WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.279 Welcome in everyone. I am so glad you're joining 00:00:02.279 --> 00:00:05.139 us for today's deep dive. Today's Monday, March 00:00:05.139 --> 00:00:10.769 23. 2026, and we have a really wild story for 00:00:10.769 --> 00:00:13.269 you today. Yeah, we absolutely do. It's one of 00:00:13.269 --> 00:00:15.630 those historical moments that sounds almost like 00:00:15.630 --> 00:00:17.190 fiction. Right. I mean, we are talking about 00:00:17.190 --> 00:00:20.769 how in 1898, the United States basically accidentally 00:00:20.769 --> 00:00:24.410 conquered an entire empire just because someone 00:00:24.410 --> 00:00:26.789 brought a map of the Pacific to a meeting about 00:00:26.789 --> 00:00:28.989 the Caribbean. Exactly. It's wild. So for you 00:00:28.989 --> 00:00:31.329 listening, we're unpacking a massive stack of 00:00:31.329 --> 00:00:34.030 sources today. We've got this comprehensive Wikipedia 00:00:34.030 --> 00:00:36.850 historical archive. And we're exploring a conflict 00:00:36.850 --> 00:00:40.289 that lasted just 16 weeks. I mean, 16 weeks total. 00:00:40.770 --> 00:00:43.689 But it completely detonated the existing global 00:00:43.689 --> 00:00:45.649 world order. We are, of course, talking about 00:00:45.649 --> 00:00:47.740 the Spanish -American War. Yeah, and our goal 00:00:47.740 --> 00:00:49.579 today is really cut through the noise of what 00:00:49.579 --> 00:00:52.780 is an incredibly dense and often misunderstood 00:00:52.780 --> 00:00:55.359 period. We're going to synthesize exactly how 00:00:55.359 --> 00:00:58.659 the U .S. transitioned from this relatively isolationist 00:00:58.659 --> 00:01:01.759 republic into a massive global colonial power. 00:01:01.840 --> 00:01:04.760 Which is a huge shift. A completely seismic shift. 00:01:04.920 --> 00:01:06.260 And on the flip side, we're going to look at 00:01:06.260 --> 00:01:09.959 Spain. We'll examine how this devastating empire 00:01:09.959 --> 00:01:12.739 ending defeat paradoxically sparked a massive 00:01:12.739 --> 00:01:14.739 cultural and economic renaissance over there. 00:01:14.819 --> 00:01:16.980 OK, let's unpack this. Because I think we all 00:01:16.980 --> 00:01:19.159 vaguely remember the high school history version, 00:01:19.359 --> 00:01:21.540 right? Like, Cuba is fighting for independence 00:01:21.540 --> 00:01:24.280 from Spain. The American newspapers whip everyone 00:01:24.280 --> 00:01:26.480 into a total frenzy. A ship blows up, and boom, 00:01:26.480 --> 00:01:28.719 we go to war. Right, the very abridged version. 00:01:29.019 --> 00:01:32.739 Exactly. But to really understand this geopolitical 00:01:32.739 --> 00:01:35.219 pressure cooker of the late 19th century, we 00:01:35.219 --> 00:01:37.239 have to look at the money first. I know the US 00:01:37.239 --> 00:01:40.900 had significant financial ties to Cuba, but... 00:01:40.939 --> 00:01:43.040 How deep did those ties actually go at that point? 00:01:43.340 --> 00:01:46.959 Oh, incredibly deep. I mean, by 1894, 90 % of 00:01:46.959 --> 00:01:49.000 Cuba's total exports were going straight to the 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:52.000 United States. Right, 90%. Yeah, 90%. And the 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:54.959 US was providing about 40 % of Cuba's imports. 00:01:55.180 --> 00:01:57.319 So American business interests essentially held 00:01:57.319 --> 00:01:59.819 the economic reins of the entire island, even 00:01:59.819 --> 00:02:01.739 though the Spanish empire technically held the 00:02:01.739 --> 00:02:04.439 political and military authority. Wow. So they 00:02:04.439 --> 00:02:07.000 were entirely economically dependent on the US. 00:02:07.439 --> 00:02:10.159 Exactly. So when Cuban nationalists led by folks 00:02:10.159 --> 00:02:12.870 like Jose When they launched this massive revolution 00:02:12.870 --> 00:02:17.069 for independence in 1895, American capital was 00:02:17.069 --> 00:02:19.050 immediately threatened. Right. The money was 00:02:19.050 --> 00:02:21.889 on the line. Yeah. And Spain's response to that 00:02:21.889 --> 00:02:24.189 revolution is really what sets the stage for 00:02:24.189 --> 00:02:26.349 the whole conflict, because the Spanish prime 00:02:26.349 --> 00:02:29.689 minister sends in General Valeriano Weyler, and 00:02:29.689 --> 00:02:32.669 he institutes this policy of re -concentration. 