Welcome to the Lessons Lost in Time Podcast. I’m Bill Murray. Here, with a few fellow misfits and sharp minds, we’re digging through the wreckage of history—looking at how real leaders dealt with real problems when the stakes were high and the playbook was blank.
If you’re the kind of person who likes to question things, pick at the edges, and think a little deeper about why the world is the way it is and what we can do about it, then pull up a chair. Because if we want new solutions, we need to discuss old problems.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Welcome to the Lessons Lost in Time Podcast. I’m Bill Murray. Here, with a few fellow misfits and sharp minds, we’re digging through the wreckage of history—looking at how real leaders dealt with real problems when the stakes were high and the playbook was blank.
If you’re the kind of person who likes to question things, pick at the edges, and think a little deeper about why the world is the way it is and what we can do about it, then pull up a chair. Because if we want new solutions, we need to discuss old problems.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The Spanish American War 1898 (Part 2): The War of Empires w/ Drew Dornstadter
The sun was setting on the Spanish Empire—bloated, brittle, and running on fumes. Four hundred years of conquest and gold, galleons and God, unraveling like an old coat in a storm. And just as the curtain was falling, America showed up. Young, loud, hungry.
1898. The Spanish-American War. It lasted only four months, but it changed everything. One empire dying. Another one being born. Not with ceremony—but with guns, headlines, and a healthy dose of manifest destiny.
They said it was about liberation—Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico. Freedom from tyranny, all that jazz. But let’s be honest: it was about markets, military bases, and planting flags on islands most Americans couldn’t find on a map.
This wasn’t just about Teddy Roosevelt’s rough riders or stirring speeches in Congress. It was about sugar, about strategy, about making damn sure America wasn’t left behind in the global game of empire.
And when the dust settled, Cuba got a sort-of freedom, wrapped in American strings. Puerto Rico became a possession. But in the Philippines, things went dark fast.
Because the war didn’t end there. It morphed—into an ugly, brutal, years-long insurgency. The same U.S. troops who claimed to be liberators turned occupiers. Villages were torched. Civilians slaughtered. Concentration camps. Water torture. The same tools of empire the Spanish once used—now painted red, white, and blue.
This episode isn’t just about a short war with a big legacy. It’s about the moment the United States became an empire and Spain, well, Spain was no longer an empire.
Further Reading
The Spanish War: An American Epic... https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393303047?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States https://a.co/d/4cvz3Cz
https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/s/spanish-american-war-war-plans-and-impact-on-u-s-navy.html
Mornings on Horseback: The Story... https://www.amazon.com/dp/0671447548?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
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