Treaty of Paris ( 1898 ) The Treaty of Paris of 1898 , , was an agreement made in 1898 that resulted in Spain surrendering control of Cuba and ceding Puerto Rico , parts of the West Indies , Guam , and the Philippines to the United States . The cession of the Philippines involved a payment of $ 20 million to Spain by the United States . The treaty was signed on December 10 , 1898 , and ended the Spanish - American War . It came into effect on April 11 , 1899 , when the ratification s were exchanged . The Treaty signaled the end of the Spanish Empire in America and the Pacific Ocean ( see also the German – Spanish Treaty ( 1899 ) ) , and marked the beginning of an age of United States colonial power . Background . Article V of a peace protocol entered into between United States and Spain on August 2 , 1898 read as follows : The composition of the American commission was somewhat unusual in that three of its members were Senators ( meaning , as many newspapers pointed out , that at a later date they would vote on the ratification of their own negotiations ) . The American delegation members were : On September 16 , U . S . President McKinley issued secret written instructions to his emissaries : The Spanish commission included the Spanish diplomats Eugenio Montero Ríos , Buenaventura de Abarzuza , José de Garnica , Wenceslao Ramírez de Villa - Urrutia , Rafael Cerero , as well as a French diplomat , Jules Cambon . Negotiations . The American delegation , headed by former Secretary of State William R . Day - who had vacated his position as United States Secretary of State in order to head the commission - arrived in Paris on September 26 , 1898 . The negotiations were conducted in a suite of rooms at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs . At the first session on October 1 , the Spanish demanded that before the talks get underway the city of Manila , which had been captured by the Americans a few hours after the signing of the peace protocol in Washington , be returned to Spanish authority . The Americans refused to consider this and for the moment it was pursued no further . Felipe Agoncillo is a lawyer and the Filipino representative who was denied representation in the negotiation . Representing the First Philippine Republic , he was mainly ignored by the empires . For almost a month , negotiations revolved around Cuba . The Teller Amendment to the U . S . Declaration of War with Spain made it impractical for the U . S . to annex the island as it did with Puerto Rico , Guam and the Philippines . On first instance , Spain refused to accept the Cuban national debt of four hundred million dollars , but ultimately it had no choice . Eventually , it was agreed that Cuba was to be delivered to the Cubans and the four hundred million dollar liability returned to Spain . It was also agreed that Spain would cede Guam and Puerto Rico to the United States . The negotiators then turned to the question of the Philippines . Spanish negotiators were determined to hang onto all they could , hoping to cede only Mindanao and perhaps the Sulu Islands . On the American side , Chairman Day had once recommended the acquisition of only naval base in Manila as a " hitching post " . Others had recommended retaining just the island of Luzon . In discussions with its advisers , though , the commission concluded that Spain , if it retained part of the Philippines , would be likely to sell that part to another European power and that this would likely be troublesome for America . On November 25 , the American Commission cabled President McKinley for explicit instructions . Their cable crossed one from McKinley saying that duty left him no choice but to demand the entire archipelago , the following morning , another cable from McKinley arrived , saying On November 4 , the Spanish delegation formally accepted the American demand , and Spain ' s Prime Minister Sagasta backed up the commission . As the specter of collapse of the negotiations grew , there were mutters about resumption of the war . U . S . election results on November 8 , however , cut McKinley ' s Republican majority in Congress less than had been anticipated . The American delegation took heart from this , and Frye unveiled a plan of offering Spain ten or twenty million dollars for the islands . After some discussion the American delegation offered twenty million dollars on November 21 , one tenth of a valuation which had been estimated in internal discussions in October , requesting an answer within two days . Rios said angrily that he could reply at once , but the American delegation had already departed from the conference table . When the two sides met again , Queen - Regent Maria Christina had cabled her acceptance . Montero Rios recited the formal reply : Work on the final draft of the treaty began on November 30 . It was signed on December 10 , 1898 . The next step was legislative ratification . In Madrid , the Cortes rejected it , but the Queen Regent signed it , empowered to do so by a clause in the Spanish constitution . U . S . Senate debate on ratification of the treaty . During the Senate debate to ratify the treaty , Senators George Frisbie Hoar and George Graham Vest were outspoken opponents of the treaty . Some anti - expansionists stated that the treaty committed the United States to a course of empire and violated the most basic tenets of the United States Constitution . They argued that neither the Congress nor the President had the right to pass laws governing colonial peoples who were not represented by law - makers . Senate Expansionists who supported the treaty said : Expansionists said that the Constitution applied only to the citizens of the United States . This idea was later supported by the Supreme Court in the Insular Cases . As the Senate debate continued , Andrew Carnegie and former President Grover Cleveland petitioned the Senate to reject the treaty . U . S . ratification . The controversial treaty was approved on February 6 , 1899 by a vote 57 to 27 , only one vote more than the two - thirds majority required . Only two Republicans voted against ratification , George Frisbie Hoar of Massachusetts and Eugene Pryor Hale of Maine . Treaty provisions . The Treaty of Paris provided that Cuba would become independent from Spain but the U . S . Congress made sure it would be under U . S . control through the Platt Amendment . Specifically , Spain relinquished all claim of sovereignty over and title to Cuba . Upon Cuba ' s evacuation by Spain , it was to be occupied by the United States , and the United States would assume and discharge any obligations that under international law could result from the fact of its occupation . The Treaty also assured that Spain would cede to the United States the island of Puerto Rico and other islands then under Spanish sovereignty in the West Indies , as well as the island of Guam in the Marianas or Ladrones . The Treaty specified that Spain would cede to the United States the archipelago known as the Philippine Islands , and comprehending the islands lying within a specified line . In accordance with the treaty , Spain : Specifics of the cession of the Philippines were later clarified by the 1900 Treaty of Washington . The boundary line between the Philippines and North Borneo was further clarified by the Convention Between the United States and Great Britain ( 1930 ) .