The victory of the United States in the Spanish-American War of 1898 elevated it from a regional power to a global one, representing a natural step in the ongoing progression of its international interests, objectives, and obligations. With its victories over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) and War of 1812, the latter of which ended in January 1815, the United States emerged as a Western Hemispheric power, a status President James Monroe initially unveiled through the proclamation of the Monroe Doctrine in December 1823. That initiative was meant as a warning to the European imperial states with colonial interests in North and South America and the Caribbean Sea. Spain became the first European state subject to that type of war against the United States, in this case one that lasted less than a year and left Washington in control of Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam.