<P> The war redefined national identity, served as a solution of sorts to the social divisions plaguing the American mind, and provided a model for all future news reporting . </P> <P> The idea of American imperialism changed in the public's mind after the short and successful Spanish--American War . Due to the United States' powerful influence diplomatically and militarily, Cuba's status after the war relied heavily upon American actions . Two major developments emerged from the Spanish--American War: one, it greatly enforced the United States' vision of itself as a "defender of democracy" and as a major world power, and two, it had severe implications for Cuban--American relations in the future . As historian Louis Pérez argued in his book Cuba in the American Imagination: Metaphor and the Imperial Ethos, the Spanish--American War of 1898 "fixed permanently how Americans came to think of themselves: a righteous people given to the service of righteous purpose". </P> <P> The war greatly reduced the Spanish Empire . Spain had been declining as an imperial power since the early 19th century as a result of Napoleon's invasion . The loss of Cuba caused a national trauma because of the affinity of peninsular Spaniards with Cuba, which was seen as another province of Spain rather than as a colony . Spain retained only a handful of overseas holdings: Spanish West Africa (Spanish Sahara), Spanish Guinea, Spanish Morocco, and the Canary Islands . </P> <P> The Spanish soldier Julio Cervera Baviera, who served in the Puerto Rican Campaign, published a pamphlet in which he blamed the natives of that colony for its occupation by the Americans, saying, "I have never seen such a servile, ungrateful country (i.e., Puerto Rico)... In twenty - four hours, the people of Puerto Rico went from being fervently Spanish to enthusiastically American...They humiliated themselves, giving in to the invader as the slave bows to the powerful lord ." He was challenged to a duel by a group of young Puerto Ricans for writing this pamphlet . </P>

Where did most of the spanish american war take place