Florida began as a Spanish colony, with governing headquarters in Havana, Cuba. It is fitting, then, that the state played such a large role in the Spanish-American War. As a base of training and combat operations, Florida's involvement was crucial to the war effort. Join trusted historians Joe Knetsch and Nick Wynne as they log a fascinating chapter in Florida's history'a time when Roosevelt's Rough Riders prepared for battle at Tampa bases, when battleships departed from south Florida ports to avenge the sunken USS Maine and when a nation looked to the Sunshine State to help unite America around a common cause, even as the nation still struggled to come to terms with the Civil War and Reconstruction