>>579299
>>579331
>Our who military was like 20 years behind every major European power at that time.
No I'm not, the Spanish fleet was large but mainly made up of unarmored cruiser with 6inch guns and a handful of more modern lightly armored cruisers with questionable heavy mounts (and 1 modern armored cruiser with dummy guns for it's main battery).
And while the Spanish fleet was bigger it was dispersed all over the planet, when the US fleet ports were right outside Cuba…
The major sea battle of the Spanish American war was the battle of Santiago de Cuba which pitted FIVE US BATTLESHIPS vs THREE Spanish cruisers (+ 4th one being the one without it's main batteries). Spain was ridiculously outgunned.
The other big naval engagement of the war (Manilla Bay in the Philippines) was even more one sided, the US ships (modern armored cruisers) simply run circles in a neat line and hammered the spanish ships (old unarmored cruisers) while themselves staying out of range of the spanish guns.
One US soldier died… of a heart attack!
Dewey was promoted to Admiral of the Navy (6S) for his feat of sinking an entire fleet without a scratch (a rank no one has ever held since).