Essay Database

The war that ensued between the United States and the Philippines at the birth of the twentieth century was an ill-conceived attempt at American colonialism that contradicted American notions of national self-determination and republican democracy. Despite the intention of Filipino revolutionaries to base their new republic on the same standards as the U.S. constitution, the U.S. chose to refuse their national sovereignty on accounts of race, history, and U.S. commercial interests. The …

…outweigh the profits. The search for wider markets was thinly veiled as a humanitarian attempt to aid the Philippines into democracy and economic prosperity. While Beveridge sought to Americanize the Philippines, his zeal for evangelization and access to Chinese markets suppressed the national determination of the Philippines which could have resulted into a unique democracy of its own. By thwarting national self-determination and government by consent, the U.S. violated its own most sacred institutions.