When is the earliest Spanish-American war that could have resulted in US gains in the west Pacific?

When is the earliest Spanish-American war that could have resulted in US gains in the west Pacific?

  • a. 1799 – in connection with Quasi War

    Votes: 2 12.5%
  • b. 1812 – in connection with West Florida War

    Votes: 1 6.3%
  • c. 1820s

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • d. 1830s

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • e. 1840s

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • f. 1850s

    Votes: 3 18.8%
  • g. 1860s

    Votes: 3 18.8%
  • h. 1870s

    Votes: 4 25.0%
  • i. 1880s

    Votes: 3 18.8%
  • j. 1890-1897

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • k. 1898, ie, OTL's schedule

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    16

raharris1973

Gone Fishin'
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When is the earliest Span-Am war that could have resulted in US gains in the west Pacific?

...and why? What reasons economic, technological, political, diplomatic, naval could such gains be plausible, and when would they not?
 
Hmm, fighting Spain to gain at least Guam and the Marianas. If the Civil War were averted, then perhaps by the 1860s once they've built up enough of a navy to cross the Pacific.

If the Civil War were still on, they the clock would be pushed back to about the 1880s after the US recovered from the Civil War, and Reconstruction has gotten to the point where they can finally expand the navy again.
 
They hadn't got the navy to take anything anywhere to the west by force. So a fight in the Caribbean is there only chance. As OTL but 1885 at the very least.
 
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