Why did the Spanish choose to fight the USA in 1898? (Short Animated Documentary)

The Spanish-American War is famous for being a pretty one-sided affair, during which the Spanish fighting to keep their frail empire alive willingly declared war and fought against the United States of America, which was by essentially every metric much more powerful than Spain. And given how quickly the US was

victorious and how total Spain's defeat was, this raises the obvious question. Why did Spain choose to fight the USA?

Why not just abandon Cuba as the Americans had demanded, thus saving the lives, and the trouble that the war had cost it? So, in the 1890s, the remnants of Spain's once great empire were in a bit of a crisis. Cuba, seen as the crown jewel of said empire, was currently revolting against Spanish

rule, and Madrid's response to this was not soft. The same was happening in the Philippines, and to combat this, Spain sent a large number of soldiers to both of these places, and the respective wars of independence took a major toll on both sides. The Cuban fight for independence struck a chord with the

American people, and with the help of some imaginative reporting from the press, more and more began to see war as the only way to help. During 1897 and early 1898, US-Spanish relations soured due to reports of the mistreatment of Cuban civilians. A riot in Havana, the Spanish ambassador's criticism of

President McKinley, the USS Maine exploding whilst in Cuba, US senators publicly denouncing Spain and the Spanish people, and Congress putting aside large sums of money just in case of war. Whilst more and more Americans were becoming pro-war, there were still many there that opposed it, including at

least partially President William McKinley, who was somewhat skeptical of the benefits that war could bring.

McKinley had been trying to negotiate with Spain to end the Cuban conflict without US military intervention being needed. The US government demanded that Spain and the rebels sign a ceasefire, which was something that Spain also wanted. The issue was that ceasefire meant different things to both sides,

with Spain assuming that it meant the end of the rebellion within Spanish Cuba, and the Americans believing that it meant Cuban independence. And so, when Spain and the rebels paused the fighting in early April 1898, McKinley and his government were thrilled. That was until they learned that Spain had no

intention of leaving Cuba, something which would have been completely unacceptable to the American people.

Tensions rose, and as war seemed unavoidable, the US implemented a naval blockade of Spanish Cuba. So, according to basically everyone, a blockade of another nation's waters is seen as an act of war and upon learning of the Americans doing this, the Spanish retaliated by formally declaring war. As

you'll know, the following war between itself and the US was short and devastating for Spain with Madrid signing away Cuba, the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico whilst having to deal with the national shame that came with this. So, why did Spain agree to fight instead of just agreeing to the US