With McKinley in 1898.

We had been players in some degree on the world stage from nearly the beginning. President Jefferson sent troops to the "shores of Tripoli," as the Marines remind us, because they had tried to shake us down for money after his election. Later, President Fillmore sent ships to force Japanese ports to open for US trade. These actions were the exception rather than the rule, with Jefferson's action being a result of the US not being taken seriously as a world player. That all changed in 1898.

In the mid/late 1890s, Cubans began to revolt against their Spanish rulers and American interests in Cuba became jeopardized. American media portrayed the Spaniards as despotic and oppressive rulers, leading to American support of intervention. In response McKinley sent the USS Maine to Havanna Harbor to keep an eye on things as part of what we'd today call peaceful observation. In February of 1898, it exploded unexpectedly. The Maine was an original US battleship and cost a fortune to build. She had a sister ship, the Texas, and they were cutting edge when commisioned in 1885. The Maine hadn't been launched until 1889. Losing a major vessel, an investigation was immediately launched. It was quickly declared that the Maine had been the victim of a mine placed in Havanna Harbor, but they failed to name who had placed the mine. Americans filled in the blanks on that real fast. Shortly after the loss of the Maine and decision of the investigation, McKinley rallied congress to declare war on Spain. Americans were thrilled since they "attacked" us. Except they probably hadn't (It is now thought the Maine had a fire that set off her munitions and no sabatoge or mines were at fault).

In April of '98, Spain tried to prevent our intervention by declaring an armistice and promising to allow limited self-governance in Cuba, which they had been slowly working towards. The US Congress then issued resolutions declaring Cuba's right to sovereignty and demanding spain withdraw. Spain didnt like that so they declared war against the US on Apr 24, 1898. We responded with our own declaration the next day, but worded it to be retroactively to apply the 21st of April.

On May 1 US warships began to engage the Spanish Pacific fleet at Manilla Harbor in the Philippines. This is known as the Battle of Manilla Bay. The Spanish lost 77 soldiers, had over 270 injured, and had 8 ships sank. The US had one sailor die from heat stroke, 9 wounded, and one ship damaged. It is still one of naval history's most decisive victories. The Spanish were devastatingly decimated, effectively ending their colonial capabilities in that region.

We next located the Caribbean fleet at Santiago Bay in Cuba at the beginning of July. A force of regulars and volunteers including Teddy Roosevelt's 1st Volunteer Cavalry, more popularly known as "The Rough Riders," landed on the Bay and went to Santiago to force the ships to leave the protection of the harbor. It worked and US ships waiting offshore opened a barrage against the fleet. On July 17th the Spanish forces near Santiago surrendered to the americans, essentially ending the war.

By August 12 it was time to talk peace and an accord to hold a peace conference in Paris was issued. The only thing left was determining the spoils. McKinley then became very passionate about gaining Spanish territories held in the Caribbean and Pacific regions. This included not only the Phillipines but also Puerto Rico and Guam (Cuba was left independent since that is what we supported originally/prewar). On December 10th the 1898 Treaty of Paris was signed and the US took posession of her new territories. Almost immediately the citizens of the Phillipines resisted and McKinley sent troops to squash the rebellion. America would lose 10 times more troops fighting the Phillipine-American war, from 1899-1902, than were lost defeating the mighty spanish.

Shortly after the Sp-Am War, in 1900, the US annexed a small set of islands on which they had been permitted a naval base a decade or so earlier: Hawaii. Mark Twain himself even helped this happen by calling it "the loveliest fleet of islands that lies in any ocean.” Generally speaking, Americans had favored the imperialistic policies championed by the man that salvaged the govt after the panic of 1893, silver act fluctuations, and party instability that left a group of fractured and weak national parties. Afterall, he had won popular vote by 600,000 votes, a significant margin in the late 19th century.

Another side that isn't always realized is that in a lot of ways we've been imperialistic from the beginning. Our Manifest Destiny and westard expansion fueled us from before Pontiac's Rebellion until 1890 when, after 400 years of exploration and settlement, the American frontier was finally closed. Only then, and immediately then, did America became globally imperialist and a "world power."

The True Flag: Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of American Empire - Stephen Kinzer

The Reckless Decade: America in the 1890s H.W. Brands

E: typo