In April 1898 the United States declared war on Spain. By the end of the war that December, the Spanish had lost their centuries-old colonial empire and the US had emerged as a power in the Pacific.

Join Don as he speaks to Christopher McKnight Nichols, Professor of History and Wayne Woodrow Hayes Chair in National Security Studies, The Ohio State University. Nichols' latest book, co-edited with David Milne, is ‘Ideology in U.S. Foreign Relations: New Histories’.

Produced by Freddy Chick. Edited by Aidan Lonergan. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.

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All music from Epidemic Sounds/All3 Media.