We just HAD to have an empire back in 1898.
“We just HAD to have an empire back in 1898.”
One of my husband’s friends was a man named Robert Conroy who was a professor at a school in Michigan. I remember him talking about how in the 1890’s the Spanish Empire was faltering and how the British and Germans were competing to take it over. They were also competing over Hawaii.
The leadership in the USA saw this and acted partly to get rid of Spain, partly to head off Britain and Germany, and partly to secure not so much an empire but a network of places for coaling stations for the Navy.
Dr. Conroy also talked about how the Germans even put together a plan to invade, capture, and then hold hostage New York City in order to extort the US into surrendering the one-time Spanish empire to the Kaiser.
It wasn’t just about empire building it was about global strategy and making sure that the USA wasn’t hemmed in by a European power.