Building an American empire would also make the United States a powerful and strong country. McKinley reasoned that giving up the Philippines would be “cowardly and dishonorable”, making American men look even less manly. If Americans did not take the Philippines then other countries might look at them as if they were too scared to annex them. America was looked at as one of the more powerful countries at the time and they wanted to keep it that way. One small reason to annex the Philippines was also trade and the location of the island, in a speech by Albert Beveridge, a U.S. senate, he said “the power that rules the Pacific, therefore, is the power that rules the world.” That meant that having the Philippines as a gateway to trade with eastern markets was good for the economy and a very strategic move, giving the United States power, in turn giving. the nation’s political leaders, men, power and control. Although power and control in the Philippines and at home was one of the goals of the war, it was not the only reason. Americans also wanted to help the Filipinos.
Americans strongly believed that it was their duty to educate and uplift the Filipinos. National leaders viewed the Filipino’s as a sort of “white man’s burden” and felt that it was not only a good opportunity but also a responsibility to teach the Filipinos how to govern them selves and live civilized. American leaders thought they lived like savages. With progressives leading the war effort, one of their values was humanitarianism. This meant that they believed it was their job to relieve people from their suffering. That is why they were going to teach them how to self-govern. In Roosevelt’s speech “A Strenuous Life” he said that the Filipino population included “half-caste and native Christians, warlike Moslems, and wild pagan. Many of their people are utterly unfit for self-government; and show no signs of becoming fit.” The Filipinos were like children and the United States national leaders felt that they had to act as a “motherly” figure because it was God’s will. Americans were supposed to teach them all they could and “Christianize” them because Christ died for them too. This showed that morality was greatly valued at this time and Americans believed it was their duty show the Filipinos right from wrong according to American values. McKinley said that without United States involvement in the Philippines, there would be “anarchy and misrule” and through nurturing the people, another progressive value, they could change their society for the better. McKinley and Roosevelt justified the annexing of the Philippines by saying the islands needed “economic ‘stability’” To quote Roosevelt, he said,
“My own belief is that there are not 100 mean among them [Filipinos] who comprehend what Anglo-Saxon self-government even means… No! He has made us the master organizers of the world to establish system where chaos reigns… He has made us adept in government that we may administer government among savage and senile people.”
Americans believed that God “made” it the “White Man’s Burden” to educate the less privileged and make them civilized. With this thought, white Americans had the idea that they were better than all other people who did not live or look like they did. This also brought up the issue that Americans were superior to all other races.
Although many Americans and national leaders believed that the Philippine-American war would achieve social control there were some who believed that war in the Philippines was a bad idea. Some argued that annexing the Philippines was a bad idea because incorporating the Filipinos into our population would only degenerate our society even more. Filipinos were viewed as African Americans were viewed at this time, as savages and less than human. Americans viewed themselves as the superior race. Filipinos were also view by anti-imperialist, the ones against the annexation, as unequal, and were not worthy of living under the same constitution as Americans. At a Senate debate about the Treaty of Spain, a debate which discussed if Americans should annex the Philippines, Senator Caffery of Louisiana said “if such people are unfit and in all human probability never will be fit for the glorious privileges, franchises, and functions of an American citizen, we ought not in that case to even think of incorporating them into the United States.” Also in the United States at this time, African Americans were looked at as less then human. Many white Americans did not view the blacks as equal in anyway to the “superior race.” Senator McLaurin said at the debate on the Treaty of Spain that “the great strength of our country is not merely its isolated position, washed on each side by the waters of a great ocean, but in a homogenous population, speaking a common language, and with similar aspirations and ideas of liberty and civilization.” People were scared that by taking over the Philippines, it would “litter” the populations with Filipinos who were to close to the Negro race. Americans did not want to share their country or compromise their language or beliefs with allowing a inferior, uncivilized race to join the society. Although there were many against the war, in the end the leaders of America, for the most part, were for the annexation. The believed that it was the answer to more then just one problem the United States faced.
Through out the Progressive era, Americans were trying hard to achieve social control. With industrialization, Americans felt like social rules and gender roles were getting out of hand. The annexing of the Philippines seemed to restore men’s ability to believe that they were still the superior gender and white Americans the superior race. Fighting in the war gave them back their sense of masculinity but also the war gave the United States a sense of fulfillment. Americans believed that it was their duty to take the Philippines, an inferior race, and nurture them. It was their responsibility to teach them how to govern and how to be civilized. Building an empire that would, in theory, establish the United States as a world power and the convenient location for trade were just added bonuses.
Kristin L. Hoganson, “Male Degeneracy and the Allure of the Philippines”, in Thinking Through the Past: A Critical Thinking Approach to History, Vol. 1, ed. John Hollitz (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005), 89.
Theodore Roosevelt, “The Strenuous Life”, in Thinking Through the Past: A Critical Thinking Approach to History, Vol. 1, ed. John Hollitz (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005), 96.
William McKinley on Annexation, in Thinking Through the Past: A Critical Thinking Approach to History, Vol. 1, ed. John Hollitz (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005), 98.
Albert J. Beveridge, “In Support of an American Empire”, in Thinking Through the Past: A Critical Thinking Approach to History, Vol. 1, ed. John Hollitz (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005), 100.
Rebecca Edwards, New Spirits: Americans in the Gilded Age (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 259.
Sen. Caffery, in Thinking Through the Past: A Critical Thinking Approach to History, Vol. 1, ed. John Hollitz (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005), 101.
Sen. McLaurin, in Thinking Through the Past: A Critical Thinking Approach to History, Vol. 1, ed. John Hollitz (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005), 104.