In 1897, President McKinley made Theodore Roosevelt the Assistant Secretary of the Navy. When the USS Maine was sunk off the coast of Cuba by the Spanish Navy, Roosevelt sent Admiral Dewey to the Philippines to retaliate. After that, Roosevelt declared a State of War with Spain, even though he didn’t have any real power or authority to do such a thing. Then again, Teddy probably wasn’t the type of guy that people said “No” to. After Dewey received Roosevelt's orders, the Admiral destroyed the entire Spanish fleet at Manila in less than 5 hours. So it is needless to say that the US was pretty happy with Roosevelt’s decision.