Philippine-American War

Paper Summary:

American notions of race and civilization greatly influenced U.S. support for the Philippine-American War that took place from February 1899 to July 1902. The paper shows that many historians argue that Americans supported the Philippine-American war out of a genuine desire to civilize the inferior Filipino race. However, years of isolationist foreign policies coupled with the threat of growing European powers had created widespread anxieties among Americans in the 1890s. The paper argues, therefore, that the the Philippine-American War actually served as an outlet for American anxieties about U.S. international power by allowing Americans to reaffirm their racial superiority.

From the Paper:

"America could have easily maintained trade with the islands, but chose instead to seek the annexation of Philippines, which cost America many lives and opened up American economy to foreign financiers. Nevertheless, support for the annexation of the Philippines was widespread. Rather than considering more peaceful alternatives to the war, many Americans supported the attempt to emulate the "policy of expansions which [had] been pursued in England" in order to achieve an even greater amount of international power than their European allies.
Americans were also able to calm their insecurities, which had fostered avid support of the war, by proclaiming that the U.S. had a divine responsibility to tame the barbarian Filipinos. Americans asserted their racial greatness by complaining of the white man's burden as a divine nation to "uplift and civilize and Christianize the Filipinos.""

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