Annexation Of The Philippines Essay

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.

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

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