00:02:33.189 --> 00:02:35.830 Yeah. And it was just as horrific as the name 00:02:35.830 --> 00:02:39.250 implies to basically starve out the Cuban guerrilla 00:02:39.250 --> 00:02:42.870 fighters. Weyler forced massive swaths of the 00:02:42.870 --> 00:02:45.349 rural population into these awful concentration 00:02:45.349 --> 00:02:47.830 camps near his military headquarters. Just ripping 00:02:47.830 --> 00:02:50.139 people out of their homes. Right. The sanitary 00:02:50.139 --> 00:02:52.460 conditions were just abysmal. Starvation set 00:02:52.460 --> 00:02:55.120 in, disease was rampant, and tens of thousands 00:02:55.120 --> 00:02:57.680 of Cuban civilians died. It was a humanitarian 00:02:57.680 --> 00:02:59.539 catastrophe. And so naturally, we've all heard 00:02:59.539 --> 00:03:01.699 the stories about the yellow journalism of this 00:03:01.699 --> 00:03:03.639 era. You have these publishers in New York, right, 00:03:03.740 --> 00:03:06.460 like Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, 00:03:06.479 --> 00:03:08.819 and they're just screaming about Spanish murderers 00:03:08.819 --> 00:03:10.659 and their headlines because, let's be honest, 00:03:11.039 --> 00:03:13.639 atrocity sells papers. It absolutely does. But 00:03:13.639 --> 00:03:16.590 looking at the archive, that popular myth that 00:03:16.590 --> 00:03:19.550 the newspapers alone basically caused the war, 00:03:20.150 --> 00:03:23.060 it feels backward. because President William 00:03:23.060 --> 00:03:25.340 McKinley and Wall Street were actually terrified 00:03:25.340 --> 00:03:27.340 of going to war. Oh, yeah, they were actively 00:03:27.340 --> 00:03:29.259 suppressing the push for it. You really have 00:03:29.259 --> 00:03:31.979 to remember the context of the 1890s in America. 00:03:32.560 --> 00:03:35.479 The U .S. had just suffered the Panic of 1893, 00:03:35.659 --> 00:03:38.180 which was the severe economic depression. Right, 00:03:38.180 --> 00:03:40.240 they were still recovering. Exactly. Wall Street 00:03:40.240 --> 00:03:42.879 desperately wanted stability for that fragile 00:03:42.879 --> 00:03:45.159 recovery. The last thing they wanted was the 00:03:45.159 --> 00:03:47.680 unpredictable chaos of an armed conflict. Yeah, 00:03:47.680 --> 00:03:49.699 wars are terrible for stable markets. Completely. 00:03:49.900 --> 00:03:52.180 And then on a personal level, McKinley was the 00:03:52.180 --> 00:03:54.419 last American president to have served in the 00:03:54.419 --> 00:03:56.539 Civil War. He had literally seen the carnage 00:03:56.539 --> 00:03:59.439 of Antietam firsthand, so he was deeply, deeply 00:03:59.439 --> 00:04:02.479 committed to these Victorian ideals of pacifism 00:04:02.479 --> 00:04:04.960 and arbitration. Okay, so if Wall Street and 00:04:04.960 --> 00:04:08.080 McKinley were so anti -war, how did a tragic 00:04:08.080 --> 00:04:11.370 ship explosion force the president's hand? Because 00:04:11.370 --> 00:04:13.949 even when the USS Maine, you know, the American 00:04:13.949 --> 00:04:17.089 cruiser, sent to Havana to protect U .S. citizens 00:04:17.089 --> 00:04:19.730 when it explodes in the harbor on February 15, 00:04:19.970 --> 00:04:23.550 1898, it kills over 250 servicemen. Yeah, an 00:04:23.550 --> 00:04:25.810 absolute tragedy. But the Navy's own official 00:04:25.810 --> 00:04:29.269 investigation couldn't definitively prove who 00:04:29.269 --> 00:04:31.430 set it off. Like they knew it was an external 00:04:31.430 --> 00:04:33.470 mine, but they couldn't pin it on the Spanish 00:04:33.470 --> 00:04:35.970 government. So how does that lead to war? What's 00:04:35.970 --> 00:04:38.949 fascinating here is the clash of underlying values. 00:04:39.610 --> 00:04:42.250 McKinley spent months trying to negotiate a peaceful 00:04:42.250 --> 00:04:44.889 end to those re -concentration camps. But Spain 00:04:44.889 --> 00:04:47.689 was dealing with its own incredibly fragile political 00:04:47.689 --> 00:04:50.310 system. Meaning what, exactly? Well, if the Spanish 00:04:50.310 --> 00:04:52.730 monarchy just handed over Cuba, which, by the 00:04:52.730 --> 00:04:54.810 way, they viewed as an integral province, not 00:04:54.810 --> 00:04:57.230 just a colony if they just gave it up, the government 00:04:57.230 --> 00:04:59.329 in Madrid would likely collapse in a revolution. 00:04:59.339 --> 00:05:01.240 Oh, I see. So Spain's government was trapped. 00:05:01.800 --> 00:05:04.500 Right. Spain couldn't deliver the promised humanitarian 00:05:04.500 --> 00:05:07.300 reforms without risking their own survival. And 00:05:07.300 --> 00:05:09.300 McKinley could no longer hold back the American 00:05:09.300 --> 00:05:11.800 public's outrage over the Maine. The pressure 00:05:11.800 --> 00:05:14.759 just blew the lid off. So the U .S. issues an 00:05:14.759 --> 00:05:17.839 ultimatum. Spain declares war and the U .S. follows 00:05:17.839 --> 00:05:22.180 suit in April of 1898. But I noticed in the archive 00:05:22.180 --> 00:05:25.220 that the historiography on this, like how historians 00:05:25.220 --> 00:05:27.980 actually view the motive for the war is really 00:05:27.980 --> 00:05:30.779 split. It's thoroughly split. I mean, for decades, 00:05:30.980 --> 00:05:33.220 the dominant historical consensus was that the 00:05:33.220 --> 00:05:36.459 US went to war out of genuine moral fervor. It 00:05:36.459 --> 00:05:39.120 was viewed as this noble humanitarian crusade 00:05:39.120 --> 00:05:41.920 to stop the starvation in Cuba. Right, the rescue 00:05:41.920 --> 00:05:44.720 mission there. Exactly. But later, political 00:05:44.720 --> 00:05:47.019 scientists introduced a more realist perspective. 