Spain wins the Spanish-American War?

What happens within the US and it's foreign policy if they lose, or at the very least take a very long time, 2 years plus, to beat Spain?

How Spain wins is not the question, lets hand wave it for this question.

Type about this for a bit.:)
 
You have to explain the background of this ATL.

If you got the same OTL situation, Spain mismanaged, colonies mismanaged, US managed like OTL, international relations are the same until 1898, one on one war, it is ASB for Spain to win.

However, a PoD decades before that changes Spanish and colonies into better management, ATL US suicidal international politics and economic mismanagement, or even British alliance with Spain, Spain can win.
 
What happens within the US and it's foreign policy if they lose, or at the very least take a very long time, 2 years plus, to beat Spain?

How Spain wins is not the question, lets hand wave it for this question.

Type about this for a bit.:)

Well OTL the thing that could mostly easily have gone wrong for the US was the siege of Santiago de Cuba. V Corps is devastated by disease and perhaps forced to withdraw completely.

However that does not necessarily lose the US the war. It just means they might actually have to look at training all the volunteers. This would if it happened possibly result in the US having a more effective Army much earlier than OTL as the US realise that training is important.

On both the other and the same hand the Spanish by 1898 knew they were going to lose to someone, they just did not want it to be the Cubans. Elements in the US did not want it to be a the Cubans either as they dreamed of Cuba as the start of their Great American Empire...however there were plenty of other Americans who did not give a damn...hence the rush to find an excuse to go to war with Spain before the Cubans did the job themselves.

So it is entirely possible that more imperialist minded Americans cut a deal with the Spanish to throw in the towel...though they will still likely get out manoeuvred by anti-Imperialist Americans in the long run. Certainly if the Spanish have to fight the Cubans for another two years any US offer is going to look good and the Philippines are going down bar a typhoon sinking the US invasion force and plague crippling the rebels and even then it might be iffy for the Spanish.
 
How about a stronger Spain goes straight for the jugular and occupies Washington DC like the British did during the War of 1812.

US sues for peace, Spain offers generous peace terms (an indemnity, recognition of Spanish colonies) to avoid creating a permanent enemy.

US remains in isolationism during the 20th century.
 
How about a stronger Spain goes straight for the jugular and occupies Washington DC like the British did during the War of 1812.

US sues for peace, Spain offers generous peace terms (an indemnity, recognition of Spanish colonies) to avoid creating a permanent enemy.

US remains in isolationism during the 20th century.

Even if Spain had that kind of military power (which is basically ASB), it wouldn't do this at a time when Cuba and the Philippines are in open revolt. It needs to put those revolts down, not open up a new front elsewhere.
 
How about a stronger Spain goes straight for the jugular and occupies Washington DC like the British did during the War of 1812.
That did not... Quite work. Same with the taking by the British of the various seats of the Continental Congress during the Revolution. This would simply anger the Americans further, or embarrass the military if their coastal forts didn't sink the invading fleet.
 
Spain could conceivably win a Spanish-American War in the 1870s, and even in that case the two sides would be quite evenly matched. But the one that happened IOTL was such a curbstomp for the US that Spain had no chance.
 
Spain could conceivably win a Spanish-American War in the 1870s, and even in that case the two sides would be quite evenly matched. But the one that happened IOTL was such a curbstomp for the US that Spain had no chance.

Interesting. I remember reading somewhere that the Spanish were scared of US intervention in Cuba and Puerto Rico after the Civil War. What worried them was that the US had so many combat-tested soldiers and an abundance of weapons after the bloody conflict.
 
Interesting. I remember reading somewhere that the Spanish were scared of US intervention in Cuba and Puerto Rico after the Civil War. What worried them was that the US had so many combat-tested soldiers and an abundance of weapons after the bloody conflict.

Yes, but the Spanish colonial empire wasn't in as much of a sorry state in the 1870s as it would later be.

I'd still give the US the advantage, but Spain does have an actual chance of winning.
 
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