How well prepared was the US. to project power beyond its borders in 1898?

The United States had been preparing to enter the world stage in the late 1800s. We had been expanding on the North American continent by annexing Texas, splitting the Oregon Country with Great Britain, and fighting the Mexican-American War with Mexico. By 1853, we had expanded our country from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. We also developed our country economically. With people moving westward, businesses followed. This allowed our economy to grow.

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The United States had been preparing to enter the world stage in the late 1800s. We had been expanding on the North American continent by annexing Texas, splitting the Oregon Country with Great Britain, and fighting the Mexican-American War with Mexico. By 1853, we had expanded our country from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. We also developed our country economically. With people moving westward, businesses followed. This allowed our economy to grow.

By the 1890s, we wanted to expand beyond our borders. We were looking for an opportunity to gain land. When the opportunity presented itself, we went to war with Spain over Cuba in the Spanish-American War. We were fairly well prepared to fight this war. Our military had increased, and we felt confident in going to war. It should be noted that we went to war against Spain, which was declining as a world power. We were able to defeat the Spanish fairly easily, giving our people and our country more confidence. It might have been a different story if we were fighting a stronger country. We also spent several years trying to deal with the uprising of the people of the Philippines who didn’t want us to rule them. This showed us that being a world power would require us to have a strong military presence worldwide.

Between 1899-1907, we took steps to strengthen ourselves even more. We sent our newly built navy around the world, and we intervened in countries such as China, Panama, and the Dominican Republic. The confidence we gained by winning the Spanish-American War was clearly growing. While we were fairly well prepared to fight the Spanish-American War, we also realized we needed to become even more prepared to remain on the world stage as a world power.