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Philippine independence
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Independence, a thing worth fighting for and a honor to have it. It is a long journey for struggling countries to receive independence, and it makes it even harder when their allies turn against them. In 1898 the United States and Spain fought in a war that resulted in the annexation of the Philippines. The Filipinos had helped in the fight against Spain in hopes for freedom, and instead were given a new ruler, America. The United States should not have annexed the Philippines because it goes against the original American morales, America betrayed the Filipinos, and the people are not from the same ethnicity or region as Americans.
To start with, by annexing the Philippines, America went against the original guidelines that had been set for the country. The foundation of America was set on freedom and expanding from coast to coast. One of the founding fathers even mentioned that it is unwise to get tangled in issues with foreign countries. One document states “It
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seeks to extinguish the spirit of 1776 in those islands”(Document A). The quote is reflecting on the fact that America was founded on the belief that there should be no foreign rule. By taking over the Philippines, America would considerably be going against the original morales of their country. Not only would America be going against their morals, they would also be betraying the Filipinos. In the first place, America was not clear on what their goal were when they marched into the Philippines.
As a result, the Filipinos assumed that it was to liberate them from Spain and decided to help the Americans fight. When the Americans decided to annex the Filipinos they felt betrayed and thrown aside. According to one of the documents “When we made allies of the Filipinos and armed them to fight against Spain, we disputed Spain’s title… There can be no doubt that… we had full knowledge that they were fighting for their own independence” (Document D). It mentions the fact that the Americans knew that the Filipinos were fighting for their own independence, they still annexed the Philippines. The quote also discusses the issue that the Americans made allies with the Filipinos despite the fact that they knew the Filipinos were searching for freedom, not a new ruler. Although betrayal is a good reason, nothing can top the fact that the Philippines are from a complete different region of the
world. Above all reasoning, it was wrong for America to annex the Philippines because the Filipinos are nothing like Americans. All of the previous acquisitions in America were on the Northern American continent, while the Philippine islands are on the other side of the world. For example, one of the documents mentioned “They were situated, not in tropical but in the temperate zone, where democratic institutions thrive and where our people could migrate in mass” (Document H). The document was describing how different the Filipinos are from the country that wants to rule them. The same document also mentions about how no other part of the United States came from anywhere else than the Northern Hemisphere. No doubt there was multiple incorrect things that the United States did. From the beginning, the United States should not have annexed the Philippines because it goes against the original American morales, America betrayed the Filipinos, and the people are not from the same ethnicity or region as Americans. Above all, the cruelty of a foreign rule should have made the Americans unwilling to annex the Philippines. Looking back on it, Britain tried to do that to America at one point and look where it got them, nowhere.
Economic self-interest was more effective in driving American foreign policy because the U.S wanted to protect their property. As described in War and other Essays The U.S needed to choose not to be rulers and to let Filipinos and Spanish Americans live their own lives without ...
The first reason the United States should have annexed the Philippines is because it is our duty to as a country to spread the values of democracy overseas. For example, as stated here in Albert J. Beveridge’s campaign speech he says, “ Do we owe no duty to the world?… it is ours to save for liberty and civilization (Doc B).” He is saying that it is our duty as a sovereign nation to help an uncivilized nation modernize, industrialize, . another example, is from William Mcki...
In my opinion The United States ordeal with Annexing the Philippines and the idea that we had of going into war with them was great mistake and should have been avoided. The Filipinos and Americans were deadlocked in war with each other. This all became a controversy with the two nations in 1898 when the Treaty of Paris between Spain and the United Stated ceded all seven thousand islands of the Philippine archipelago to the United States, for just a mere twenty-million dollars. Congress had approved the treaty with Spain, by February of 1899. Mckinley was on the verge of calling for the annexation of the Philippines which brought on a bloody two year struggle. In my opinion the United States was the cause of all of this because of three different reasons, for one our government would not...
Following the Spanish-American war it thought that it was America’s duty to help them form a civilized society. In reality it was the idea of imperialism that if we did it before with Hawaii why we can’t do it again with the Philippines.
... Americans built roads, schools, bridges, and sewers. Filipino self- rule had gradually increased and finally declared their independence on July 4, 1946. However, compared to Cuba and Puerto Rico, American rule has a lesser impact on the Philippine economy. The United States invaded Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines not to gain wealth, but for the purpose of getting trades.
Throughout history, the United States had come off as a stubborn nation that would take what they wanted at any cost. This was prevalent in both cases of expansion as the Americans risked war and national safety for the sake of gaining land, or even merely for proving a point. During the early years of expansion, the Americans had pushed aside the Native Americans and whoever else inhabited the land they wanted. They believed that the land was rightfully theirs and that everyone else was merely squatting on their territory. This idea continued into the early twentieth century as the Americans looked to the oceans for new territories to their kingdom.