00:05:47.199 --> 00:05:49.319 They argued that this moral outrage was essentially 00:05:49.319 --> 00:05:51.860 a really convenient cover for an imperialistic 00:05:51.860 --> 00:05:54.629 land grab. Of course. Yeah. They suggest it was 00:05:54.629 --> 00:05:57.149 a deliberate move by a rising industrial power 00:05:57.149 --> 00:06:00.110 to basically secure strategic naval bases, but 00:06:00.110 --> 00:06:03.029 disguised as a rescue mission. Both views are 00:06:03.029 --> 00:06:05.490 heavily debated. Well, here's where it gets really 00:06:05.490 --> 00:06:08.370 interesting. Whichever lens you view it through, 00:06:08.470 --> 00:06:11.009 the entire political focus, the entire moral 00:06:11.009 --> 00:06:13.870 outrage of the public is centered squarely on 00:06:13.870 --> 00:06:17.129 Cuba. It's a Caribbean crisis. Right. But then 00:06:17.129 --> 00:06:21.779 the U .S. Navy executes this maneuver. that drastically 00:06:21.779 --> 00:06:24.379 pivots the war to the completely opposite side 00:06:24.379 --> 00:06:26.879 of the planet. It's like showing up to put out 00:06:26.879 --> 00:06:28.639 a fire at your neighbor's house in the Caribbean, 00:06:29.060 --> 00:06:31.360 but somehow you accidentally conquer a totally 00:06:31.360 --> 00:06:33.240 different neighborhood in the Pacific Ocean. 00:06:33.500 --> 00:06:36.399 I mean, How did we end up fighting in the Philippines? 00:06:36.680 --> 00:06:38.959 That brings us to the Kimball Plan. The Kimball 00:06:38.959 --> 00:06:42.240 Plan. Yeah. The Navy's pivot to the Pacific wasn't 00:06:42.240 --> 00:06:44.540 improvised at all. It was a deeply calculated 00:06:44.540 --> 00:06:47.660 mechanism. Two years before the war, in 1896, 00:06:47.800 --> 00:06:50.480 a guy named Lieutenant Commander William W. Kimball 00:06:50.480 --> 00:06:53.160 drafted this contingency plan for a hypothetical 00:06:53.160 --> 00:06:55.920 war with Spain. Just in case. Just in case. And 00:06:55.920 --> 00:06:58.660 the strategic logic was actually brilliant. Spain's 00:06:58.660 --> 00:07:01.379 wealth came from Cuba, but its strategic vulnerability 00:07:01.379 --> 00:07:03.620 was its outdated fleet guarding the Philippines. 00:07:03.560 --> 00:07:05.879 So the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, who happens 00:07:05.879 --> 00:07:08.920 to be Theodore Roosevelt, he basically pulls 00:07:08.920 --> 00:07:11.860 this plan off the shelf and acts on it before 00:07:11.860 --> 00:07:14.300 the war is even officially declared. He does. 00:07:14.399 --> 00:07:17.279 He sends preemptive orders to Commodore George 00:07:17.279 --> 00:07:20.240 Dewey, who is commanding the U .S. Asiatic Squadron 00:07:20.240 --> 00:07:24.060 over in Hong Kong. And the directive was crystal 00:07:24.060 --> 00:07:27.680 clear. He said, the moment war breaks out, prevent 00:07:27.680 --> 00:07:29.920 the Spanish fleet from leaving the Asian coast 00:07:29.920 --> 00:07:32.639 and launch offensive operations in Manila Bay. 00:07:32.730 --> 00:07:34.689 And Dewey absolutely delivers. I mean, it's a 00:07:34.689 --> 00:07:37.790 master class in naval warfare. On May 1st, Dewey 00:07:37.790 --> 00:07:40.610 sails his modern steel ships in the Manila Bay 00:07:40.610 --> 00:07:43.230 and just completely obliterates the antiquated 00:07:43.230 --> 00:07:45.250 Spanish fleet in a matter of hours. It wasn't 00:07:45.250 --> 00:07:48.129 even close. No. The technological gap is staggering. 00:07:48.509 --> 00:07:51.290 The Spanish lose hundreds of sailors. And the 00:07:51.290 --> 00:07:53.670 Americans, only nine wounded. Not nine dead, 00:07:53.750 --> 00:07:56.189 nine wounded. It's an unbelievable statistic. 00:07:56.290 --> 00:07:57.990 And if we connect this to the bigger picture, 00:07:58.250 --> 00:08:00.550 Manila Bay was the exact moment the world woke 00:08:00.550 --> 00:08:03.029 up to the reality of American naval supremacy. 