Annexed The Philippines Dbq Essay

Scholars typically cite imperialism as a primary cause of World War I, and though controversial, America was no stranger to the practice. In 1898, the United States won the Spanish American War, resulting in the Paris Treaty. America gained several formerly Spanish colonies from their victory, and through the Treaty of Paris, they annexed the Philippines. Filipino insurgents, who had fought for the Philippines ' independence, rebelled against the annexation. This led to the Philippine-American War. However, not all Americans supported the annexation. In fact, the Paris Treaty passed by only one vote, and anti-imperialists such as Mark Twain contended with pro-imperialists like Theodore Roosevelt. Despite the debate, the United States should not have annexed the Philippines, because the decision was unnecessary, hypocritical, and tyrannical.

Now, we’re involved in a possible conflict with Spain.  It is possible that we might engage in an epic naval battle with the Spanish fleet in the Philippines. Hawaiian Islands provide us with the perfect coal station for our Navy and supply ships on the way to the Philippines. It is in America’s best interest to annex Hawaii as soon as possible.  If we do not act quickly, the British might annex Hawaii.  There’s no time to waste. The Filipinos have been fighting against the Spanish rule for some time now. Are we going to help them achieve their independence from Spanish rule?  If we deem that they’d be better of being independent, we will assist them.  But, if we deem that they’d benefit from being annexed, we might go ahead and add the Philippines to our oversea possessions. Like with the Hawaiians, the Filipinos will benefit from the Christianization of their islands. With the influx of American values, cultures, and language, we will be doing any country annexed a favor by allowing them into our nations cultural and economic prosperity.

“No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent. When the white man governs himself, that is self-government, but when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than self-government - that is despotism [rule by a tyrant].” In annexing the Philippines, we were being conquistadors, comparable to Spain, who we were fighting at the time. The Filipinos knew exactly what they were risking by trying to receive independence, they knew they may have been too weak to govern themselves. It is completely against the foundation of the US to seize freedom from another man. I believe the United States should have never annexed the Philippines without the Filipinos’ total consent.

The third reason the United States should annex is because the Filipinos were not capable of self government. According to the text, it stated “that we could not leave them to themselves - they were unfit for self-government - and they would soon have anarchy and misrule over there worse than Spain’s was;” (Rusling, 1903). This is important because the Filipinos were not capable of self government, nor were they ready

I believe the Philippines should’ve been annexed by the United by many reasons. One of them being that the Philippines had a weak government, they weren’t capable of maintaining a country. They were not ready to be alone as a country. However, if the U.S. did not annex the Philippines, then other countries including Japan and Germany could’ve taken the country away. If the United States would’ve annexed the Philippians they were going to educate their people because everyone should have the right to get an education. The United States wanted to give the Philippines an opportunity to be independent and to be self-government. The United States would’ve had many trading goods and the markets

There are very many arguments about whether the United States should annex the Philippines. The argument is between Pro-Imperialist and Anti-Imperialist. I side on being a Pro-Imperialist. A few reasons to support my decisions are:

were advocates against the annexation, many believed it was the right decision. Many individuals believed that taking the Philippines would help and better the country. For example, in Document C, William McKinley states that allowing the country to be independent would be wrong because the Philippines is unfit to self-govern and it could lead them anarchy like Spain. McKinley also states that there is no where else for the Philippines to go, he says that America cannot give them back to Spain because it would be shameful and that the country cannot be given to France or Germany because it would disgraceful. Therefore, America has no other choice but annex the Philippine Islands and save it from ruin. The individuals who fought for the annexation depended their arguments on what they perceived as the right thing to

The conflict was between the imperialists and the anti- imperialists, who were both in America and the Philippines. Imperialism is when one supports the annexation of another. In this case, America annexing the Philippines. Document A was written by the Platform of the American Anti- Imperialist League. This group of individuals thought poorly of imperialism and that it was wrong to take over others. According to this document, it states in the first paragraph, “... extinguish the spirit of 1776 in those islands. This is saying that by annexing the Philippines, we are forgetting all that happened when we broke free from Britain as rebels. If we did this, it would be extremely hypocritical. Also in Document A, the anti- imperialist platform

unlawfully gained Hawaii as a territory due to one major contributing factor, the Spanish-American War. High tensions and treaties failing, the U.S. sought to use Hawaii as a strategic gain on Spanish, by creating a strong military base in the Pacific. “Advocates argued that Hawaii was needed to support American soldiers in the Philippines“(Moss 18). It is required for the people of the native land to consent to being annexed into a country by Joint Resolution, but nevertheless, the appropriate procedures were ignored. These procedures were not met because of the potential economic, strategic, and imperial gain. After illegally annexing Hawaii by Joint Resolution and violating the U.S. Constitution, Hawaii ultimately became a controlled point in the U.S.’s stride for imperialism

