Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States, had said “No man is good enough to govern another man without the other’s consent.” Now picture one’s own home, city, and country being liberated from their past tyrannical rulers by the United States, which goes on to rule them with the same dictatorial hand. That is exactly what happened to the Philippines as the result of the Spanish-American War. The United States’ annexation of the Philippines was a very controversial act that took place in 1898, and it took a great amount of debate over whether it was a good or bad idea to annex it in the first place. This conquest was the result of the United States’ war with Spain, of which the Americans won with assistance from the Philippines. …show more content…
However when it came to America’s decision to annex the Philippines, the despotism that came with it appeared to not be an issue to them at first, but anti-imperialists strongly gave their statements as to why it was a bad idea. For a first example, in October of 1899, the American Anti-Imperialist League created a platform, which was a series of beliefs that the entire party supported. The platform advised against the United State’s dictatorial presence in the Philippines, stating “We earnestly condemn the policy of the present national administration in the Philippines. It seeks to extinguish the spirit of 1776…We protest against the extension of American sovereignty by Spanish methods…We hold with Abraham Lincoln, that “no man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent” (Document A). The Anti-Imperialist League outwardly says that they consider the annexation of the Philippines to be a poor decision, even condemning it. They also compare America’s occupation to Spain’s, claiming that they continue Spanish tyranny over the Philippines. Another example of protesting against the annexation comes from “Paralyzing Influence of Imperialism,” a speech delivered by William Jennings Bryan in August of 1900. In his speech, Bryan states “[We] dare not educate them lest they learn to read the Declaration …show more content…
This decision, which had played out with both the Native and African Americans before and resulted badly, did not work out as well this time due to the Philippines being used to tyranny from the Spanish, resulting in them being able to recognize conformity very easily. Christianizing was accepted by a concerning amount of people, including President William McKinley. In November of 1899, he gave a speech to a group of clergymen about the possession of the Philippines, claiming that he prayed to God for many nights for guidance. McKinley gave four “facts” that God had let him see, which were “...we could not give [the Philippines] back to Spain--that would be cowardly and dishonorable…we could not turn them over to France and Germany - our commercial rivals in the Orient - that would be bad business and discreditable…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…there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them and by God's grace do the very best we could by them, as our fellowmen for whom Christ also died” (Document C). This is a lot of information, but this
The expansion of America was desirable, creating a false duty to get rid of barbaric influence from asianic countries to expand America’s empire. After the end of Spanish rule in the Philippines, Senator Albert Beveridge saw potential in recruiting the Philippines as US territory. He writes, “...The Philippines gives us a base at the door of all East”(Beveridge 1). He wanted to expand America's commercial trades with Asia, but in order to do so would need an ally near the east. Knowing that the Philippines had just come out of Spanish rule, Beveridge suggested in the letter that they were not capable of self-governing, and America's intervention would be needed.
According to Teddy, imperialist concepts consisted of securing as many ports and colonies as was possible, to reinforce America as a world power in both military and trade areas. At the close of the short-lived Spanish-American War, the U.S. Government had a new problem on its hands. The powers, that be, could not agree on how to resolve serious issues involving newly acquired colonies. Supporters of imperialism wanted to keep the Philippines, under U.S. control,
The U.S. was given more land to control, including the Philippine islands, which McKinley found to be a problem because the islands were so far away and expanded over thousands of miles. Eventually, McKinley decided to annex the Philippines, and American support for the foreign policy soon followed. American imperialism was embraced by many because it allowed for the United States to get closer to becoming a major player on the world stage. Some believed it was their duty to “Christianize” the Filipinos; others believed it was a stepping stone for trade with China. Those in opposition of annexing the Philippines, especially the Anti-Imperialist League, believed that it didn’t align with American
Emma Catone Professor Payne 11-9-14 1. In the document “Platform of the Anti-Imperialism League” the league explained why they think imperialism is anti-American. In this document the main argument as to why imperialism is anti-American is because it is against the constitutional rights that are given to US citizens. These constitutional rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In 1899 the Philippines were under the control of Spain.
