Independence in Cuba Main article: Cuban Campaign While the Cuban resistance to Spanish rule grew, rebels fighting for independence attempted to get support from U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant. Grant declined and the resistance was decreasing, however, U.S. interests in the region continued. The Secretary of State James G.Blaine wrote in 1881 of Cuba, “that rich island, the key to the Gulf of Mexico, and the field to expand our trade in the Western Hemisphere, is, though in the hands of Spain, part of the American commercial system … If ever ceasing to be Spanish, Cuba must necessarily become American and not necessarily fall under any other European domination. ” After some rebel successes in the War of Independence of Cuba in 1897, U.S. President William McKinley offered to buy Cuba for 300 million. The offer was rejected, and the explosion that sank the battleship USS Maine in the harbor Havana provoke the Cuban Campaign. In Cuba, the war became known as “U.S. intervention in Cuba’s War of Independence.” On 10 December 1898 Spain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris and, in accordance with the Treaty, Spain renounced all rights to Cuba.The treaty, in which Spain claimed that the Cubans did not participate, ending the Spanish Empire in America that marked the beginning of the U.S. expansion and long-term political dominance over the region. Immediately after signing the treaty, created the “Island of Cuba Real Estate Company” to sell Cuban land to Americans. The U.S. military control on the island lasted until 1902, was finally granted formal independence to Cuba.