Another victory through the Treaty of Paris was the possession of the Philippines. Though the Filipino independence leader Emilio Aguinaldo had aided in the defeat of Spain in 1898, USA refused independence to the Islands and a vicious three year war ensued. A civil government was created after the capture of Aguinaldo under William Taft and this showed a drastic change in American foreign policy. They could no longer justify interference with the excuse of the islands being within its sphere of influence but McKinley argued that America had the role to “uplift and civilize and christianize [Filipinos] as our fellow-men for whom Christ also died." McKinley was either unaware or simply chose not to inform the people that, except for some Muslim tribesmen in the south, the Filipinos were Roman Catholics, and, therefore, already Christians. In reality, the annexation of the Philippines was the centerpiece of the "large policy" pushed by the imperialist cabal to enlist the United States in the ranks of the great powers.

I do not think that the United States were the good guys in the Philippine- American war. The only right that we had to be in the Philippines was the right taken from Spain. In many ways the imperialism idea that the U.S. had were undemocratic. The United States at the time was developing and did not have adequate resources to keep military in foreign places. I think that we should have focused on own land. We have a large chunk of land full of growth possibilities. The war was not only brutal on both sides, but it also increased tensions about race. Overall the war did not accomplish much besides hurt both sides. The United States should have stopped their efforts after they met resistance.

In 1898, the United States of America was in the midst of a complete remolding of the nation's reputation. Just having recently ended the Civil War among the states in the United States and once again forging war with the Spanish-American War, the United States was after a more masculine image and reputation. Due to the nature of the country at that moment in time, the American government wanted to prove their superiority among other emerging nations and in doing so chose to colonize and annex nations such as the Philippines. Primary resources indicated that the annexation of the Philippines was indeed motivated by the lack of masculinity that was felt by the American government at the time (Hollitz, 2010). Gender roles in the United States were at a point where their stereotypical reputations were changing and women were gaining more social power. This was unlike any comparable country at the time, and the United States was taking this transition negatively as their reputation as the most powerful nation in the world was at stake. This allowed for gender to play a dominate role in the debate over the Philippines.

The bald red, white, and blue eagle of American Democracy is coming for you Phillipines, run while you can! Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States, was so infatuated with the idea of democracy, and he wanted every country to have a little taste of American freedom! After America's victory in the Spanish American War, George Dewey and his 11,000 American troops marched into manila and were unsure whether to liberate or occupy the filipino people. Thinking the they were here to help, the Filipino rebels trusted the Americans, but were soon betrayed as Dewey decided to occupy the land. The United States had three choices to determine what they wanted to do with the Philippines: Give it back to Spain, Give the filipino people their freedom, or to annex the whole country itself. With much debate ranging from artists, influential citizens, and government officials, the US ultimately decided it would annex! The United States should not have annexed the Philippines but rather should have given them their independence. While others may think the annexation of the Philippines would have benefited them, what the Philippines really needed was

In a passage from Our Country, Josiah states, “let us hope, of the largest liberty, the purest Christianity, the highest civilization -- having developed peculiarly aggressive traits calculated to impress its institutions upon mankind, will spread itself over the earth” (674). This applies to the issues with the Philippines because it supports McKinley's reasoning for sending troops and “missionaries” over to convert the people but ultimately ended up wreaking havoc. “Aguinaldo’s Case against the United States” written by Emilio Aguinaldo explained why he opposed American imperialism. Emilio led the Filipino armed against Spain for Independence. He was against imperialism because he believed the Filipino’s were being treated unfairly, America thinking that they were “ignorant savages”. The point he made was that America was treating the Philippines like how the colonials were treated before they escaped England. Emilio asked for America to “give us the chance; treat us exactly as you demanded to be treated at the hands of England when you rebelled against her autocratic methods”. By America treating the Filipino’s this way, it tossed all their morals about liberty and out the door putting the Filipino’s in the position that Americans were in trying trying to escape from England’s

Anti-imperialists argued that independence, equality, and culture played a huge role on why the Americans should liberate the Filipinos instead of just occupying their country. Independence should be granted to these people as it could be a pretty good business deal in the future. “War of conquest is as unwise as it is unrighteous…. It is not necessary to own people in order to trade with them.” said by William Jennings Bryan, it brought attention to the negative standpoint that it would have caused. Not adding the country would have allowed the US to trade later on without having to use manpower and force to get what they needed. Equality also came into view when dealing with this difficult decision. Abraham Lincoln once said, “ When the white man governs himself, that is self-government,