Although the Spanish resisted surrendering the Philippines at Paris, they had been so thoroughly defeated that they had no choice. The decision hung rather on the outcome of a conflict over policy within
2More than 5,000 Americans died as a result of the conflict, but fewer than 400 fell in combat. The others were mostly victims of yellow fever, typhoid, and other diseases.
While the good children (the states) sit at their seats, with the Indian off to the side, the unruly blacks—"Cuba,” "Puerto Rico,” "Hawaii,” and "Philippines”—are lectured by Uncle Sam. Racist anti-imperialists argued, as did this cartoon in Puck in 1899, that the inclusion of other peoples would weaken the American nation.
The United States. The war, won at so little cost militarily, produced problems far larger than those it solved.2 The nation had become a great power in the world’s eyes. As a French diplomat wrote a few years later, “[The United States] is seated at the table where the great game is played, and it cannot leave it.” European leaders had been impressed by the forcefulness of Cleveland’s diplomacy in the Venezuela boundary dispute and by the efficiency displayed by the navy in the war. The annexation of Hawaii and other overseas bases intensified their conviction that the United States was determined to become a major force in international affairs.
But were the American people determined to exercise that force? The debate over taking the Philippine Islands throws much light on their attitudes. The imagination of Americans had been captured by the trappings of empire, not by its essence. It was titillating to think of a world map liberally sprinkled with American flags and of the economic benefits that colonies might bring, but most citizens were not prepared to join in a worldwide struggle for power and influence. They entered blithely on adventures in far-off regions without facing the implications of their decision.
Since the United States (in the Teller Amendment) had abjured any claim to Cuba, even though the island had long been desired by expansionists, logic dictated that a similar policy be applied to the Philippines, a remote land few Americans had ever thought about before 1898. But expansionists were eager to annex the entire archipelago. Even before he had learned to spell the name, Senator Lodge was saying that “the Phillipines [sic] mean a vast future trade and wealth and power,” offering the nation a greater opportunity “than anything that has happened. . . since the annexation of Louisiana.”
President McKinley adopted a more cautious stance, but he too favored “the general principle of holding on to what we can get.” A speaking tour of the Midwest in October 1898, during which he experimented with varying degrees of commitment to expansionism, convinced him that the public wanted the islands. Business opinion had shifted dramatically during the war. Business leaders were now calling the Philippines the gateway to the markets of East Asia.
World History
