Jingoes, Goo-goos, and the Rise of America's Empire
The Spanish-American War of 1898 propelled the United States into an experiment with empire that still colors America's relations with the world.
In 1898, America's role in the world changed forever. A country whose power and influence had been largely limited to the continent of North America suddenly acquired a global reach that it would never relinquish.
The march of events behind this transformation has the staccato urgency of an old Movietone newsreel. On April 25, 1898, two months after the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana Bay, the United States goes to war with Spain over Cuba. On May 1, some 8,000 miles away in the Philippines, Admiral George Dewey destroys the Spanish fleet off Manila. On June 21, the U.S. Navy seizes the tiny, Spanish-held island of Guam, with its fine Pacific harbor, 1,000 miles east of Manila.