Arguments for and against overseas expansion raised a foreign policy debate in the late years of the 19th century to the early years of the 20th century. People favored overseas expansion because they wanted the American economy to grow. Missioners, who wanted to convert the inhabitants of the new lands, also propelled this new policy, and theories such as the Social Darwinism and the Manifest Destiny made people believed it was right for America to expand its frontiers and help the less fortune. But there were some who disagreed with overseas expansion because they looked at it as a hypocrisy act among Americans, or as a way of subjugating other nations just for America’s benefits. Some others were concerned that making contact with under-developed nations would eventually dilute their racial stock and the strength of America.
The United States decision to annex the Philippines was extremely controversial and hypocritical. First of all it was extremely expensive for the united states to buy the country. The resources that were available were plentiful, but not worth 20 million at the time, and rather than buy the country the U.S should have set up ports and planned for regulated trade with the Philippines. This would have benefitted both countries, the Philippines would be independent and the U.S would have an abundance of resources close by. The United States had enough to fix within their own country that the money could have funded.
In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, Imperialism was a popular trend among the large, powerful countries. Imperialism is defined as “The policy of extending a nation's authority by territorial acquisition or by the establishment of economic and political hegemony over other nations”. Imperialism cannot be said as either good or bad, but as a general rule: If you live in an annexed country, imperialism is not good, if your country annexes smaller ones to gain profit, land, and respect, then imperialism is good. The United States was not much of an imperialistic country until we won the Spanish-American war. As a result of this war, we annexed Guam, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico.
The truth is I didn’t want the Philippines, and when they came to us, as a gift from the gods, I did not know what to do with them.… I sought counsel from all sides— Democrats as well as Republicans—but got little help. I thought first we would take only Manila; then Luzon; then other islands perhaps also. I walked the floor of the White House night after night until midnight; and I am not ashamed to tell you, gentlemen, that I went down on my knees and prayed Almighty God for light and guidance more than one night. And one night late it came to me this way… that we could not give them back to Spain… that we could not leave them to themselves— they were unfit for self-government… [and] that there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them, and by God’s grace do the very best we could by them.” (Thomas G. Paterson and Dennis
Actions taken in Cuba and the Philippines could not and did not give equal weight as a motive to commercialism, nationalism, humanitarianism, and racism. Trade and business in the United States motivated the war. The US also wanted to emerge as an imperialistic power and saw a great opportunity to take over other lands. In analyzing all of the facts, it is clear that nationalism, the desire to be a world wide power, and advance commercial interests were the primary factors that led to the declaration of war on Spain.
In 1898, in an effort to free Cuba from the oppression of its Spanish colonizers, America captured the Philippines. This brought about questions of what America should do with the Philippines. Soon, controversy ensued both in the American political arena as well as among its citizens. Throughout its history, America had always been expansionistic, but it had always limited itself to the North American continent. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, however, there emerged a drive to expand outside of the continent. When America expanded to the Philippines, the policy it followed was a stark break from past forms of expansionism. Despite much controversy, America followed the example of the imperialistic nations in Europe and sought to conquer the Philippines as an imperialist colony that they would rule either directly or indirectly.
In 1521, Magellan claimed the land for Spain, but was killed by local chiefs who did not want Spain’s inhabitance. However, the Spanish returned in 1543 and named the land Filipinas after King Philip II. Spain soon after began their control. At the time of the Spanish American War the colonial government in the Philippines was administered by a Governor-General selected in Spain. The Philippine islands were used to reward the king’s favorites who could return home enormous fortunes from natives and foreign immigrants via a system of taxation that savored of blackmail and confiscation. The Governor-General had a cabinet composed of the Archbishop of Manila, the Captain-General of the army and the Admiral of the navy stationed in the colonies. The administrative power lay with the Governor-General and the Archbishop, and the religious orders of the Spanish Catholic Church were the practical controllers.
There were several policies in place at the time, some which were put into place before the war, some during the war, and some after. The ratification of the annexation process was long and difficult. There were debates as to how to treat the Filipino people. One suggestion was to treat the Filipinos as dependents, and not citizens, like the Native Americans came to be treated. Many of the imperialists believed that the Filipinos were savages and harsh policies would give America control. The anti-imperialists were not exactly sure whether to treat them as peers or to set them free. I would treat them as equals, as normal people, as they are like everyone else. At the time they might not have been as technologically advanced as we were, and their government may have seemed primitive to ours. I think we should have worked with them to help create a government, rather than occupy and just take over.
The Philippines were first discovered by Ferdinand Magellan in 1521. It then became a colony of Spain from the late 1500's until the end of the19th century when the United States came intervened. The colonial rule of the Spanish ended in December 1898 after the United States intervened due to a popular rebellion that had broken out two years earlier. Under the United States colonial rule, democratic institutions were introduced, and the Filipinos took over all the political and bureaucratic positions. In 1934 the Philippines became an internally self governing commonwealth, with full independence from the United States scheduled for July 4, 1946. The independent republic mainta...