1898Reputable sourceWell documented
The Spanish-American War
On the timeline · around 1898 ·
What happened
After the battleship Maine exploded in Havana harbor, the United States went to war with Spain in 1898. In a matter of months it won a decisive victory and, in the peace, took control of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, and asserted dominance over Cuba.
Why it matters
The war announced the United States as a world power with an overseas empire, entangling it in the Pacific and the Caribbean and setting the stage for its twentieth-century global role.