12 August 1898: US-Spanish peace treaty

President Haywood and Spanish Prime Minister Sagasta signed a peace treaty ending the tensions between the U.S. and Spain. Haywood had escalated American forces in the Pacific and Caribbean when the reactionary Spaniards had attempted to push their imperialism into the American sphere of influence and interfere with the Community Of Trade that Haywood was establishing.

In reality, on April 25, 1898 the United States had declared war on Spain following the sinking of the Battleship Maine in Havana harbor on February 15, 1898. The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898. As a result Spain lost its control over the remains of its overseas empire—Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippine islands, Guam, and other islands.

President Haywood may have been William D. "Big Bill" Haywood (1869-1928), a prominent figure in American radical unionism as a leader in the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) and later as a founding member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). In reality in 1898 he was 29 years old and rising through the WFM ranks to become a member its national union's General Executive Board in 1900, and editor of the union's magazine, then serving as secretary-treasurer in 1901.

Práxedes Mateo Sagasta (1825-1903)
Spanish politician who was president of the government in eight occasions between 1870 and 1902. He was known for possessing an excellent oratorical talent.

Being a member of the progressive party while a student at the Engineering School of Madrid in 1848, he was the only one in the school who refused to sign a letter supporting Queen Isabel II. After his studies, he assumed an active role in government.

Sagasta served in the Spanish Corts between 1854-1857 and 1858-1863. In 1866 he self-exiles in France after a failed coup, returning to Spain in 1868 to take part in the provisional government which was created after the 1868 Spanish Revolution.

Sagasta was the Prime Minister of Spain during the Spanish-American War of 1898, and during the time which Spain lost its remaining colonies in the New World. Sagasta's political opponents saw his action as a betrayal of Spain and blamed him for the country's defeat in the war and the loss of its island territories after the Treaty of Paris of 1898.