In April 1898 the United States declared war on Spain. By the end of the war that December, the Spanish had lost their centuries-old colonial empire and the US had emerged as a power in the Pacific.Join Don as he speaks to Christopher McKnight Nichols, Professor of History and Wayne Woodrow Hayes Chair in National Security Studies, The Ohio State University. Nichols' latest book, co-edited with David Milne, is ‘Ideology in U.S. Foreign Relations: New Histories’.Produced by Freddy Chick. Edited by Aidan Lonergan. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.American History Hit is a History Hit podcast.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds/All3 Media.
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The cruiser USS Olympia lobs shells at the old fort in the Malate District of Manila, here in the Philippines. It's August 13, 1898, and American forces have the city surrounded. Admiral George Dewey and his fleet are in the bay. Major General Wesley Merritt has troops positioned around the city.
It seems the Spanish, occupiers of the Philippines for over 300 years, are facing a tough fight if they mean to maintain control of Manila. But their resistance is strangely minimal. Artillery fire from Spanish fortifications is token, scattered and weak. It's almost like they're hardly trying. It's almost like this battle has been faked. It is American History Hit. I am Don Wildman.
Thanks for joining us. Today, we will speak of a brief but consequential war that pitted a once expansive imperial power against an emerging America seeking to stretch its global standing. It is a conflict that doesn't receive the historical attention it richly deserves.
given that overwhelming victory granted the United States new territorial possessions across two oceans and ushered it towards a bold new century with tremendous influence in place. If not for the Spanish-American War, the 20th century would perhaps not have become the American century it is so often called.
The reasons supporting this proposition are the stuff of today's conversation with Christopher Nichols, professor of history at The Ohio State University, where he occupies the Wayne Woodrow Hayes Chair of National Security Studies, specializing in the history of United States relationship to the rest of the world. His most recent book and edited work is Ideology in U.S. Foreign Relations.
Hello, Chris. Welcome. Great to be here with you, Don. The Spanish-American War lasts for only a matter of months. Officially begins April 1898. Hostilities over in midsummer. I mean, a treaty signed in December. It was seven months long, famously called by Secretary of State at the time, John Hay, a splendid little war. It's a fight over Cuban independence primarily. But how much had the U.S.
been spoiling for a larger war with the Spanish at this time?
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