The only time Spain is discussed in our textbooks is when we talk about Christopher Columbus sailing to the New World, the Florida teritory and the Spanish-American war, and a perhaps a few sentences on the Spanish colonial system when it comes to American meddling in Latin-America(The Mexican-American war and the teritories gained, the Banana Republics and regime changes with the Cold War, etc...), but yet, there is almost no information on Spain assisting the USA on its independence in our textbooks. I am latino and didn't even know how much influence Spain had until after I graduated high school; they were the most powerful country in the world when the USA was just a colony and instead we only give focus to France? Spain and France were allies and had a lot to gain by weaking the British Empire. Perhaps Spain came out the biggest "winner" as their Empire was still huge at the time.
I even read how the people of Spain felt betrayed when the USA declared war on Spain in the Spanish-American. Imagine it being 1898 and you hear stories about grandparents/great-grandparents helping the US become its own country only for them to declare war on you.
Did the Spanish-American war become a deciding factor in which our curriculum ignores Spain and gives attention to France?
Hi there! You’ve asked a question along the lines of ‘why didn’t I learn about X’. We’re happy to let this question stand, but there are a variety of reasons why you may find it hard to get a good answer to this question on /r/AskHistorians.
Firstly, school curricula and how they are taught vary strongly between different countries and even even different states. Additionally, how they are taught is often influenced by teachers having to compromise on how much time they can spend on any given topic. More information on your location and level of education might be helpful to answer this question.
Secondly, we have noticed that these questions are often phrased to be about people's individual experience but what they are really about is why a certain event is more prominent in popular narratives of history than others.
Instead of asking "Why haven't I learned about event ...", consider asking "What importance do scholars assign to event ... in the context of such and such history?" The latter question is often closer to what to what people actually want to know and is more likely to get a good answer from an expert. If you intend to ask the 'What importance do scholars assign to event X' question instead, let us know and we'll remove this question.
Thank you!