Senator Beveridge Arguments Against The Platt Amendment

Senator Beveridge who is for the American control of the Philippines creates his argument on the fact that it would make for a good port of trade and it would be able to connect the United States and the Asian economy. However, Beveridge's argument has some fallacies in it that denounce his argument. For example he points out that geographically china is closer to the U.S. than it is to Germany and the UK so it would be logical for the U.S. to trade with China. At this time though Hawaii had just become a U.S. territory and the United States economy remained within the mainland of the U.S., which makes the statement that China is closer to the U.S. at this time false. Beveridge says that it is the US’s patriotic duty to bring order to this

The Platt amendment was put into place to prevent Cuba from having economic ties or treaties with any country that would get them into debt. This article was considered justified because it would keep Cuba a free and sovereign entity. However, the amendment allowed the US to intervene as they saw necessary to maintain Cuban independence. Provisions of this amendment were that Cuba had to lease land to the US for the construction of a Naval base and coaling. The goal of the Platt Amendment was for the United States to keep diplomatic control over Cuba while not appearing overbearing. The US having full control over Cuba would cause civil unrest within Cuba and could be costly to the US however, foreign powers having control over Cuba would be a threat to the US. The Platt Amendment was a way that allowed the US to gain military positions and economic growth without controlling all of Cuba’s

McKinley did what he did because of his religious beliefs, moral principles, and discrimination against Filipinos. He did not want to lose the Philippines to powerful countries at the time like France and Germany because, of the economic opportunities the Philippines would bring. This seems to be the only bit of logical evidence McKinley used to support the annexation. McKinley brought up religion because when he was speaking to a group of religious leaders however Christianizing the Filipinos does not justify the annexation. This revealed his beliefs, which are discriminatory towards the Philippines because he believed that the Filipinos couldn’t govern themselves. A common belief at the time was that Filipinos were an inferior race and McKinley’s statements prove that be would probably agree with this belief. McKinley’s decision to annex the Philippines may not have been wrong but his justifications