Spanish–American War

Six articles, signed in Washington

On the afternoon of 12 August 1898 in Washington, the American secretary of state William R. Day and the French ambassador Jules Cambon, acting with authority for Spain, signed a six-article preliminary peace protocol.

It required Spain to relinquish its claim to Cuba, to cede Puerto Rico and another Spanish West Indian island plus an island in the Ladrones to be selected by the United States, and to permit American occupation of Manila pending a final treaty.

Article VI suspended hostilities on signature and required both governments to notify their military and naval commanders as soon as possible.

Orders by telegraph

President William McKinley immediately proclaimed a suspension of hostilities and ordered commanders to abstain from hostile acts. The first documented Army order, to General Nelson Miles, went out at 4:23 that afternoon.

The blockades of Cuban ports and of San Juan, Puerto Rico, were lifted, and roughly 100,000 volunteers were ordered mustered out six days later.

The shooting did not stop everywhere

The suspension was legal rather than instantaneous. American and Spanish forces at Manila fought on 13 August, and USS Mangrove exchanged the war's last shots off Caibarién, Cuba, on 14 August before learning of the armistice.

This was a preliminary protocol, not the Treaty of Paris, and it settled nothing about sovereignty over the Philippines beyond American occupation of Manila.

Cuban, Filipino and Puerto Rican representatives were not parties to the bilateral instrument.