The Spanish expanded their territories in America over the years until they included Central America, most of South America, Mexico, the South of what today is Southern United States, the Western part of what today is the United States, the Southwestern part of what today is British Columbia in Canada, and even reaching Alaska. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Spanish possessions in America began a series of independence movements, which led to the complete separation from Spain by the mid 1820's of Mexico, and the colonies in Central and South America. The remaining Spanish colonies, Cuba and Puerto Rico, were lost in 1898 as a consequence of the Spanish-American War