Forty-Five Star Flag

Forty-Five Star Flag. Bicentennial Flag Memorial. , The United States emerged from the ordeal of the Civil War with deep gulfs of mistrust and bitterness. Reconstruction was lengthy. Then during the 1870's the natural wealth of the country, the industrious people, further expansion beyond the Mississippi, and industrialization all came together to forge a country of international prominence., By the time the forty-fifth star was added to the flag in 1896, Alaska had been acquired; basketball had been invented (1891); Congress had its first annual budget of one billion dollars (1891); and a severe economic depression had slowed industrialization (1893). The year 1898 also marked the beginning of the thirty-third consecutive year of peace, the longest in the nation's history without a major war. But the quiet was suddenly shattered on February 15, 1898. The battleship "Maine" had been exploded in Havana harbor. Congress declared a state of war with the Spanish on April 21, 1898. At the conclusion of 114 days of fighting, the forty-five star flag had become the flag of a major imperial power.