00:08:03.129 --> 00:08:06.110 They arrived on the world stage. Exactly. But 00:08:06.110 --> 00:08:09.050 tactically, it created an immediate geopolitical 00:08:09.050 --> 00:08:11.470 headache. Dewey controlled the water, but he 00:08:11.470 --> 00:08:13.589 didn't have a landing force to actually take 00:08:13.589 --> 00:08:16.550 the city of Manila. And suddenly, the harbor 00:08:16.550 --> 00:08:19.009 starts filling up with the warships of other 00:08:19.009 --> 00:08:21.910 European empires. Vultures circling the water. 00:08:22.209 --> 00:08:25.329 Precisely like vultures. Specifically, a German 00:08:25.329 --> 00:08:28.750 squadron of eight ships shows up. And the Germans 00:08:28.750 --> 00:08:31.649 had their own imperial ambitions. They were hovering 00:08:31.649 --> 00:08:34.009 there, just waiting to see if they could seize 00:08:34.009 --> 00:08:36.169 the Philippines for themselves if the Americans 00:08:36.169 --> 00:08:39.440 faltered. Oh, wow. Yeah, the German ships were 00:08:39.440 --> 00:08:41.580 cutting in front of American vessels. They were 00:08:41.580 --> 00:08:44.379 refusing to salute the flag. They were really 00:08:44.379 --> 00:08:46.899 testing the limits of Dewey's resolve. Just actively 00:08:46.899 --> 00:08:49.019 trying to provoke him. Exactly. But Dewey calls 00:08:49.019 --> 00:08:51.379 their bluff, right? Yeah. He basically threatens 00:08:51.379 --> 00:08:53.700 war if they don't back off. Yeah. And the Germans 00:08:53.700 --> 00:08:56.080 finally stand down. Yeah, they eventually back 00:08:56.080 --> 00:08:58.649 off. But the Americans are still stuck. They 00:08:58.649 --> 00:09:01.309 need troops on the ground. So they bring in Emilio 00:09:01.309 --> 00:09:04.009 Aguinaldo, a Filipino revolutionary who had already 00:09:04.009 --> 00:09:06.789 been fighting the Spanish. And Aguinaldo assumes, 00:09:06.830 --> 00:09:09.269 naturally, that the U .S. is there to help him 00:09:09.269 --> 00:09:11.230 establish an independent Philippine republic. 00:09:11.570 --> 00:09:14.169 Right, which becomes a huge issue later. Yeah, 00:09:14.429 --> 00:09:17.460 a massive issue. But while US reinforcements 00:09:17.460 --> 00:09:19.940 are sailing across the Pacific to join this messy 00:09:19.940 --> 00:09:23.000 situation in Manila, they casually execute one 00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:25.899 of the most bizarre military captures in history 00:09:25.899 --> 00:09:29.120 at Guam. Oh, the Guam story is incredible. So 00:09:29.120 --> 00:09:32.639 that happens on June 20th. The USS Charleston 00:09:32.639 --> 00:09:35.740 sails into Guam's harbor and fires a few rounds 00:09:35.740 --> 00:09:37.919 at the Spanish fort. Just to announce themselves. 00:09:38.279 --> 00:09:41.759 Right. But instead of returning fire, two Spanish 00:09:41.759 --> 00:09:44.240 officials actually row out to the American ship. 00:09:44.440 --> 00:09:46.539 And they weren't coming to surrender, they were 00:09:46.539 --> 00:09:48.879 coming to apologize. Because they literally didn't 00:09:48.879 --> 00:09:51.779 know where it started. Exactly. The telegraph 00:09:51.779 --> 00:09:53.799 tables didn't reach Guam at that point, so they 00:09:53.799 --> 00:09:55.799 thought the Americans were firing a friendly 00:09:55.799 --> 00:09:57.919 salute. That's amazing. They were rowing out 00:09:57.919 --> 00:10:00.100 to apologize for not having any gunpowder to 00:10:00.100 --> 00:10:02.740 return the courtesy. They're like, sorry, we 00:10:02.740 --> 00:10:05.620 can't fire our cannons to say hello. And the 00:10:05.620 --> 00:10:07.860 American captain has to tell them, actually, 00:10:08.299 --> 00:10:11.289 we're at war. And you were all our prisoners. 00:10:11.629 --> 00:10:13.769 Yeah, it's a completely bloodless capture, all 00:10:13.769 --> 00:10:16.009 because of a logistics failure on the Spanish 00:10:16.009 --> 00:10:19.450 side, which is wild. But that actually perfectly 00:10:19.450 --> 00:10:22.190 transitions us back over to the Caribbean, because 00:10:22.190 --> 00:10:24.750 while the Navy was executing these surgical, 00:10:24.809 --> 00:10:28.169 almost flawless victories in the Pacific, the 00:10:28.169 --> 00:10:30.350 army's invasion of Cuba was a completely different 00:10:30.350 --> 00:10:32.669 story. I mean, it wasn't just outdated tactics. 00:10:32.769 --> 00:10:35.649 It was basic logistics that failed. Right. Oh, 00:10:35.649 --> 00:10:38.169 the logistical contrast is totally jarring. So 00:10:38.169 --> 00:10:41.059 in the spring of 1898, The U .S. Army was basically 00:10:41.059 --> 00:10:44.580 a frontier force. It had just over 24 ,000 regular 00:10:44.580 --> 00:10:46.940 soldiers. Barely enough to call an army. Right. 