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Ostensibly the Spanish-American War was fought to free Cuba from the decaying, decrepit Spanish Empire. Cuba was made independent right after the war. Another objective was gaining from the doddering Spanish Empire an Empire for America, but you could not call it an Empire, because the average American hated Empires and remembered what he had learned in school about how the US had to fight its Revolution to get free of an Empire. Nevertheless the US acquired the Philippine Islands from Spain and kept them until 1947, which was a major reason the Japanese thought they had to attack the US in 1941, plunging America into WWII - to neutralize US strength in the Philippines, which represented a threat tp Japanese conquests. So that part of it didnt work out too well. The US also acquired Puerto Rico and Guam from Spain in 1898, and still has both as US Territories today.

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14y ago

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