Spanish East Indies together with the Spanish West Indies, were administered through the Viceroyalty of New Spain based in Mexico City. After Mexican independence, they were ruled directly from Madrid. As a result of the Spanish–American War in 1898, the Philippines and Guam were occupied by the United States while about 6,000 of the remaining smaller islands were sold to Germany in the German–Spanish Treaty of 1899. The few remaining islands were ceded to the United States when the Treaty of Washington was ratified in 1901. Spanish contact began on , when a Spanish expedition led by Ferdinand Magellan reached the Mariana Islands.
East Indies Station the East Indies and the China Station were a single command known as the East Indies and China Station. The East Indies Station, established in 1865, covered the Indian Ocean (excluding the waters around the Dutch East Indies, South Africa and Australia) and included the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. These responsibilities did not imply territorial claims but rather that the navy would actively protect British trading interests. From 1913 the station was renamed the Egypt and East Indies Station until 1918. The East Indies Station had bases at Colombo, Trincomalee, Bombay, Basra and Aden. In response to increased