00:10:47.299 --> 00:10:49.419 But overnight, Congress authorized the absorption 00:10:49.419 --> 00:10:53.620 of over 220 ,000 volunteers. Wow. And the military 00:10:53.620 --> 00:10:55.980 infrastructure simply did not exist to outfit, 00:10:56.220 --> 00:10:58.259 feed, transport, and house a force that size. 00:10:58.639 --> 00:11:01.220 Because I mean, going from 24 ,000 guys to over 00:11:01.220 --> 00:11:03.799 200 ,000 almost overnight, that's a logistical 00:11:03.799 --> 00:11:06.740 nightmare. It was chaos. So when they finally 00:11:06.740 --> 00:11:09.419 managed to land in Cuba in June, they walked 00:11:09.419 --> 00:11:12.159 straight into a tactical nightmare. The Spanish 00:11:12.159 --> 00:11:14.549 army is heavily outnumbered overall. But they 00:11:14.549 --> 00:11:17.470 are dug into the hills around Santiago and they 00:11:17.470 --> 00:11:21.210 are using the 1893 Mauser rifle. And the Mauser 00:11:21.210 --> 00:11:24.289 was a huge deal. A massive technological leap. 00:11:24.429 --> 00:11:27.470 It used stripper clips for rapid reloading and 00:11:27.470 --> 00:11:30.090 it fired these high velocity rounds that the 00:11:30.090 --> 00:11:32.970 Americans called Spanish Hornets because of this 00:11:32.970 --> 00:11:35.389 terrifying supersonic crack they made when they 00:11:35.389 --> 00:11:37.870 flew past. That's terrifying. Yeah. But more 00:11:37.870 --> 00:11:40.009 importantly, the Spanish were using smokeless 00:11:40.009 --> 00:11:41.850 powder. Which means they could fire from the 00:11:41.850 --> 00:11:44.330 dense jungle foliage with without ever revealing 00:11:44.330 --> 00:11:46.870 their positions. Exactly. Meanwhile, you have 00:11:46.870 --> 00:11:49.129 these American volunteer regiments walking into 00:11:49.129 --> 00:11:52.070 battle using old trapdoor Springfield rifles 00:11:52.070 --> 00:11:55.009 that fire black powder. I mean, every time an 00:11:55.009 --> 00:11:56.750 American volunteer pulls the trigger, they put 00:11:56.750 --> 00:11:59.210 up a giant cloud of white smoke. Yeah, literally 00:11:59.210 --> 00:12:01.210 painting a huge target on their own backs for 00:12:01.210 --> 00:12:03.179 the Spanish snipers. It's almost suicidal. It 00:12:03.179 --> 00:12:06.500 really was. And that technological disparity 00:12:06.500 --> 00:12:08.759 is what made the frontal assaults at places like 00:12:08.759 --> 00:12:11.899 San Juan Hill and El Cani on July 1st incredibly 00:12:11.899 --> 00:12:15.580 bloody. I mean, over 200 U .S. soldiers were 00:12:15.580 --> 00:12:18.480 killed and nearly 1200 were wounded charging 00:12:18.480 --> 00:12:21.419 those entrenched Spanish positions. Wow. And 00:12:21.419 --> 00:12:24.220 it's vital to correct the historical memory here 00:12:24.220 --> 00:12:26.120 regarding who is actually taking those hills. 00:12:26.379 --> 00:12:28.259 Right, because the mythology always points to 00:12:28.259 --> 00:12:30.679 Teddy Roosevelt and his volunteer Rough Riders 00:12:30.679 --> 00:12:34.080 charging up San Juan. Hill on horseback. But 00:12:34.080 --> 00:12:35.759 looking at the sources, the real backbone of 00:12:35.759 --> 00:12:37.799 that assault was the 9th and 10th Cavalry, right? 00:12:38.080 --> 00:12:40.659 The Buffalo Soldiers? Yes. These were segregated, 00:12:41.019 --> 00:12:43.600 highly experienced African -American regular 00:12:43.600 --> 00:12:46.019 army units. They were the real pros. Absolutely. 00:12:46.159 --> 00:12:48.139 They're covering fire, they're tactical discipline, 00:12:48.139 --> 00:12:50.259 and just their sheer endurance were absolutely 00:12:50.259 --> 00:12:53.279 critical to breaking the Spanish lines. Multiple 00:12:53.279 --> 00:12:55.399 accounts from officers at the time noted that 00:12:55.399 --> 00:12:57.899 without the Buffalo Soldiers, the volunteer regiments 00:12:57.899 --> 00:13:00.320 would have been entirely pinned down and decimated. 00:13:00.460 --> 00:13:02.860 So they take the heights. The Spanish fleet tries 00:13:02.860 --> 00:13:04.980 to run the blockade and gets destroyed by the 00:13:04.980 --> 00:13:07.279 U .S. Navy and then a short campaign in Puerto 00:13:07.279 --> 00:13:10.179 Rico. follows. But here is the statistic that 00:13:10.179 --> 00:13:12.440 really stops you in your tracks. We talk about 00:13:12.440 --> 00:13:14.539 the Spanish hornets and the bloody charge up 00:13:14.539 --> 00:13:18.059 the hill, but fewer than 400 US troops were actually 00:13:18.059 --> 00:13:21.139 killed in combat during this entire war. That's 00:13:21.139 --> 00:13:24.960 right. Over 2 ,000 died from disease. So my question 00:13:24.960 --> 00:13:28.019 is, how does a rapidly rising industrial power 00:13:28.019 --> 00:13:30.960 lose thousands of men to dirty drinking water 00:13:30.960 --> 00:13:33.700 in their own training camps before they even 00:13:33.700 --> 00:13:36.840 see a battlefield? It was an absolute epidemiological 00:13:36.840 --> 00:13:39.950 collapse of those non -combat deaths. Eighty 00:13:39.950 --> 00:13:42.389 seven percent were caused by typhoid fever alone. 