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Essay american imperialism in the philippines
Essay american imperialism in the philippines
Essay american imperialism in the philippines
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Generally, textbooks, articles, and essays talk about America’s “occupation,” “supervision” or “intervention” in the Philippines. They seem to be afraid to use the word “colonization.” According to Webster’s Dictionary the definition of colonization is, “The colonial system of political government or extension of territory, by which one nation exerts political control over another nation, territory, or people, maintaining the colony in a state of dependence, its inhabitants not having the same full rights as those of the colonial power. The controlling power is typically extended thus by military force or the threat of force” (6). In his book analyzing Japanese Assimilation Policies in Colonial Korea, Mark Caprio makes a distinction between two different “levels” of colonialism: external and internal. He states that external colonization is what Hannah Arendt calls “overseas imperialism…where their indirect policy exerted minimal effort to forge political, social, or cultural bonds with the peoples under their jurisdiction” (2). Although this is the way the French colonized, the United States seem to adopt the British way of colonizing, which is Caprio’s second level of colonization or internal colonization. This is what Benedict Anderson describes as “inventing nations” (Caprio 2). It requires that the colonial power send ambassadors to impress its culture upon the colony through controlling things such as dialect, media, education, and military (Caprio 2). Caprio also mentions, “The decision to colonize, as well as the administration to administer the colonized, was based primarily on the needs and interests of the colonizer’s subject; those of the colonized object received minimal consideration” (2). Therefore, a colony serves...
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...ates failed to see the Philippines as a free nation and did not provide equal rights to Filipinos, treating it as a colony.
Therefore, the United States colonized the Philippines. It took the Philippines, by military force, through a three-year war. It did this, not for altruistic reasons, but for self-interest in trade and nationalism. It “exerted political control” over the Philippines by ignoring the Philippine republic and its representative at the Treaty of Paris, sending its own people to govern the Philippines, and monitoring the creation of the Philippines’ future government. Finally, the United States failed to provide equal rights to Filipinos by ignoring the Filipino government and representative at the signing of the Treaty of Paris, holding racial prejudices in dealing with Filipinos, and excluding the Filipinos from the right to the Monroe Doctrine.
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...
After the long lasting process of imperializing the Philippines, the overall impact was significant in all areas such as economically, socially, and politically. Yet, not only did this impact the Philippines, but also for the Americans in a small way. Economically, American imperialism helped the Philippines become an independent export, and the Americans influenced a more advanced economy for the Philippines, while also opening connections to resources for themselves. This was a result of the economic expansion after the 1909, in which the U.S. became one of the Philippines most dominate trading partners and encouraged free trade. Other advancements included higher employment rates, and stronger transportation systems. The overall economic
In 1900, delivering a speech in Indiana, Bryan defended his approval of the Treaty of Paris, which had annexed the Philippines (as well as Guam and Puerto Rico) from Spanish rule; stating that he “thought it safer to trust the American people to give independence to the Filipinos than to trust the accomplishment of that purpose to diplomacy with an unfriendly nation.” (Bryan, “Imperialism”) Essentially, his view was that the Ph...
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...
The idea of spheres of influence, which was an agreement of nations to respect a neighboring nation’s culture, accompanied by an Open Door Trade policy, which allowed all nations to participate in international transactions, became a prominent factor of foreign relations with the Asian continent. As stated by President Theodore Roosevelt in his annual message to Congress on December 6, 1904, “We would interfere with them only in the last resort… their iability or unwillingness to do justice at home and abroad had violated ... rights...” (Document E). However, it would be appropriate to say that the United States became power hungry and chose to gain authority and/or mass amounts of influence over other, smaller, rising nations. Examples of this can be found within the Foraker Act of 1900, which restrained the Puerto Rican government and limited rights of the citizens within Puerto Rico, the Treaty of Paris of 1898, which ended the spanish-American War and granted the United States over former Spanish islands, and the Portsmouth Conference of 1905, which the United States made itself the mediator of power and land concluding the Russo-Japanese War, which was spurred over land disputes. The statement “...only the vindication of right, of human right, of which we are only a single champion”, by President Woodrow Wilson to Congress on April 2, 1917,
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.
Section I,2. Analyze the consequences of American rule in Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Philippines. Did the citizens prosper? Enjoy freedom? Accept American rule? Comment on the consequences for the United States with regard to the statement made by Eric Foner in the text, “Thus, two principles central to American freedom since the War of Independence – no taxation without representation and government based on the consent of the governed – were abandoned when it came to the nation’s new possessions.
The Philippines was annexed because they needed guidance in leading their new nation. Owning our children is like the United States annexing the Philippines. The Philippine Islands our like children who are small and weak, but with the United States is like the parents that help the children grow and prosper into strong people. “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, as our fellowmen for whom christ also died” (Doc C). The
An additional argument in favor of U.S. imperialism was that of Charles Denby and his explanation of why we should not give up the ‘foothold’ we have in the Philippines. According to Denby, commerce was the most important factor to a nation’s well-being. Denby felt that by keeping hold in the Philippines China’s market was much more easily accessible. China having a very profitable market and t...
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.
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 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 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.
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.