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Moore History - The Spanish-America War of 1898 · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Not wasting a moment of time. Our number three, the
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  Speaker 1: Morning Show with Preston Scott, whose running the radio program
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  Speaker 1: is always over there in Studio one A. I am
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  Speaker 1: here in Studio one B. It is show fifty three
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  Speaker 1: forty five, and it's time for a little more history
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  Speaker 1: joining us, Doctor Ed Moore, Good morning, my friend.
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  Speaker 2: How you doing good monight? Well, I'm getting by. There's
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  Speaker 2: a reason I'm on the phone this morning to set
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  Speaker 2: it down there with you in the studio.
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  Speaker 1: And we appreciate that, and we appreciate that you acknowledged
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  Speaker 1: that reason. Thank you sir very much.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, you know that once once a bug strikes,
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  Speaker 2: you don't want to be around other people. So that's
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  Speaker 2: what I'm doing this morning. Hopefully my voice will hold up, It'll.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Be fine, doctor Moore. We wanted to talk about the
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  Speaker 1: Spanish American War as a as kind of an introduction
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  Speaker 1: to a series that we'll do talking about wars that
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  Speaker 1: America has found itself over time. Give us the kind
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  Speaker 1: of an overview of what was going on in the
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  Speaker 1: eighteen nineties that sort of set the stage for this conflict.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what I want the listeners to think about,
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  Speaker 2: because you got to think about the United States such
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  Speaker 2: as it was during that time time framed. By the
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  Speaker 2: end of the decade, we had forty four states, actually,
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  Speaker 2: but most of the western states were very unsettled. There
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  Speaker 2: were just not that many people there. The US was
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  Speaker 2: relatively isolated. We were growing as a trading partner with
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  Speaker 2: a lot of other countries. Big events of that decade
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  Speaker 2: like Yosemite was created, the city of New York as
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  Speaker 2: we know it now New York, Manhattan Borough annex the
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  Speaker 2: counties around formed the Five Boroughs of New York City.
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  Speaker 2: The first American car made in America was sold. It
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  Speaker 2: was called the Winton, was sold to a guy in Pennsylvania.
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  Speaker 2: Ford built their first car in the eighteen nineties. Nasmith
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  Speaker 2: invented basketball in the eighteen nineties. Just all kinds of
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  Speaker 2: things we take for granted now we're beginning then. Then
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  Speaker 2: around eighteen ninety seven, seeds of war started being formed.
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  Speaker 2: And think about it now, can you imagine Spain declaring
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  Speaker 2: war on the United States now? But that's the way
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  Speaker 2: the world was structured in those days. Spain, Great Britain, France,
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  Speaker 2: Russia were big dominant powers, colonial powers that had spread
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  Speaker 2: their tentacles all over the globe, and the United States
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  Speaker 2: really had in the United States is essentially isolationists. We
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  Speaker 2: didn't seek and there was a sentiment across the country
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  Speaker 2: not getting really involved in world affairs other than trade.
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  Speaker 2: And our army was small. I think we only had
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  Speaker 2: the somewhere around thirty thousand people in an active US army.
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  Speaker 2: You know, you're not really going to war on a
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  Speaker 2: world stage, and that degree in scope with thirty thousand people.
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  Speaker 2: So that's kind of where we were when around eighteen
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  Speaker 2: ninety seven revolutionists in Cuba were battling against against Spain
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  Speaker 2: and Spain intrusion, and same thing was occurring in the Philippines,
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  Speaker 2: and there was pressure on our country to get involved,
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  Speaker 2: and we surely did. Maybe we'd go into the details
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  Speaker 2: in a minute, but we were not We didn't have
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  Speaker 2: footprints all over the world. We have diplomats that we'd
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  Speaker 2: started sending all over There's an interesting story of Guam
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  Speaker 2: that I'll get into later. But when we actually invaded Guam,
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  Speaker 2: which was a Spanish property, essentially there was one American
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  Speaker 2: there that we could leave in charge. When after our
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  Speaker 2: troops left, one American Guam and now is a US territory.