00:13:42.669 --> 00:13:44.970 Eighty seven percent. Yeah. And the vast majority 00:13:44.970 --> 00:13:46.929 of that happened in the domestic assembly camps 00:13:46.929 --> 00:13:48.909 right back in the United States in places like 00:13:48.909 --> 00:13:52.009 Camp Thomas in Georgia. The army just had no 00:13:52.009 --> 00:13:54.769 institutional knowledge of large scale camp sanitation. 00:13:55.009 --> 00:13:56.309 They just didn't know what they were doing. No, 00:13:56.389 --> 00:13:58.190 they were digging latrines right next to the 00:13:58.190 --> 00:14:00.110 camp water supplies. They didn't understand the 00:14:00.110 --> 00:14:02.370 role of flies as vectors for the bacteria. It 00:14:02.370 --> 00:14:05.399 was a mess. General Shafter, who commanded the 00:14:05.399 --> 00:14:08.980 forces in Cuba, he literally called his men an 00:14:08.980 --> 00:14:12.399 army of convalescence because 75 % of the force 00:14:12.399 --> 00:14:15.600 was eventually rendered unfit for duty due to 00:14:15.600 --> 00:14:19.019 yellow fever, malaria, and dysentery. The situation 00:14:19.019 --> 00:14:22.200 got so desperate that the War Department actually 00:14:22.200 --> 00:14:24.720 tried leaving the African -American troops in 00:14:24.720 --> 00:14:28.620 Cuba as an occupation force based on this incredibly 00:14:28.620 --> 00:14:32.289 flawed racist pseudoscience that they were somehow 00:14:32.289 --> 00:14:34.610 genetically immune to tropical diseases. Oh, 00:14:34.610 --> 00:14:37.230 wow. Which is obviously false. Completely false. 00:14:37.509 --> 00:14:39.470 Dozens of them contracted the fevers just like 00:14:39.470 --> 00:14:41.490 anyone else. So it's a total medical disaster. 00:14:41.570 --> 00:14:43.690 But I liked how the archive framed this. It was 00:14:43.690 --> 00:14:45.549 essentially like we went to war with bullets 00:14:45.549 --> 00:14:47.669 and came back with epidemiology. That's the perfect 00:14:47.669 --> 00:14:50.330 way to phrase it, because the public outcry over 00:14:50.330 --> 00:14:53.250 those typhoid deaths was so intense that it forced 00:14:53.250 --> 00:14:56.169 a complete revolution in military medicine. It 00:14:56.169 --> 00:14:57.870 directly led to the establishment of the U .S. 00:14:57.889 --> 00:15:00.269 Army Typhoid Board. which was led by figures 00:15:00.269 --> 00:15:03.370 like Walter Reed. Walter Reed. Yeah. They mapped 00:15:03.370 --> 00:15:05.610 exactly how the disease spread through the camps, 00:15:06.090 --> 00:15:08.210 which fundamentally changed global sanitation 00:15:08.210 --> 00:15:11.889 practices. So the catastrophic failures of 1898 00:15:11.889 --> 00:15:14.049 saved countless lives in the 20th century because 00:15:14.049 --> 00:15:16.909 it basically birthed modern military hygiene. 00:15:17.570 --> 00:15:20.809 So by August of 1898, an armistice halts the 00:15:20.809 --> 00:15:24.440 fighting. It's been just 16 weeks. U .S. Ambassador 00:15:24.440 --> 00:15:26.759 John Hay famously writes to Theodore Roosevelt 00:15:26.759 --> 00:15:29.940 from London and calls it a splendid little war. 00:15:30.460 --> 00:15:32.759 Right. But when the formal Treaty of Paris is 00:15:32.759 --> 00:15:35.980 signed in December 1898, the terms dictate that 00:15:35.980 --> 00:15:38.559 Spain relinquishes sovereignty over Cuba and 00:15:38.559 --> 00:15:40.879 cedes Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines 00:15:40.879 --> 00:15:43.240 to the United States. With the stroke of a pen, 00:15:43.419 --> 00:15:46.139 a 400 -year -old empire is dismantled. But wait, 00:15:46.139 --> 00:15:48.220 I'm confused here. OK. Because before the war 00:15:48.220 --> 00:15:50.059 started, Congress passed the Teller Amendment. 00:15:50.159 --> 00:15:52.120 specifically promising the world that the U .S. 00:15:52.200 --> 00:15:54.740 had no intention of annexing Cuba. So how did 00:15:54.740 --> 00:15:56.620 we end up passing the Platt Amendment just a 00:15:56.620 --> 00:15:58.720 few years later to basically take control of 00:15:58.720 --> 00:16:00.820 it anyway? Like, how is that legally justified? 00:16:01.120 --> 00:16:03.779 Well, you are hitting on the exact paradox that 00:16:03.779 --> 00:16:06.740 defined the whole aftermath of the war. The U 00:16:06.740 --> 00:16:09.000 .S. government realized that simply walking away 00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:11.940 from Cuba would leave a strategic vacuum, so 00:16:11.940 --> 00:16:14.879 they utilized a legal loophole. Okay, what kind 00:16:14.879 --> 00:16:17.830 of loophole? The Platt Amendment didn't technically 00:16:17.830 --> 00:16:21.049 annex Cuba. It made it a protectorate. Yeah, 00:16:21.190 --> 00:16:23.350 it stipulated that Cuba couldn't sign treaties 00:16:23.350 --> 00:16:25.929 with other nations without U .S. approval. It 00:16:25.929 --> 00:16:28.289 granted the U .S. the right to intervene militarily 00:16:28.289 --> 00:16:31.169 to preserve, quote unquote, Cuban independence. 