Under William McKinley's leadership, the United States went to war against Spain in 1898 and thereby acquired a global empire, which included Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. He enlisted  at 18 at the start of the Civil War and was promoted to second lieutenant for his bravery in the Battle of Antietam in 1862. He was discharged a brevet major in 1865 and returned to Ohio to study law. He opened a law office in Canton, where he resided for the rest of his life-except for the years he spent in Washington DC.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      With the help of wealthy Ohio industrialist Mark Hanna, McKinley won two terms as governor of his home state, (1892-1896). On March 4, 1897, he was elected President against oponent William Jennings Bryan. The Treaty of Paris, signed in December 1898 and rtified by the Senate in  February 1899, ceded Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippeans to the United States. Cuba became independent.  Renominated for another term without opposition, McKinley again faced Democrat William Jennings Bryan in the presidential election of 1900. McKinley's margin of victory in both the popular and electoral votes were greater than they were four years before.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Following his inauguration in 1901, McKinley left Washington for a tour of the western states, to be concluded with a speech at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. More than 50,000 admirers attended his exposition speech. On September 6, 1901, while McKinley was shaking hands with a crowd of well-wishers at the exposition, Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist, fired two shots into the president's chest and abdomen. McKinley lingered for a week before dying in the early morning hours of September 14. He was succeeded by his vice president Theodore Roosevelt.