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  Speaker 2: It was a bloodless takeover of the island of Guam. Guam.
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  Speaker 2: We sailed ships and there ships into their harbor, took
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  Speaker 2: over the island and no guns were fired. Interestingly, we
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  Speaker 2: fired thirteen cannons at their main fort there didn't really
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  Speaker 2: hit anything, which is kind of surprising. And they thought
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  Speaker 2: we were just celebrating coming into their harbor for trade
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  Speaker 2: and a delegation.
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  Speaker 1: Once a month. We get a little more history with
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  Speaker 1: doctor ed Moore and we're not drawn into this in
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  Speaker 1: any way, shape or form, were it not for the
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  Speaker 1: fact that Spain was in our territory by way of
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  Speaker 1: Cuba at that point, right.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, they had Cuba, that Puerto Rico, and then you
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  Speaker 2: know they still were involved. Mexico was a sovereign state
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  Speaker 2: at that point in time. Remember you got to think
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  Speaker 2: back to the days of the explorers. For about four
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  Speaker 2: hundred years, Spain had had a presence in our uh
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  Speaker 2: in the area, even in the Greater United States Florida
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  Speaker 2: for where we lived with Spanish territory, so they had
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  Speaker 2: the footprint here. But it got harder and harder and
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  Speaker 2: more it was more difficult to maintain control. You started
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  Speaker 2: having local revolutions all over South America, and Cuba was
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  Speaker 2: one of them. It was getting relatively bloody, and the pressure,
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  Speaker 2: this is the growth in the beginning really of what
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  Speaker 2: became called yellow journalism, where the major newspapers would headlined
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  Speaker 2: all kinds of things going on down there to try
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  Speaker 2: to build pressure to get us involved. It was big
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  Speaker 2: sugar then, that kind of big sugar involved. About ninety
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  Speaker 2: percent of the exports out of Cuba were going to
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  Speaker 2: the United States, not back to Spain. About forty percent
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  Speaker 2: of the inbound trade coming into Cuba was coming to us.
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  Speaker 2: So essentially it was an economic ties, economic ties that
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  Speaker 2: drew US closer and closer in getting involved in this.
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  Speaker 2: And then in February fifteenth, we had we had a
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  Speaker 2: huge amount of citizens in Cuba. So the United States
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  Speaker 2: had decided to send the Maine USS Maine into Havana Harbor,
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  Speaker 2: and that's probably the only thing anybody remembers other than
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  Speaker 2: that in the charge on San Juan Hill, but two
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  Speaker 2: hundred and sixty six American troops sailors were killed when
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  Speaker 2: the main blew up in the harbor. Shortly really after
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  Speaker 2: they would pull into January and February fifteenth they'd exploded,
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  Speaker 2: and it took about a month or so other forty
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  Speaker 2: days before they said, well, it was exploded by a mine.
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  Speaker 2: They tried. They blamed the Spanish for a mind blowing
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  Speaker 2: up our ship and killing. He gave us an entree,
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  Speaker 2: he gave us the reason to go in. It's interesting
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  Speaker 2: little tidbit you find when you start reading on these things,
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  Speaker 2: like Annie Oakley. Everybody's heard who Annie Oakley is. She
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  Speaker 2: wrote a letter to President McKinley is saying that she
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  Speaker 2: had fifty lady sharpshooters with their own guns and ammos
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  Speaker 2: that were willing to go to Cuba. You know, we
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  Speaker 2: imagine that happening now, you know, citizen citizen group. And
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  Speaker 2: it was really the first time that there's any acknowledgement
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  Speaker 2: at all of women getting involved in something. But on
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  Speaker 2: April the twentieth, they could remember that Maine was sunk
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  Speaker 2: on February fifteenth. They took him till April twentieth for
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  Speaker 2: McKinley to sign the declaration of war. Actually it got
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  Speaker 2: backdated April twentieth. April twenty fifth, US Congress declared war
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  Speaker 2: and everything got backdated day for twentieth because by then
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  Speaker 2: Spain had already declared war on the United States, so
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  Speaker 2: we had a big navy, interesting for a country that
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  Speaker 2: wasn't really that involved around the world, but we have
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  Speaker 2: been protecting trade routes, and so we had enough navy
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  Speaker 2: and enough sailors to decide we're going all in on this.
