In August of 1898, the Spanish army surrendered to the Philippines and Americans. Following this brief war, there will be debate on how the Philippines should be divided and who should lead the nation. After confusion over territory of land, Emiliano Aguinaldo attempted to lead a revolt against the Americans, but miserably failed. With the success overseas, many people questioned the reasoning for fully annexing the Philippines. Anti-imperialists argued annexation went against traditional American values and was morally wrong. Pro imperialists argued that imperialism would greatly improve the Filipino lives and that the country was seized justifiably. The U.S. spent 100s of years spreading the idea of self-government, however they are in the …show more content…
This was the argument during the 1700’s when Americans were saying “no taxation without representation”. They were the people trying to gain independence from a foreign nation that tried to rule from across an entire ocean. To put the powerful minority above the weak majority with no consent is seen as a disgrace to the founding fathers by many Americans. The U.S. has brought many good things to the world, but also many bad things. Some Americans thought it was their duty to colonize and industrialize the Philippines. According to Immmerwhar, how they did that was to burn any town that supported its own country. This counteracts the argument of morality for the pro-imperialists. Their people were shot, starved, and tortured. Anti-imperialists viewed this as going against American and human values. Due to the dissimilarity between rights for Americans and Filipinos, anti-imperialists thought America just came in and educated the Philippines, “and let them mock us for our inconsistency”(William Jennings Bryan). They concluded that the Americans “courageously” fought against the British and removed themselves from tyrannical …show more content…
They said no matter what happens in a conflict between two nations, no sane person would want to limit the death count. Especially civilians who are not participating in the war. It is estimated that “as many as 200,000 Filipino civilians died from violence, famine, and disease”(The Philippine-American War). Especially for acts that could have been prevented by helping the Filipino people. A death toll of such high numbers would not be worth the gain from Americans and the Phillipinos. Anti-imperialists argued that no matter how much gain the U.S. would receive, it was morally wrong to end so many lives. In June 1898, Emiliano Aguinaldo(Filipino rebel leader) established himself as a dictator of the entirety of the Philippines. Aguinaldo stated that once the war was over, the Philippines would have independence (Immerwahr 89). When anti-imperialists heard this from Aguinaldo and found out that the U.S. was indeed attempting to take over the Philippines. There was an outcry, he said. They argued that the U.S. government had directly lied to the face of the Filipino people for their own benefit. To their benefit, this would be heavily opposed by the league of nations
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 ...
Blood has been spilled all over the ground of the Philippines. The United States fought a small war with Spain in 1898. The United States ended up getting Cuba and the Philippine Islands as a war prize. Cuba got their independence, but the United States decided to keep the Philippine Islands by annexing them (Background Essay). Should the United States have annexed the Philippines? Annexed means to join or combine a smaller country with a bigger country. The United States should have annexed the Philippine Islands because they needed guidance to become a better country, couldn't give the Philippine Islands to other countries, and there was nothing else the United States could do with them.
Dear fellow senators: Yesterday, February 6, 1899 was a big day in United States history; we decided as a nation to annex the Philippines. The Philippines is an island country in Southeast Asia, and was independent until 1565 when the spanish colonized the islands. I have one question for you my fellow senators, should the U.S. have annexed the Philippines? The United States should have annexed the Philippines for three reasons: our duty to spread the values of democracy overseas, The Filipinos natural inability to govern themselves, and saving the Philippines from the Tyranny of Spain or other European countries.
The United States of America accompanied the Philippines to fight for the independence from Spain. Spain colonized the Philippines for 333 years. Without the assistance of the United States of America the Philippines will still be under Spain without freedom. Even though United States of America aided the Philippines, the United States shouldn’t have annexed the Philippines.
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...
Throughout the course of history, nations have invested time and manpower into the colonizing and modernizing of more rural governments. Imperialism has spread across the globe, from the British East India Company to France’s occupation of Northern Africa. After their founding in 1776, the United States of America largely stayed out of this trend until The Spanish-American War of 1898. Following the war, the annexation and colonization of Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines ultimately set a precedent for a foreign policy of U.S. imperialism.
... 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.
