For later
Certainly the US was an SP by the end of WW I? Yes?
Spanish American war may have marked the rise of the USA to level of a super-power, but WWI and the destruction and bankruptcy of Europe made it a reality.
I have written about this in “America’s Victories”—EVERY major European power thought we would lose, as did all the editors.
My great grandmother’s second husband was a Fireman 1st Class aboard the USS Boston at the battle of Manila Bay in 1898. The VFW still puts a flag on his grave every Memorial Day. I used to have his metal coffee cup from the ship but donated it to a Veteran’s museum - my mother kept her clothespins in it for 50 years.
I’d have said the War of 1812.
The Spanish -American War marked the the end of the beginning of the destruction of America’s Anglo-Saxon cultural identity.The incorporation of northern Mexican provinces from 1845 thru 1850, the catastrophic genetic losses during the Civil War of the best of America’s endemic population and finally the incorporation of culturally alien territories in Asia and the Caribbean acquired as a result of that war, would forever alter the America of the founders. The transformation continues to the present and is nearly complete.
I disagree. True, the Spanish-American War brought America out of obscurity on the world scene to be sure, WW1 more so, but it was WW2 that sealed the deal.
In Europe, America was instrumental in defeating Hitler and Musso, even so on the eastern front - by sending supplies to support Russia. In the Pacific, America was again instrumental in defeating Japan. Almost single-handed so.
There is no way America’s victory in the Philippines in the Spanish-American war, can compare with America’s victories in the Philippines and throughout the Pacific in WW2. Not to mention Europe.
America emerged a true super power after WW2.
Started over an accidental coal fire on the USS Maine.
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Dan Carlin did a 6 part Hardcore History podcast on WWI. It was haunting.
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