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Some background on the above regarding Spain and the US heading into the Spanish-American War:

Spain:
The Iberian Peninsula was almost fully occupied by the Muslims at one point and parts of it were held by the Muslims for nearly 800 years from the Umayyad Caliphate's landing at Gibraltar in 711 to Ferdinand and Isabella's unification of Spain and eviction of the last Muslims in 1492.  After that, of course, the Spanish crown financed Columbus' voyage and they ended up with substantial colonial possessions in the Western Hemisphere and the Pacific in large part simply because they had something of a "first mover" advantage over the other European nations.  Those colonial possessions brought substantial wealth to Spain in the form of gold and trade with their colonies and that made Spain a (if not "the") world power for a time.  

Later, however, as the UK, France, Germany, and the United States Industrialized the Spanish failed to keep up.  According to Wiki, by 1900 the World's largest Economies were:

• US
• China (not wealthy or industrialized, just enormously populous)
• UK
• India (same as China)
• Germany
• Russia (same as China/India although to a lesser extent)
• France
• Italy
• Japan
• Poland
• Spain

Spain had been a major world power four about 400 years and they were still seen as one even though they didn't realistically have the economy to back it up.  

The US:
The US Economy surpassed the UK sometime in the 1870's and passed China and India to become the world's largest at about the same time.  However, at first the US wasn't actually as wealthy or industrialized as the UK.  Instead, the US was close in wealth/industrialization and much larger in population.  Based on economy the US should have been treated as a major power by no later than the 1870's but they weren't partially simply due to inertia.  Global leaders and diplomats simply didn't think of the US as a major power because the US hadn't been one.  

Additionally, not long before becoming the world's largest economy the US had fought a devastating Civil War.  This generally left the US in no mood for imperialistic adventurism.  Finally, the US was naturally isolated from the conflicts of the other major powers because they were all in Europe.  

The first major power that the US bumped up against was Spain simply because Cuba is 90 mi from Key West and the US Navy had a large presence in Key West even then.  

The Phillippine Insurrection which followed caused 4,400 US deaths of soldiers and Marines, fighting against mostly Muslim insurgents in an unpopular war in far off territory, also largely forgotten.

Also the reason for the US switch to the M1911 .45 Caliber pistol.  Initially in the Philippines US soldiers with sidearms were carrying .38's but they discovered that a .38 just doesn't have enough stopping power.  A suicidal fanatic can absorb at least one and sometimes more than one .38 rounds and STILL keep charging.  The .45 fixed that problem.