The United States should not annex the Philippine islands, the Philippines, already a country of their own should not be forced to adapt to American culture and civilization. Prior to the annexation of the Philippines, America had major conflict with Spain in order to free Cuba from their brutal tactics for dominance. Tension continued to rise, until President Mckinley decided to take action and go to war against Spanish forces to enable a more stable government as well as provide protection for the citizens of Cuba. After months of fighting, the Spanish admitted defeat and began discussing peace terms of the Treaty of Paris. In this treaty Cuba was guaranteed independence, also the Spanish were forced to give up Guam and Puerto Rico. They Spanish also complied to selling the Philippines to the U.S for 20 million. However, the Filipinos wanted independence, not just a change in who governed them, this desire led many Philippine citizens to break out, beginning the Philippine- American war, which lasted three years, and caused the death of over two hundred thousand American and Filipino citizens.
For 113 days during the summer of 1898, the United States was at war with Spain. Neither the president of the United States, nor his cabinet, nor the the queen of Spain, nor her ministers wanted the war wanted the war. It happened eventhough they made their best efforts to prevent it. It happened because of ambition, miscalculation, and stupidity; and it happened because of kindness, wit, and resourcefulness. It also happened because some were indifferent to the suffering of the world’s wretched and others were not (O’Toole 17). By winning the war the United States proved the the rest of the world and to itself that it could and would fight against foreign nations. For many years, world power had been concentrated in the countries in Europe. Nations such as Great Britain, France, Germany, and Spain had the most influence in global affairs. But a shift in power was gradually taking place as the United States matured. The young nation gained wealth and strength. Its population grew immensely, and many people believed it would become a major world power (Bachrach, 11) Spain was one of the many European countries that had territory in the United States. Spain controlled mostly some islands off the coast of Central America. The most important of these were Cuba and Puerto Rico. The United States was led to believe that the Spanish mosgoverned and abused the people of these islands. In fact, Spain did overtax and mistreat the Cubans, who rebelled in 1868 and again in 1895. Thus, the American people felt sympathetic toward the Cuban independence movement. In addition, Spain had frequently interfered with trade between its colonies and the United States. Even though the United States had been a trading partner with Cuba since the seventeenth century, Spain sometimes tried to completely stop their trade with Cuba. In Spain doing so, this sometimes caused damage to U.S. commercial interests. The United States highly disagreed with Spain’s right to interfere with this trade relationship. (Bachrach, 12) The United States was also concerned that other trading and commercial interests were threatened by the number of ships and soldiers Spain kept in the area. If the United States had to fight a war with Canada or Mexico, these Spanish forces could quickly mobilize against the United States.
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
The Hawaiian Seizure The annexation of Hawaii was an important event in the history of the world. It is still not easy for the Hawaiians to accept the fact that America has taken over a land 2500 miles away from the West Coast. In 1917, Hawaii was considered the 50th state supported by the islanders after a plebiscite. Queen Lydia Kamakaeha Liliuokalani was overthrown because of the support of the United States army as well as naval forces to a group of businessmen belonging to the sugar and pineapple industry. The Armed forces of the United States were ordered to provide this support on the directives of the minister of the United States to Hawaii.
As shown, America’s rapid change as the 19th century came to a close was supported by a various amount of imperialistic beliefs, motives, and incidents that almost jumpstarted the U.S. onto the world stage. Many of these incidents such as the public’s thirst for expansion, the annexation of several faraway lands, and the build-up of U.S. military forces would not have been possible without the Spanish American War. Moreover, the Spanish American war would not have been possible without the American people. Imperialism was a consequence of the American Democratic experiment, giving the people what they want.
The first inhabitants of the Philippines arrived from the land bridge from Asia over 150,000 years ago. Throughout the years, migrants from Indonesia, Malaysia, and other parts of Asia made their way to the islands of this country. In the fourteenth century, the Arabs arrived and soon began a long tradition of Islam. Many Muslims are still living in the Philippines today.
I don’t believe the Philippine War was justified. There are more ways than war to solve the annexation of the Philippines. I agree on some of the policies, but not all of the policies, that were in place during that time period.
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...