Many Americans thought occupying foreign countries, like the Philippines after the Spanish American War, was a bad idea because it contradicts the American values of equality found in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. (Doc D) However, a majority of America sided with people like Senator Albert J. Beveridge who believed people were chosen by God to expand into China and the Philippines to open more Asian markets. (Doc E) This was a continuation of past expansionism because acquiring land for money Manifest Destiny have been motives for expansionism for
Grover Cleveland stated, "...it has been the settled policy of the United States to concede to people of foreign countries the same freedom and independence in the management of their domestic affairs that we have always claimed for ourselves." (Document D) President Grover Cleveland believed that the United States should not be expanding and acknowledged that America did not have the right to control how other nations were governed. Independence was once given to the United States, therefore, other annexed nations should receive that same independence. A reason for the American-Philippine war occurring is the absence of independence for Filipinos which does not reflect the United States principle of independence.
Another group who resisted the idea of war was “The Anti- Imperialist League” which consisted of many of America’s most influential people such as Andrew Carnegie, Mark Twain, Grover Cleveland, and many more who spoke out about their views on how immoral imperialism is. This group believed that America shouldn’t get involved with imperialism and was formed to resist America’s oversea expansion and imperialization of Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam. They believed that the colonization of the Phillipines against their will was morally wrong and argued that if America tries to get involved and imperialises a country instead of liberating them from another country, we will lose our image. Notable leaders of the league include George Boutswell, Mark Twain ,and Moorfield Storey. Mark Twain was regarded as “ the most influential anti-imperialist and the most dreaded critic of the sacrosanct person in the White House that the country contains” ,according to Springfield Republican.
In the speech “Imperialism”, the speaker, William Jennings Bryan, expresses his distaste towards imperialism. He says America should not spread anymore, because it isn’t an empire. He also says that in the past, America was never imperialist and now it should stay as the past presidents and the founding fathers created it. Taft would disagree with most of the ideas expressed in the speech.
This type of racism continued during the Philippine-American War. The Philippine-American War was originally initiated after the United States annexed the Philippines under the Treaty of Paris after the Spanish- American War, ignoring the Philippines' Declaration of Independence. The US wanted the Philippines because they wanted new markets and to create new naval bases, specifically in Minella, Philippines. With the ratification of the Treaty of Paris, the Spanish Empire would be completely terminated; thus, resulting in the US becoming a complete world power, especially with the annexation of the Philippines. This became a controversial argument as it went against all American values of equality as they believed that the Philippines were not equipped to manage and operate their country themselves.
Conclusion = Summary of important facts reviewed during the main points of the speech • Puerto Rico took a break from Spain in 1898 claiming some independence • United States did not hesitate to step in and kick Spain out • Years later the US and PR were engaged under the Jones Act making. No wedding date has been set. 8.
As Albert J. Beveridge pointed out in Document B, “would not the people of the Philippines prefer the just, human, civilizing government of this republic to the savage, bloody rule… from which we have saved them?” Just, human, civilizing? Strict, biased, Christianizing was more like it. In these islands, the United States of America once again made the same mistake it had made with the Native Americans. Determined that there way was the best way, ‘the slaughter of the Filipinos’ (Doc.
“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”.
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
In being an anti-imperialist the worrisome is not that one opposes the idea of expansion of religion, commercial, and constitutional. It’s that with the annexing of these tropical islands would come to a result of the American system of self government would be that America might abandon this idea that makes America that nation it is to this point. Three reasons why the U.S should avoid imperialism is because it fails to follow that criteria of the constitution, could lead to tyrants like behavior, and could lead to conflict One argument that can’t be missed is the fact that the constitutions sets forth a principle that states “consent of the governed” after further research this means that to imperialize and annex other islands would violate
When we made allies of the Filipinos and armed them to fight against Spain”. In my opinion, I think that the people of America had just gone based off of what President Lincoln had stated so greatly before. Yes, he may have expired from this Earth, but based of of what he had been saying corresponds very well to the situation at hand. To me, I think that Abraham Lincoln was one of the greatest Presidents of all time. The wonderful saying that Abraham Lincoln said (Based off of the article in Document A): “no man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent.