Although the United States had no overseas colonies to protect, business and government leaders realized that a strong navy was essential to defend trade and growing international interests. Beginning in , Congress supported a modernization program that would make the American navy effective.
The new ships would have steel hulls, steam engines, and large, rifled guns. At first, the ships still used sails as a backup to steam power. But by the s, the U. Navy had converted to all-steel and -steam, and ranked among the top five navies in the world.
The growing production of the country demands it. The Maine had come to Cuba to protect American citizens while Cuban revolutionaries were fighting to win independence from Spain. The United States supported their cause, and after the Maine exploded, demanded that Spain give Cuba freedom.
War fever was fanned by the press, particularly publishers William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. Although the United States claimed it had no designs on Cuba, many believed the war would be an opportunity to seize other overseas possessions and begin building an American empire. Newspapers printed maps to help Americans follow the war.
The United States now entered an era of overseas expansion. Alfred Thayer Mahan, leading American naval strategist and professor at the U. Naval War College, Protected cruiser Atlanta, first ship of the new steel navy, which used sail power as well as steam power.
The war that erupted in between the United States and Spain was preceded by three years of fighting by Cuban revolutionaries to gain independence from Spanish colonial rule. From —, the violent conflict in Cuba captured the attention of Americans because of the economic and political instability that it produced in a region within such close geographical proximity to the United States.
The long-held U. By early , tensions between the United States and Spain had been mounting for months. After the U. On April 20, the U. The Spanish government rejected the U. McKinley responded by implementing a naval blockade of Cuba on April 22 and issued a call for , military volunteers the following day.
That same day, Spain declared war on the United States, and the U. Fighting broke out on Feb. At the outbreak, the U. American troop strength increased until when it numbered 75, Nearly all of the troops sent to fight in the Philippines spent time at the Presidio.
The Spanish-American War and its aftermath delayed Philippine independence until after World War II, but established a relationship that fostered a substantial Filipino population within U. The United States emerged as an influential world power with its new overseas possessions, and started on a path that would affect its role in international affairs for the future century.
Explore This Park. Info Alerts Maps Calendar Reserve. Alerts In Effect Dismiss. Dismiss View all alerts. The 51st Iowa Volunteers leaving the Presidio and heading for the Philippines in
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