On March 4, 1897, William McKinley was sworn in as the 25th President of the United States.

Some weeks later, one of the senators from the President's home state of Ohio asked for a meeting

to discuss a consular position for a friend and supporter of the senator.

When they met, the president explained regretfully to the senator that he had looked into the matter

and discovered there was only one consular position open at the moment, and it wasn't a very good one.

It was in a place called Manila, somewhere around on the open at the moment, and it wasn't a very good one.

It was in a place called Manila, somewhere around on the other side of the world.

McKinley confessed he didn't know exactly where it was,

and what with all the responsibilities of his new office,

the president had not had time to look it up.

Within a year, President McKinley, as well as virtually every other American, would come to know very well exactly where Manila was.

Welcome to the history of the 20th century. Episode 4. Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight

In the previous episode, we looked at the history of the Philippines up to the brink of the Spanish-American War.

Today I'd like to review the run-up to the Spanish-American War from the U.S. point of view.

And that brings us to the United States of America.

I feel like I should play the U.S. national anthem at this point,

but the fact is the United States did not have an officially designated national anthem

at the beginning of the 20th century.

Of course, Americans had a number of well-known patriotic songs, which they sang on appropriate

occasions, and many of these songs Americans still know and sing today, like America the

Beautiful, or My Country Tiz of The, or the Star-Spangled Banner. There are other patriotic

songs of the period that have been completely forgotten. And then there's the middle case.

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