Filipino American Imperialism

Declaring war on other countries is a process that America knows all too well. Over the course of America’s history we have declared war 11 times; some for understandable reasons while other reasons are questionable. This was evident in the wars of 1898 and 1899. In April of 1898 the United States declared war on Spain over the treatment of Cuban citizens. From that war evolved the Filipino-American War that was declared in February of 1899. The Filipino-American War resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people; consisting of American and Filipino combatants and innocent civilians of the Philippines. The President during this time period was William McKinley, and his justification for the war was imperialism. Even though imperialism …show more content…
Evangelism is step that was taken in the Philippines to help establish America’s imperialism. The process of evangelism took off by a statement given by President McKinley. He made the people of the US believe it was America’s duty to do this by saying, “God has chosen the US to do it, to Christianize the country…properly this time.” Since Spain was the original ruler of the Philippines, Catholicism had already been introduced to its people. In America’s eyes the Filipinos did not even practice Catholicism, and to them Catholicism was not even true Christianity (Williams, 2015). On American soil there were many that rallied behind the action of evangelism in the Philippines. The most supportive seemed to be Protestant ministers and missioners. They felt as though America’s imperialism would lead to the “evangelization of the world,” and help to promote the Christian religion. Albert Beveridge, who was already pro imperialism, agreed that America was God’s chosen people to do the job of bringing Christianity to the Filipinos (Tindall, 2012) So with the words of the president and the backing of majority of the American people, to America it only made sense to force Christianity upon the Filipinos. With the forcing of evangelism and the soon to be rewards of commerce America’s imperialism was in full effect, and with just another goal to …show more content…
In the process of invading and taking over the Philippines, the US created many reason that, to them, would make them feel glorified. Since this war had evolved from the previous war with Spain, America was able to say that it had taken away two different territories form a very prominent country during this time. Both Cuba and the Philippines were firmly clasped in the hands of the US. Adding to that, America was able to successfully take over the Philippines before another country, such as Japan or Germany, was able to. There were many other imperial powers that may have had their eyes on the Philippines for the same reason as the US. The US was able to hop from one war to another and take the Philippines before anyone else (The Philippine-American War, 2015). Since America was under the impression that the Filipinos were unable to rule themselves, they decided to help them. America not only forced Christianity on the Filipinos, but taught them America’s education and how to build and farm as they did. America was able to impose a lot of their Western ways of living on the Filipinos (Williams, 2015). The Treaty of Paris was a huge moment in the process of glory. Not only did America go to war and take over that country, but it had a signed treaty that had it set in stone. All of these together gave America a since of pride that could not be stripped