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  Speaker 2: So it was May the first commodore Dewey took a
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  Speaker 2: Spanish squadron into Manila Bay. Now think about how far
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  Speaker 2: away the Philippines are also Spanish controlled. So when we
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  Speaker 2: went to war with Spain, we went to war with Spain.
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  Speaker 2: We not only invaded Cuba, we invaded the Philippines. We
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  Speaker 2: took Guam America to what became American Samoa, Puerto Rico.
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  Speaker 2: Each of those required invasions by our troops. But it
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  Speaker 2: didn't not take very long. I mean, Spain was not
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  Speaker 2: that strong at the point in time. Their resources had expired,
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  Speaker 2: they had a bad economy at home, and the entire
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  Speaker 2: war took one hundred and fifteen days. On August thirteenth,
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  Speaker 2: hostilities ended in Cuba. It continued, however, in the Philippines,
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  Speaker 2: and we ended up fighting Filipinos, not just the Spanish,
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  Speaker 2: because those revolutionaries didn't want to think things that said
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  Speaker 2: all out as well. The biggest thing out of all
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  Speaker 2: of this to me is that the United States, because
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  Speaker 2: of the Spanish American War, as short as it was,
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  Speaker 2: we became a world superpower. We had not been until
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  Speaker 2: that time. Nobody really felt the wrath of our country
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  Speaker 2: when angered, nor the strength of our country when we
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  Speaker 2: decided to put our minds to something to move forward.
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  Speaker 1: Hang on a second, let's pause right there, perfect place.
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  Speaker 1: We'll pick up when we come back. We're talking about
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  Speaker 1: the Spanish American War and what kind of seeds came
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  Speaker 1: from it as we discuss it with doctor Ed Moore
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  Speaker 1: a little more history here on the Morning Show with
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  Speaker 1: Preston Scott, Doctor edmore play and hurt this morning here
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  Speaker 1: on the Morning Show. He will not be benched for
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  Speaker 1: injury because he's under the weather. Nay nay, that's not
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  Speaker 1: how we operate around here. So he's calling it in
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  Speaker 1: on the program today, more history talking about the Spanish
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  Speaker 1: American War. A couple questions if you don't mind. Number One,
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  Speaker 1: you mentioned the decision by the United States to take
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  Speaker 1: on Spain in other parts of the world, not just
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  Speaker 1: adjacent to us in Cuba, but elsewhere was that because
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  Speaker 1: it was important to let Spain know that were the
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  Speaker 1: United States. I mean, what was the reason for attacking them?
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  Speaker 1: In other parts of the.
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  Speaker 2: World, there are many one was there. We did have
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  Speaker 2: people pushing in our country to be bigger than we were.