00:16:31.389 --> 00:16:34.509 And it forced Cuba to perpetually lease naval 00:16:34.509 --> 00:16:37.509 stations to the U .S., most notably, Guantanamo 00:16:37.509 --> 00:16:40.570 Bay. So what does this all mean? We went to war 00:16:40.570 --> 00:16:43.129 citing human rights abuses by a colonial empire. 00:16:43.639 --> 00:16:46.399 only to invent a legal framework to hold colonies 00:16:46.399 --> 00:16:48.720 of our own. Because it wasn't just Cuba, right? 00:16:48.840 --> 00:16:51.320 Right. What about Puerto Rico and Guam? The people 00:16:51.320 --> 00:16:52.879 living there suddenly found themselves owned 00:16:52.879 --> 00:16:55.539 by a country that prides itself on constitutional 00:16:55.539 --> 00:16:57.679 rights. This raises an important question, and 00:16:57.679 --> 00:16:59.820 it's exactly where the Supreme Court had to step 00:16:59.820 --> 00:17:02.460 in with this series of rulings known as the Insular 00:17:02.460 --> 00:17:05.680 Cases. The Insular Cases. Right. The fundamental 00:17:05.680 --> 00:17:08.019 question they were trying to answer was, does 00:17:08.019 --> 00:17:11.589 the Constitution follow the flag? Like, if the 00:17:11.589 --> 00:17:14.509 US flag flies over Puerto Rico, do Puerto Ricans 00:17:14.509 --> 00:17:16.890 automatically get full constitutional rights? 00:17:17.250 --> 00:17:19.289 And the Supreme Court said no? They said no. 00:17:19.609 --> 00:17:22.609 They engineered a brand new legal category called 00:17:22.609 --> 00:17:26.829 unincorporated territories. Think of it as a 00:17:26.829 --> 00:17:29.710 geopolitical waiting room. where the territories 00:17:29.710 --> 00:17:31.630 were owned by the House, but the people living 00:17:31.630 --> 00:17:33.509 there were not allowed to actually sit at the 00:17:33.509 --> 00:17:36.009 dinner table. Wow. Yeah. The court ruled that 00:17:36.009 --> 00:17:38.250 full constitutional rights did not automatically 00:17:38.250 --> 00:17:40.829 extend to all places under American control. 00:17:41.190 --> 00:17:44.289 It was a customized formula for American imperialism, 00:17:44.750 --> 00:17:47.170 allowing the U .S. to govern overseas possessions 00:17:47.170 --> 00:17:49.910 without incorporating their populations as equal 00:17:49.910 --> 00:17:52.890 citizens. Which was the absolute height of hypocrisy 00:17:52.890 --> 00:17:55.329 to critics at the time. You had figures like 00:17:55.329 --> 00:17:58.809 Mark Twain and Andrew Carnegie forming the Imperialist 00:17:58.809 --> 00:18:01.069 League, arguing that a republic simply cannot 00:18:01.069 --> 00:18:02.869 simultaneously be an empire. Right, there was 00:18:02.869 --> 00:18:05.569 huge pushback. But domestically, you can't deny 00:18:05.569 --> 00:18:08.880 the war was wildly popular. For the first time 00:18:08.880 --> 00:18:11.119 since the Civil War, you had northerners and 00:18:11.119 --> 00:18:13.539 southerners fighting a common enemy. You had 00:18:13.539 --> 00:18:15.740 former Confederate generals commanding U .S. 00:18:15.880 --> 00:18:19.059 troops again. It served as this massive, unifying 00:18:19.059 --> 00:18:21.960 cultural moment that effectively ended the post 00:18:21.960 --> 00:18:24.519 -Civil War fracture. It permanently altered the 00:18:24.519 --> 00:18:26.759 American self -image. The U .S. went from this 00:18:26.759 --> 00:18:29.779 isolationist, inward -looking nation to a country 00:18:29.779 --> 00:18:32.539 that viewed itself as a global power, even as 00:18:32.539 --> 00:18:35.599 it was, you know, fighting a brutal, multi -year 00:18:35.599 --> 00:18:37.779 counterinsurgency war in the Philippines. against 00:18:37.779 --> 00:18:40.420 Emilio Aguinaldo and the very revolutionaries 00:18:40.420 --> 00:18:42.859 they had initially allied with. It's just wild. 00:18:43.220 --> 00:18:45.039 I want to pivot to the other side of this equation 00:18:45.039 --> 00:18:47.619 before we wrap up, though. What happens to Spain? 