The United States Want To Create An Empire Dbq Essay

“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.

According to the United States, democracy and Christianity were principal elements of a successful society. During the end of the eighteen-hundreds and throughout the beginning of the nineteen-hundreds, America tried to colonize and reform less fortunate nations. Following a social-Darwinist point of view, Americans took their “God-given” superiority to those who were incapable of establishing their own self-government (Doc. H). After much debate, American foreign policy towards the Philippines and Cuba was that it is our duty to rule them until they could rule themselves. We pledged to save the indigenous people from their savage, bloody, and corrupt ways of life. President McKinley’s foreign policy towards the Philippines stated that “they would soon have anarchy and misrule…there was nothing left to do but take them all, educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize them” (Doc. A).

By offering the aid of “an advanced and aggressive civilization,” the Philippines would achieve success that would further benefit the US (Doc 3). This same goal applied to many of the other islands the US had gained control over in the second half of the 19th century. As can be seen in the map in Document 7, these small islands were scattered throughout the Pacific Ocean between America and Asia. Each island offered ports that made trade trading with eastern countries much easier, especially in tandem with the fact that they were much closer to these countries than any part of the contiguous US. Every time the US acquired a new island or country, they did so with a purpose for that land in mind, which would help serve their imperialistic

Senator Beveridge argues in his speech to Congress this very notion of the U.S. extending its power throughout the world. Beveridge says that it is our duty as God's "chosen people" to take control over the Philippines. The senator emphatically advocates for the annexation of the

Reasons given for this decision by the U.S. government was that it would provide a useful military location and would allow the United States to reap benefits and money from the land’s natural resources (Lapsansky). The problem with this argument though comes from the one hole that our government overlooked. The many years battle that we spent that we spent claiming Philippines; we spent great sums of money and dispensed many lives just for the

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.

was generous to annex the Philippines because the U.S. lead the Philippines to a self-government. “It takes a few weeks of work like this to make one proud that he is an American”(Doc H). This document tells the story of the Philippine- American War coming to the end with America’s victory. Letter written by William Connor shows how the United States military won the war that lead the US to guiding the Philippines to a stronger government. “it cannot rule over vassal states or subjects peoples without bringing in the elements of death into its own constitution…”(Doc I). Document I explains that annexing the Philippines is unconstitutional, but this is not correct because the Philippines was bought by the U.S. and they were owned by U.S. “We could not leave them to themselves- they were unfit for self government- and they soon would have anarchy and misrule over there worse than Spain’s was”(Doc C). The United States saw the Philippine as unfitted for self- government and the Philippines needed the United States to be a parent government, and guide them to a more fit

William Graham Summer, sociologist professor at Yale University, “The Conquest of the United States by Spain”, speech, (Doc 2), argues that America has always followed this doctrine that ‘all men are equal’ but when America lends a helping hand they always want something in return, in this case America wanted to spread democracy in the Philippines. “…told by all the imperialists that these people are not fit for liberty and self- government; … it is rebellion for them to resist our beneficence; … must send fleets and armies to kill them if they do it;… must devise a government for them and administer it ourselves.” Summer states that if America keeps dictating other countries government it will only lead us to where Spain is, powerless and non-profitable. On the contrary, Puck- a satirical magazine, (Doc 7), illustrates the expansion of imperialism by having a bold eagle protecting its territory- U.S, Puerto Rico, Panama, and Philippines. These countries that the eagle is protecting are the countries that are under democratic regime. The American flag in the eagle’s mouth is a representation of Democracy and the flags on the countries are subjugations of democracy. The picture is also sending a message of encouragement towards democracy, the boldness and warrior look in the eagle’s eyes and posture is embodying that

In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt issued the Roosevelt Corollary, an extension of the doctrine. It proclaimed that if someone or something posed a threat to the United States’ economic interests in Latin America, it had a right to intervene. Document G is an excerpt from Roosevelt’s annual message to Congress, given on December 6, 1904. He stated that the United States, as an independent nation, must exercise its power on behalf of humanity as a whole. Consequently, by acquiring Cuba from Spain, interfering in the Venezuelan boundary dispute, building the Panama Canal, and enacting the Open Door Policy in China, the United States had made good use of its independence. Document E is excerpted from one of Roosevelt’s speeches, called “The Strenuous Life,” which was given to Chicago business owners in 1899, a year after the official end of the Spanish-American War. It discusses the annexation of the Philippines and portrays the Filipinos as incapable of establishing their own form of government. Nevertheless, overthrowing Spanish misrule was not enough; it was the United States’ duty to protect their “little brown brothers” (as William H. Taft liked to refer to the Filipinos). The Jones Act eventually granted the Philippines territorial status and promised independence as soon as stable government was

Although expansionism around the year 1900 shared some similar motivation with that of earlier decades, it was to a greater degree the result of new economic and political pursuits. Past expansion had involved annexing adjacent territory contiguous with the existing states that enabled the spread of American settlement; it was utilized for the spread of agriculture and the American population, and all acquired territory was intended to ultimately become states. Contrastingly, new territory in the age of imperialism was acquired with the economic intent of use as a colony: a provider of raw materials and markets for the products of industrialism. By denying citizenship to the inhabitants of the territory of the Philippines in the Insular Case

In the late 1800s, United States was becoming a powerful industrial. Due to the growth of the nation; U.S. needed more resources for the industry. The solution was to imperialist other country. Imperialism is to expand the country power through the influence or military power. Many countries in Europe had become an imperialist nation; for example, British were in India, and the French were in Indochina. Most country around the world has been taken over by the European nation. United States realizes that if they did not get in the completion, then they would be left out. The reason United States become an imperialist nation were economy and military strength.

The United States made the Philippines into its colony because Spain was going to lose control over it anyway. Instead of allowing the Philippines to get released to another country, with the knowledge of possibly lifiting their rankings with the other most powerful countries,They decided to take change and help the

The significance behind the entire document is that not all americans wanted to annex the philippines. Many Americans did not what the Philippines annexed because the phillipian people did not want america to take over the land but America proceeded to force the filipino’s to accept the American government. American troops were in a foreign country and we were losing american lives over land. The Anti Imperialist voice was not heard enough because the document never stopped the American government who pursued forcing the Filipino people to give America rule over their land.

Germany, Japan, and Russia already have spheres of influence in China. These countries were trying to force the United States out of Asia. In the map we looked at as a class, there were numerous countries who had influence in the Chinese markets. By taking Manila Harbour the United States would open a gateway to gaining influence in the markets that other countries are beginning to dominate. The costs of taking the Philippines in its entirety would drown all the benefits gained from establishing a greater sphere of influence and would put us in a worse position than we were before. As Carl Schurz puts it, “. . . If American diplomacy, having, after our successful war, the decisive voice in regard to those islands, is not skillful enough to bring about such results in the final settlement, it would certainly not be skillful enough to handle the more thorny problems which it would surely have to deal with in case all those islands should pass into our full possession.” By choosing to take only Manila the United States could keep out of war and continue to spread our spheres of

Even President Wilson mentioned that “every step we take will be taken with a view to the ultimate independence of the Philippine Islands”. However, the United sates also had some other colonial motives which were