1894. Great Railway Strike at Chicago. President Cleveland recognizes the new Republic of Hawaii. _Kearsarge_ lost on Roncador Reef. 1895. Steamship _Alliance_ fired upon by a Spanish Cruiser. Spain apologizes. Spain declares martial law in Cuba. Cuban revolutionists proclaim independence, adopt a constitution, establish a republican government, and unfurl the flag of the revolution of 1868–78. Message of President Cleveland regarding the boundary dispute between Great Britain and Venezuela. 1896. William McKinley elected President. President Cleveland issues a proclamation against the Cuban Filibusters. International Arbitration Congress meets at Washington. 1897. The United States recognizes the belligerency of the Cuban insurgents. Venezuela boundary treaty ratified. Hawaii annexed to the United States. 1898. The U. S. battle-ship _Maine_ is blown up in Havana Harbor, with great loss of life, on the night of February 15th. On April 20th Congress directs the President to intervene between Spain and Cuba. On April 23d the President issues a call for one hundred and twenty-five thousand volunteers, and on April 26th Congress authorizes an increase of the regular army to 61,919 officers and men. On April 25th Congress declares war between Spain and the United States as existing since April 21st. XXI THE BATTLE OF MANILA BAY, 1898 For more than a century the island of Cuba had been an object of peculiar interest and concern to the United States.[272] During the first part of the nineteenth century the fear was that Cuba might be acquired by Great Britain or France, and thus a strong European power would be established at the very gate of the American republic. Manifestly, it was then the policy of the United States to guarantee the possession of the island to Spain. But after the Mexican War the idea of exterritorial expansion entered more and more largely into American statesmanship. The South looked upon Cuba as a desirable addition to slave-holding territory, and it was apparent to every eye that the island occupied an all-important strategic position in relation to the proposed canal routes across the Isthmus of Panama.