00:18:48.200 --> 00:18:50.240 Because you'd naturally assume that losing a 00:18:50.240 --> 00:18:52.319 400 -year -old empire in the span of four months 00:18:52.319 --> 00:18:54.519 would utterly destroy the country. Yeah. But 00:18:54.519 --> 00:18:56.789 looking at the archives... How does losing your 00:18:56.789 --> 00:18:59.490 empire actually cause an economic boom? It comes 00:18:59.490 --> 00:19:02.109 down to capital repatriation. OK, break that 00:19:02.109 --> 00:19:05.089 down for me. So for centuries, the Spanish elite 00:19:05.089 --> 00:19:08.069 had parked their wealth in colonial assets. We're 00:19:08.069 --> 00:19:11.210 talking sugar plantations in Cuba, massive shipping 00:19:11.210 --> 00:19:14.079 interests in Manila. When the empire collapsed, 00:19:14.279 --> 00:19:16.839 all of that overseas investment suddenly became 00:19:16.839 --> 00:19:19.759 incredibly vulnerable. So the wealthy elites 00:19:19.759 --> 00:19:21.980 pulled their capital back to the Spanish Peninsula. 00:19:21.980 --> 00:19:24.019 Oh, I see. They liquidated their empire and just 00:19:24.019 --> 00:19:26.259 brought all the cash home. Exactly. And that 00:19:26.259 --> 00:19:29.380 massive sudden influx of domestic cash is what 00:19:29.380 --> 00:19:31.740 literally paid for the modernization of Spain. 00:19:31.980 --> 00:19:35.019 It funded the creation of major financial institutions 00:19:35.019 --> 00:19:38.059 like the Banco Hispano Americano, and it capitalized 00:19:38.059 --> 00:19:40.539 the heavy steel and chemical sectors in places 00:19:40.539 --> 00:19:44.059 like Bilbao and Catalonia. Furthermore, it forced 00:19:44.059 --> 00:19:46.359 a profound cultural reckoning. Right, the Generation 00:19:46.359 --> 00:19:49.220 of 98. Yes. Spanish intellectuals and writers 00:19:49.220 --> 00:19:51.579 realized they could no longer hide behind this 00:19:51.579 --> 00:19:54.480 myth of being a global superpower. The defeat 00:19:54.480 --> 00:19:56.880 forced them to look inward, to critically examine 00:19:56.880 --> 00:19:59.819 Spanish identity, corruption, and society. And 00:19:59.819 --> 00:20:02.180 that sparked one of the most vital literary and 00:20:02.180 --> 00:20:05.140 philosophical movements in Spanish history. Basically, 00:20:05.220 --> 00:20:07.339 losing the empire was the trauma that forced 00:20:07.339 --> 00:20:09.960 Spain to join the modern 20th century. That is 00:20:09.960 --> 00:20:12.549 so fascinating. the primary takeaways for you 00:20:12.549 --> 00:20:15.470 listening right now. In a span of just 16 weeks, 00:20:15.829 --> 00:20:17.690 the map of the world was entirely rewritten. 00:20:17.950 --> 00:20:21.789 Spain loses its 400 -year -old colonial grip. 00:20:22.329 --> 00:20:25.289 The United States accidentally conquers a multi 00:20:25.289 --> 00:20:27.809 -ocean empire stretching from the Caribbean to 00:20:27.809 --> 00:20:31.309 the Pacific. A tragic medical failure bathes 00:20:31.309 --> 00:20:34.190 modern military epidemiology. And the Supreme 00:20:34.190 --> 00:20:36.950 Court invents a legal framework for unincorporated 00:20:36.950 --> 00:20:39.750 territories that redefines American democracy. 00:20:39.890 --> 00:20:41.410 Yeah, and the reason you should care about this 00:20:41.410 --> 00:20:43.109 history is that the frameworks established in 00:20:43.109 --> 00:20:45.250 those 16 weeks are the exact frameworks we are 00:20:45.250 --> 00:20:48.720 still living with today. debates about U .S. 00:20:49.319 --> 00:20:51.599 foreign interventionism or discussions regarding 00:20:51.599 --> 00:20:53.920 the political status and voting rights of territories 00:20:53.920 --> 00:20:56.700 like Puerto Rico and Guam or even the continuing 00:20:56.700 --> 00:20:59.440 legal complexities of the naval base at Guantanamo 00:20:59.440 --> 00:21:02.299 Bay, you are hearing the direct unresolved echoes 00:21:02.299 --> 00:21:04.960 of 1898. And to leave you with one final frankly 00:21:04.960 --> 00:21:07.359 bizarre legacy to mull over on your own. Wars 00:21:07.359 --> 00:21:10.819 cost money, right? They always do. Always. Well... 00:21:10.650 --> 00:21:13.089 To fund the military mobilization for the Spanish 00:21:13.089 --> 00:21:16.150 -American War in 1898, the U .S. Congress passed 00:21:16.150 --> 00:21:18.730 a temporary excise tax on long -distance phone 00:21:18.730 --> 00:21:22.269 service. Now, in 1898, that only affected the 00:21:22.269 --> 00:21:24.029 ultra -wealthy who actually owned telephones. 00:21:24.690 --> 00:21:27.230 But when the 16 -week war ended, Congress simply 00:21:27.230 --> 00:21:29.710 forgot to repeal the tax. Of course it did. That 00:21:29.710 --> 00:21:31.849 temporary war tax to fight the Spanish Empire 00:21:31.849 --> 00:21:33.970 remained on the phone bills of American citizens 00:21:33.970 --> 00:21:36.710 for over a century. It was finally repealed in 00:21:36.710 --> 00:21:39.549 August of 2006. It serves as a stark reminder. 00:21:40.009 --> 00:21:41.670 The actions taken in the heat of conflict have 00:21:41.670 --> 00:21:43.509 a funny way of outliving the wars themselves. 00:21:43.890 --> 00:21:45.450 Thanks so much for joining us on this Deep Dive.