ABSTRACT
The first and most overarching commonality was that they lacked the polarity of moral crusades, and this made them limited, both in terms of the political purposes for which they were fought and the means available and or necessary to prosecute them. The apparent exception was the Spanish-American War. The public was solidly behind the war when it began and that support never wavered because it was over too quickly and successfully for opinion to turn against it. The second and third commonalities, which are related, represent common themes in American military history through World War II. The Spanish-American War had as part of its motivation and as a large parts of its outcome the creation of an American Empire. That additional motivation was imperialistic and manifested itself in the belief that American manifest destiny could be fully served only through the acquisition of empire.
