The 1890s were a transitional decade for the United States. After nearly three centuries of American pioneering on the continent, the lines between settled and unsettled territory had vanished. The destiny of the nation, long rooted in the spirit of exploration and expansion, suddenly seemed uncertain.

But politicians and businessmen in the U.S. had had their eyes on the Caribbean for a while. They thought, "You know, Florida and Louisiana are pretty rad. They've got sugar fields, they've got some fruit going on, they've got beaches, they're pretty much rocking it. Wouldn't it be great if the United States had more places like Florida and Louisiana?" 

And so, we became ever more involved in Caribbean politics. The ultimate goal was for the Caribbean to become independent from Spain and become either U.S. territory or, at the very least, open to U.S. commercial developers.

At the time, Cuba was in open revolt against Spain. And, to be frank, Spain was being a real piece of work about it. Massacres, prison camps, unkind words, pretty much every bad thing you could do. 

America decided to get involved and support the rebels for both humanitarian and imperialist reasons. So, we stuck our big Uncle Sam nose into it and supported Cuban independence, leading to the Spanish-American War of 1898. Great. It had been 25 years since we had a war. We were overdue. As Theodore Roosevelt told a friend in 1897, "I should welcome almost any war, for I think this country needs one."¹

America fought Spain in a whole bunch of places. It invaded Cuba, shelled Puerto Rico, and led an uprising in a Spanish colony in the Pacific called the Philippines. Perhaps you've heard of it? 

When the dust settled, Cuba was independent...ish. It was independent from Spain, but guess what? Now the U.S. was calling the shots. And Puerto Rico and the Philippines were annexed by the U.S. 

Go, go American imperialism! Just call us Sam the Great and scrub that guy Alexander out of the textbooks.

Why wouldn't you want to know everything there is to know about the Spanish-American War?

"Wait," you may be thinking, "aren't you talking about 'the splendid little war', the one that lasted, like, three weeks or something? What's the big deal?"

Yeah, that's the one. Except it lasted four months to be exact, but most certainly was a big deal. That might not be entirely clear at first glance. We admit that on the surface, this brief conflict doesn't seem so epic. Our American history books never allot more than a few sentences for it, and we haven't seen much mention of heroic battles, dramatic military campaigns against tyrannical enemies, or great heroes with the fate of the nation in their hands. 

So, why should we spend any more time on this topic? Because 1898 was a pivotal moment in American history. Not only was a new century approaching, but the nation, in intervening in the Cuban revolutionary struggle against Spain, was embarking on a new global mission: new imperialism. That's huge.

The Spanish-American war was also a significant period in Cuban history. You'd never know it from the title, but this war was fought in Cuba alongside thousands of Cuban freedom fighters. And really, the "splendid little war" might not have been so "splendid" or so "little" had Cuban revolutionaries not spent three full years fighting the Spanish colonial forces before the arrival of the first U.S. soldier. So, 1898 was a pivotal year for the Cuban people, but not for the reasons you might think.

Now, why wouldn't you want to know everything there is to know about the Philippine-American War?

"Are you sure the U.S. fought against the Filipinos?" you're saying. "Are you sure you're not pulling my chain?" you ask. 

Yes, we're sure. The U.S. did in fact fight a war against the Filipinos. Didn't you learn about this in your U.S. history courses? (That's okay, neither did we.) The Philippine-American War is one of those moments in American history that's often skipped over, or plain forgotten. Like the Spanish-American War, it's easy to dismiss because it was waged on foreign soil and resulted in relatively few American casualties. 

But upon closer inspection, this conflict reveals a great deal about the nation the United States was becoming at the turn of the century. And it wasn't pretty.