Imperialism In The Philippines Case Study

Not only did the United States benefit from their occupation of the Manila, the Filipinos benefitted as well. Often times, imperialism gets bad press. People often think of it only benefiting the countries that are colonizing new lands. It is seen a greed stricken idea, policy controlled by the the undesirable need to have as much as you can. When you look at the surface value of imperialism, this is a fair conclusion. At surface level, a rich country invades another country in order to get a hold of their resources, ports, and labor. When people think about imperialism now, often times, their mind travels to thoughts of the scramble for Africa. A time when imperialism was controlled by greed, and the natives paid a heavy price. However, the

Still, great things came from this occupation, not only for the United States, but for the Filipinos as well. Imperialism is a case by case study. Not all imperialism is good, and yet, not all imperialism is bad. The occupation of Manila is an example of good and beneficial imperialism. The occupation was quickly marked as unsuccessful when you consider the insurrection of a group of Filipino nationals who wanted the American soldiers to leave. Prior to the insurrection Spain had control over the Philippines. The Battle of Manila Bay occurred between the two countries. After Dewy and the Americans defeated the Spanish, the Americans had control of the Philippines.1 Many of the Filipinos thought that they would be given independence like the Cubans were given following being occupied by the Americans.2 However, the United States realized how beneficial occupying the Philippines was. They had an open door to China.3 Once the Filipinos realized that they were not going to get complete freedom from the United States, some decided that they need to do something, thus the insurrection was born. Because the United States had an enemy it was easy for people opposed to the occupation to say that it was

Many American soldiers spent their time introducing their culture to the kids, including teaching them about baseball and boxing.8 Baseball, America’s past time, was being passed on to a new people. The soldiers saw baseball as a way of being reminded of their home, “For many of that day’s American officials, playing baseball was as cleansing and creative as total immersion to a Baptist.”9 That is such a beautiful way to describe what baseball meant to the American soldiers, and the fact that they wanted to spread that feeling of peace to the children in the Philippines speaks volumes to the character of the soldiers during the occupation. Even before the United States sent over school teachers to teach in Manila, soldiers were doing the teaching. The lessons taught by the soldiers always included baseball.10 The teaching of baseball led to some progressive ideas as well. As early as 1903, games between different towns, and teams, included women.11 Not only was baseball and boxing taught in schools, but sporting stadiums were built. Even if they were originally built for the the entertainment of American soldiers and commanders while they were there, these buildings would be used by the Filipinos both while being occupied and well after the American soldiers would leave. One example of a stadium being built was a polo field. A man named Forbes used his wealth