today is the 123rd anniversary of the explosion of the USS Maine in Havana's harbor, which triggers the Spanish American War and results in Cuba's transformation from Spanish colony to US protectorate and Puerto Rico and the Philippines' transformations into US colonies

originally thought to be some kind of Spanish mine in the harbor, it was probably a design defect that led to an explosion in the munitions room (furnace was right next to munitions room, hot in all climes, especially hot in Caribbean climate for which it wasn't made)

The US rapidly steamrolls through Spanish forces at sea through the modern fleet it had built up over the previous decade (US wasn't a major naval power before that) and is able to beat Spain on land because Spanish forces already barely holding on vs Cuban + Filipino revolts

the war removes Spain's most important remaining colonies leading to a period of both economic crisis (loss of taxes from colonies + markets for Spanish goods in said colonies) as well as Spanish identity, which for many was wrapped up in status as colonial & military power

For the Philippines the war against Spain would quickly give way to a years long guerrilla war against the US which is only put down through an absolutely brutal US counterinsurgency campaign involving forced concentration of rural population, resulting in massive civ death toll

the Philippines finally achieve independence, which they had been seeking since before the Spanish American War, only after WWII and a violent Japanese occupation.

Puerto Rico remains a colony.

Cuba's protectorate ends in 1933 but remains part of US' informal empire until 1959

internally for the US, this becomes a major moment in how the US begins rethinking its relationship with broader world. Hitherto, it had largely focused on settler colonial projects in the continental US, Alaska, and Hawaii (which was annexed after an Anglo American planter coup)

but because of the war the US and the confirmation of the US' status not just as a major economic power but a major military power on the world scene, US foreign policy starts thinking of ways to justify variations on the idea of a "civilizing mission" to excuse colonies & empire

it also helps give a major boost to the career of a still somewhat young US politician who helped make sure the Maine disaster turned into a war, named Theodore Roosevelt

A historiographical end note: I call in the Spanish American War and not the Spanish Cuban American War because I see Cuba’s independence war as a contemporaneous but separate conflict just like the Philippine Revolution.