In the year of 1899, America ended the war it had been raging against Spain in regards to the freedom of the Philippine islands and its inhabitants. The United States supported the Filipinos with military assistance in hopes of liberating the islands from the control of Spain. With the eventual defeat of the Spanish army, America faced with the decision to annex the Philippines or to grant them their freedom and control regarding self government rule. President McKinley was an honest man and definitely had a look out for his country and anything that could benefit them and help them prosper. After the Spanish fleet was dealt with and were no more, it had opened up the best opportunity to gain control of the Philippines. One of the thoughts …show more content…
What was the independence of the people? It’s self governing, self sufficient and self controlled. Emilio saw all of this potential amongst the Filipino people, but the Americas doubted them. The Americans saw the Filipino country as lacking the governmental security needed to rule themselves. According to Emilio, America saw his people as incompetent, ignorant savages. The United States fought for their freedom of independence and liberty by leading a great example of power and dominance to make their country what it is today. Emilio spoke, “Now, here is a unique spectacle - the Filipinos fighting for liberty, the American people fighting for them to give them liberty… you promised us your aid and protection in our attempt to form a government of the United State… ” (Aguinaldo’s Case Against the United States, Textbook Voices of Freedom, 537). Emilio saw none of this as a simple aid by the United States, but rather as a conquering of his people and their way of life. He was waiting for a clear opportunity for his country to become enriched with ideas and power to provide stability among the Filipinos, but the American people didn’t believe this was going to come
Differing ideas of national identity shaped views of United States overseas expansion in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to a great extent due to the presence of segregation amongst the African American population, acquisition of the Philippines, and encouragement of violence as a result of the Spanish-American War. Imperialism is the policy of taking control over countries around the world for political and economic gain. Since its formation, the United States has imperialized several countries, including the Philippines, Cuba, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. Imperialism was incorporated during the Spanish-American War, a four-month battle between the United States and Spain. Then, chaos induced after the explosion of the USS Maine in Cuba.
This had many consequences especially for the people of the lands we now controlled. McKinley had promised the people of the Philippines independence but later decided to keep their land anyways. According to the US Department of State, this resulted in the Philippine American war during which 4,200 American and over 20,000 Filipino combatants were killed. There were also about 200,000 Filipino civilians who died from a variety of causes such as their villages being burned by US forces, starvation, and disease. Many in the US opposed McKinley’s choice to colonize the Philippines and he definitely could have pulled out of this war at any time over the 3 years it lasted.
The united states had achieved lots of power, economically and politically. After we gained power of a number of small countries we couldn 't give them back so we demanded use of land for naval bases and resources. we educated the filipinos, uplifted and civilized them the best we could to help them and us. After the civil war the united stated need economic growth.
They truly hoped that a war would be enough to turn the tide. Perhaps the most weighty opinion was the one of sitting president, William McKinley. He tried to persuade a decidedly religious group that taking over the Philippines was the Christian thing to do because America would simply be saving them from themselves and evil countries that would do far worse (Doc 3). McKinley had also advocated for the Spanish American War for much of the same reason, it would be saving these poor, repressed people from the despicable Spaniards. There were many that agreed with McKinley.
Before 1890, America was against imperialism, which is acquiring colonies for the sole reason of building an empire. America was once a colony, so they were only interested in trade than colonization as they expanded into more territories. In 1867, Russia offered the Americas Alaska in exchange for seven million. President Andrew Johnson, at that time, wasn’t entirely convinced on taking Alaska, but Vice-President Seward convinced that the U.S. would gain not only more land, but new resources such as gold and oil. For Hawaii at first was trade then establishing business.
Hoganson’s approach of the annexation purely for cultural reasons rather Painter’s, which is more agricultural. She saw America taking over The Philippines as a way for The Philippines to mature. Even though both authors have two different perspectives on the annexation, they both still are complementary to each other. They both provide valid arguments for there reasoning of the takeover of The
American wanted to control the Philippines government to get closer to China for trading. Another interest is access to trading. According to Document 1, “Process of three hundred years of superstition in religion, dishonesty in dealing, disorder in habits of industry, and cruelty, caprice, and corruption in government. It is barely possible that 1,000 men in all archipelago are capable of self-government.” US President, McKinley believed they couldn’t govern themselves against other nations.
“We hold with Abraham Lincoln, that ‘no man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent’... ‘that is despotism (rule by a tyrant),”(document A). Even though he was not alive, Abraham Lincoln posed a great point as to why the Philippines should not be annexed; they did not give their consent. The Philippines was taken over and annexed against their will by the US. Document A also says that annexing the Philippines extinguishes “the spirit of 1776 in those islands”.
William McKinley in his thoughts on American Expansionism has identified the reasons why America had no other choice but to incorporate Philippines as a part of it. This writing has been lifted from the excerpts of an interview with William McKinley soon after Spain had surrendered in the Spanish-American war. McKinley cleverly talks in this interview about how Philippines just came and fell into the laps of America thereby suggesting the helpless stance of America. He talks about how America’s sole intention and purpose had only been to safeguard its own interests as a country. He had to order that the Spanish fleets in Manila be destroyed because if left unattended, they would have crossed the Pacific and wreaked havoc in the American states
William McKinley once said, “That’s all a man can hope for during his lifetime, to set an example, and when he is dead, to be an inspiration for history.” Any person who has changed the course of history is a man worth remembering, and William McKinley is one of those people. William McKinley, before his assassination, was one honorable stepping stone, set in place, to make our great the country the place it is today. His assassination rocked every state across our big, wide country and it made people uncertain of the future, a future without their beloved President McKinley. At the time, this was the third assassination of a president in a span of thirty-six years, and the loss of William McKinley is one that will go down in history and
Causes of Imperialism The acceleration of Imperialism during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that greatly impacted the world, is due to multiple economic, political, and social forces. Imperialism, a policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy or military force, was becoming drastically more and more important for European and Asian countries. Ultimately, the advancements during the Industrial Revolution made Imperialism easier, and on a very large scale for many European countries. Although there were many factors that contributed to Imperialism by ways of economic, political, and social forces, some proved to be more significant and influential than others.
In 1901, after the assassination of William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt became the United State’s youngest president and he viewed his presidency as a way to “increase the influence and prestige of the United States on the world stage and make the country a global power” (Milkis 1). His accomplishments were made using American influence rather than force. Previously, presidents had used the American armies to ensure that America was seen as a capable leader. Roosevelt thought ahead and saw that helping other countries emblematically during times of war would benefit the United States. He realized that the US did not have to necessarily place boots on the soil in order to make advances whereas his predecessors did not.
Before the summer of 1942 the United States fought a defensive war in the Philippines. The change in strategy, was when the U.S. went on a land offensive to defeat the Japanese. They planned to do this by capturing all the islands until their empire was nothing but their Japan itself. The name of the battle that marked the turning point was the Battle of Guadalcanal. Japanese forces reached Guadalcanal in May of 1942.
The Philippines had been fighting for their freedom against the Spanish for many years. Naturally, when America defeated the Spaniards in the war, the Filipinos rejoiced at the thought that they may be able to finally return safely and peacefully back to their home, Manila. Where this information comes from in the text, would be: “These Filipinos believed that
The Philippines were in-between Japan and their potential oil supply,(DOC B). A possible and smart tactic for Japan would to attack Pearl Harbor and while the fleet is weak, take over the Philippines. Once Japan had acquired the Philippines they would have a base to take over many nations that have large oil amounts. A major factor as to why Pearl Harbor was attacked was that the Americans were cutting Japan off from their oil supply. Japan, as an island nation, had very few natural resources and were very dependant on the American oil.