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  Speaker 2: As the century turned to think about the colonization, Europe
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  Speaker 2: had colonized Africa and broken Africa all up, and most
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  Speaker 2: people ignore the fact that China was in the same
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  Speaker 2: position basically that Africa was. We had the open we
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  Speaker 2: declared I think John hay wast Us Secretary of State,
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  Speaker 2: declared the open door policy in China. China was always
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  Speaker 2: viewed as a big trade partner. We're going to trade
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  Speaker 2: a lot with China. The fear was that the European powers,
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  Speaker 2: most of which were waning by this point in time,
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  Speaker 2: we're going to try to assert their power and maintain
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  Speaker 2: more power by splitting up China the same way they
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  Speaker 2: did Africa, and that would have created a huge mess,
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  Speaker 2: might have solved some things for the twenty first century
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  Speaker 2: if they had done that. I mean, all of this
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  Speaker 2: is tied together. What you do that effects what really
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  Speaker 2: what happens now. But they maintained that, you know, had
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  Speaker 2: the Boxer rebellion and China things going on over there,
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  Speaker 2: and we felt like we needed a bigger presence in
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  Speaker 2: that area. So taking Guam, taking Samoa, and moving into
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  Speaker 2: the Philippines. We ultimately end up giving the Philippines their freedom,
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  Speaker 2: they create their own government, but we maintained huge bases
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  Speaker 2: there for all of it, basically all of the twentieth century,
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  Speaker 2: to give the United States a huge naval presence in
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  Speaker 2: that region, much like we ended up with a huge
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  Speaker 2: naval presence in the Caribbean. You know, you go all
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  Speaker 2: the way back to the Monroe Doctor and saying that
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  Speaker 2: no more, we weren't going to allow any more European
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  Speaker 2: influence in our hemisphere. The Cuban Missile crisis evolved out
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  Speaker 2: of that. I mean, we had the opportunity at the
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  Speaker 2: end of the Spanish American War to take Puerto Rico,
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  Speaker 2: which we ultimately we did as a US territory, take
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  Speaker 2: Cuba as a US territory or ultimately a state. There
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  Speaker 2: were enough of Americans down there in a lot of
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  Speaker 2: American trade, and to take the Philippines. We declined really
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  Speaker 2: to control Cuba. We declined to control the Philippines, and
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  Speaker 2: then both areas became hotspots for a lot of other
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  Speaker 2: activity around the country, around the world. So China at
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  Speaker 2: that point was becoming an emerging nation, the largest population
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  Speaker 2: in the world at the time, and our concern was,
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  Speaker 2: we can't let China become like Africa, where we've got
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  Speaker 2: fighting amongst the little tiny areas that the Dutch controlled,
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  Speaker 2: or the French control, or the Spanish control. It gave
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  Speaker 2: us a bigger fear of influence, and also with Japan,
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  Speaker 2: so a lot went on at that point.
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  Speaker 1: It also opened the door for us to grab Hawaii,
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  Speaker 1: which led to, in my opinion, one of the darkest
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  Speaker 1: points of American history and the deposing of the Queen
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  Speaker 1: of Hawaii. At that point, it was not a very
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  Speaker 1: pretty things.
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  Speaker 2: Sex on July seventh annex the Hawaiian Islands, which gave
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  Speaker 2: us again, if you think in terms of world dominance
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  Speaker 2: and control of the trade routes, Pearl Harbor became immensely
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  Speaker 2: important on July seventh, and that at times same tenth
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  Speaker 2: time frame, July seventeenth, we took San Diego Santiago Harbor
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  Speaker 2: in Puerto Rico and on July twenty fifth week in Dad,
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  Speaker 2: Puerto Rico, so we just ended up. Hostilities ended in
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: August of that year. We were a new country. And
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: you know, I think if you think back on Henry
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  Speaker 2: Ford and Ford making the first automobiles coming out of
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  Speaker 2: that decade, American industry expanding, American steel expanding, American agriculture expanding.
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  Speaker 2: We created markets by the limited war that lasted one
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  Speaker 2: hundred and fifteen days. We created markets that remained in
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  Speaker 2: place up until now. In December, the Treaty of Paris
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  Speaker 2: was signed and the rest of the world was now
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  Speaker 2: knowing that Big bad Us was here to play, ready
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  Speaker 2: to deal with any problems. And that's you know, a
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: lot of events from that point forward began. If you
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: think World War One was only this big four men
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  Speaker 2: filmenting in Europe, our engagement in that was only a
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  Speaker 2: little more than a decade away.
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  Speaker 1: All right, Ed, we gotta go, buddy, we're late on
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  Speaker 1: the break. Pick up your lung there, and thanks for
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: joining us. We'll talk again next month. Doctor Ed Moore
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: with us this morning. More history of the Morning Show
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  Speaker 1: with Preston Scott