted when her rudder was damaged by a direct hit from Saint Paul.

[28] On 15 July, the cruiser USS New Orleans arrived to relieve Yosemite, and then quickly finished off Antonio Lopez the next day by firing twenty incendiary shells into the vessel and sinking her.

[29] After Cuba was taken, President William McKinley approved the land invasion of Puerto Rico by way of Fajardo, taking into consideration that the Spaniards had fortified San Juan, where they expected the initial attack.

Miles' decision to change the invasion site was based on his belief that the town of Fajardo would be fortified and he feared that Spanish coastal gun boats would disrupt a landing there.

[29][30] On July 25, General Miles, 1,300 infantry soldiers of the 3,300 total that were assigned for the initial invasion and a convoy of ships, under the command of naval captain Francis J. Higginson of USS Massachusetts arrived at Guánica Bay.

It had 60 houses in all and its only defense was eleven members of the 4th Volante de Yauco, a Puerto Rican militia unit, under the command of Lieutenant Enrique Méndez López.

Meca and his men were joined by Lieutenant Colonel Francisco Puig, who assumed command of the Spanish forces at Hacienda Desideria two miles (3.2 km) from Guánica.

Puig arrived with two companies known as "Cazador Patria Battalion", and they were joined by Puerto Rican volunteers, the civil guards, and mounted guerrillas from the towns of Yauco and Sabana Grande.

When Santiago Veve Calzada, a Fajardan, realized that the garrison was abandoned and his town defenseless against the Americans, he implored the Spanish authorities in San Juan to dispatch troops to defend Fajardo.

As the first group of sailors was entering the darkened lighthouse, naval cadet William H. Boardman was mortally wounded when his revolver fell from a faulty holster and discharged into his thigh, cutting the femoral artery.

[35] On August 4, Governor General Manuel Macías y Casado sent Colonel Pedro del Pino and about 220 troops, including civil guardsmen to recapture the city.

The landing party of Amphitrite's sailors occupying the lighthouse doused the light and signaled the ships offshore, initiating shore bombardment as the naval guns began firing a protective pattern.

The Americans suffered no casualties, despite a close call when a wayward naval shell smashed through the two-foot (0.61 m) thick walls of the lighthouse within touch of six men but failed to explode.

A landing party of 30 sailors from Amphitrite and a similar number of U.S. Marines from USS Cincinnati under Lieutenant John A. Lejeune came ashore to secure the area while the 60 Fajardan civilians boarded Leyden for passage to Ponce and the lighthouse was abandoned to the Spaniards.

In Fajardo, Pino's men tore down the U.S. flags that flew over the harbor Customs House and City Hall, returning to San Juan after verifying that the lighthouse was abandoned.

Members of the Puerto Rican Commission, which included the leader of the Intentona de Yauco revolt, Antonio Mattei Lluberas and his group, arrived in Ponce aboard USS St. Louis and were assigned to the headquarters of General Miles.

[31] The 4th Ohio observed elements of Spain's 6th Provisional Battalion under the command of Julio Cervera Baviera entrenched in Guamaní Heights, six miles north of the bridge.

[38][39] Martínez Illescas immediately ordered the construction of several trenches; while building these, the soldiers were ambushed by an anti-Spanish guerilla force, led by Pedro María Descartes, who managed to kill a member of the Civil Guard.

The rear assault was reinforced by Wilson's army under General Ernst, attempting to trap the allied soldiers in a crossfire, employing a tactic known as the pincer movement.

Among the factors which benefited the invaders in the short campaign was that the Puerto Ricans who resided in the southern and western towns and villages resented Spanish rule and tended to view the Americans as their liberators.

Puerto Rico was classified as an "unincorporated territory" which meant that the protections of the United States Constitution did not automatically apply because the island belonged to the U.S., but was not part of the U.S.[65] In 1899, U.S.

Senator George Frisbie Hoar described Puerto Ricans as "uneducated, simple-minded and harmless people who were only interested in wine, women, music and dancing" and recommended that Spanish should be abolished in the island's schools and only English should be taught.

[67] The United States exerted its control over the economy of the island by prohibiting Puerto Rico from negotiating commercial treaties with other nations, from determining tariffs, and from shipping goods to the mainland on other than U.S.

[68] The state of civil disorder came to a halt on the island after the military government began to rebuild Puerto Rico's infrastructure, thereby providing employment for many of the discontented and unemployed population, and when the volunteer troops were replaced by the regular army.