Recently I watched a video called “How The US Stole the Philippines,” by Johnny Harris, that opened my eyes to a history of America and the Philippines that I never learned about in my history classes. It’s an uncomfortable story for America, as it depicts how a nation that once heroically rebelled against another empire soon became such an empire itself. So I thought I’d share this history with you.
The southeast Pacific Ocean is home to a group of 7,000 islands that have been inhabited by humans, according to the film, for over 30,000 years. While these islands engaged in their own trade, religion, and culture, a European power thousands of miles away was entering an age of conquest. Soon, these islands were swallowed by the Spanish empire and were named after the name of the king of their conquerors, King Phillip II. Subsequently, the Spanish left a large influence on these islands, bringing their religion, language, and culture. The golden age of the Spanish empire came and went, and by the 1800s their reign was nearing an end. Subsequently, the arrival of a new superpower left a large impact not just on the Philippines but on America itself.
Up until the end of the 1800s, American expansion had occurred completely on the North American continent. However, after this was complete there was a debate among American leaders about whether America should continue expanding beyond the mainland. William McKinley, the American president at the time, and his cabinet members were eyeing the Spanish colony Cuba, where the locals were rebelling against Spain. Eventually, McKinley was convinced to go to war in Cuba to remove the Spanish. To sell this war to the American people, the president sought to present the war as a liberation (an idea that has carried through to today with the War in Iraq).
So America went to war with Spain, which was an empire in decline. Teddy Roosevelt, who at the time was an assistant secretary of the Navy, decided we should also liberate the Spanish colonies of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. When the U.S. arrived in the Philippines, they saw that the locals had been fighting the Spanish for years. Essentially, the Spanish were greatly weakened and were in the fourth quarter when America arrived and offered to “liberate” the Filipinos. The Filipinos allowed the Americans to come and help deal the final blow against Spain.
When the Spanish saw they could not win, they met in secret with the Americans. During this meeting, the Spanish commander said he would be “willing to surrender to white people, but not to the Filipinos.” Seeing an opportunity, America decided it would be fortuitous to make it look like the U.S. defeated Spain rather than helped the Filipinos defeat Spain. Following this meeting, the US and Spanish militaries staged a fake battle in the capital city Manila so it could look like America defeated Spain. At the apex of the battle, the Americans would storm the inner walled city of Manila, but they would not let any Filipino fighters join them in storming the walled city. Therefore, America could claim victory over the Spanish and sovereignty over the Philippines. Back home in the U.S., the government had to maintain the white savior liberation narrative, so they threw a parade and built arches to celebrate the “military hero” American general, George Dewey, who fought the final battle, which was actually fake. Additionally, Dewey was featured in newspaper advertisements, such as one soap advertisement featuring Dewey. This advertisement stated “The first step towards lightening the white man’s burden is through teaching the virtues of cleanliness,” and the background image was soap being unloaded and given to the Filipinos. The U.S. sought to frame this war not as conquest, but as an honorable duty to civilize the people.
Meanwhile, the Filipinos were not happy with America. They had been on the verge of defeating Spain when America came and conspired with the Spanish to make it appear that America was liberating the Filipinos. As a result, the Filipinos started to fight again for their independence, but this time they fought against the United States. This would become the Philippine Revolution or Philippine-American War. By the end, an estimated 20,000 Filipino combatants were killed, and more than 200,000 civilians died as a result of combat, hunger, or disease. Of the 4,300 Americans lost, some 1,500 were killed in action, while nearly twice that number succumbed to disease.
After winning the war, America had to decide what to do with the Philippines and their other newly acquired colonies. America was forced to answer several questions, including: Are these people Americans? If so, do they receive all the same rights as other Americans? American leaders had to decide whether they were the land of the free or just another empire with subjects and colonies that weren’t fully a part of the nation. Eventually, with a series of cases in the early 1900s, the Supreme Court decided America was to be another empire that ruled over colonies. A new category of land was formed called unincorporated territories. Here, the people would have no representation in the democracy, but the United States Congress could create laws, particularly laws dealing with revenue that would be unconstitutional for states. Essentially, the territories were to be land controlled and exploited for revenue, but whose people couldn’t vote or have a trial by jury.
After the Japanese were expelled from the Philippines following their invasion during World War 2, the Philippines were finally granted independence in 1946. Today, this “we own you but you’re not really American” idea still applies to the four million inhabitants of American territories, aka colonial possessions. The people here cannot experience the full rule of law, they don’t have the right to trial by jury, and they don’t have full representation in our democracy. These people were conquered, but we did not want to bring them fully into the American project. To me this is unjust and un-American, and it is time for us to acknowledge the mistakes and history of our past and bring these 4 million people fully into our nation.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.