Spanish American Imperialism
FIGHTING FOR INDEPENDENCE
The Spanish American War was the most powerful colonial nation by the end of the 19th century. 1898 is when the United States went to war to help Cuba win its independence from Spain. The United States won and gained the territories of The Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico. The U.S should not have annexed the Philippines because the Philippines were a country of their own. Additionally, they had their own language, their own currency and their own culture and tradition, very much different than our own. Some people would argue that the U.S. wanted to educate the residents of the Philippines. However, this is wrong. The feeling towards American imperialism during that time was fairly supportive of expansionism and a "we're better for you than you are for yourselves" attitude, that certain type of attitude was not held by the Filipino people. They were proud of their history and did not welcome American annexation. …show more content…
Filipinos had their own educational ways. They weren't going to let us Americans come over and run everything that they knew and were extremely proud of into the ground. They were ready to fight even die over their independence. “Their independence is dearer to them than life, as ours was in years gone by, and is today”. Meaning the Filipinos were not at all budging they wanted their freedom so much they could see it in a wink of an eye. As so read in document 5 of the Anti-Imperialist League a soldier wrote his honest belief.
However can a nation thats built off of freedom control a smaller region that would give anything for its people to have their independence. In document 6, William Jennings Bryan Presidential campaign speech displays, “The United States Cannot be an empire, for a republic exists because the government gets their powers from the consent of the governed and colonialism violates this
The Spanish American War was the most powerful colonial nation by the end of the 19th century. 1898 is when the United States went to war to help Cuba win its independence from Spain. The United States won and gained the territories of The Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico. The U.S should not have annexed the Philippines because the Philippines were a country of their own. Additionally, they had their own language, their own currency and their own culture and tradition, very much different than our own. Some people would argue that the U.S. wanted to educate the residents of the Philippines. However, this is wrong. The feeling towards American imperialism during that time was fairly supportive of expansionism and a "we're better for you than you are for yourselves" attitude, that certain type of attitude was not held by the Filipino people. They were proud of their history and did not welcome American annexation. …show more content…
Filipinos had their own educational ways. They weren't going to let us Americans come over and run everything that they knew and were extremely proud of into the ground. They were ready to fight even die over their independence. “Their independence is dearer to them than life, as ours was in years gone by, and is today”. Meaning the Filipinos were not at all budging they wanted their freedom so much they could see it in a wink of an eye. As so read in document 5 of the Anti-Imperialist League a soldier wrote his honest belief.
However can a nation thats built off of freedom control a smaller region that would give anything for its people to have their independence. In document 6, William Jennings Bryan Presidential campaign speech displays, “The United States Cannot be an empire, for a republic exists because the government gets their powers from the consent of the governed and colonialism violates this