Annexing the Philippines

Annexing the Philippines

After winning the Spanish-American war, the United States gained Cuba and the Philippines. Cuba was granted a semi-independence (Background Essay), while the U.S. did not know what to do with the Philippines. The U.S. was faced with three choices they could make about the Philippines. They could give the Philippines back to Spain, give them independence, or annex the Philippines under American government (Background Essay). The Philippines should be annexed because it would provide a way to educate the residents of the Philippines; the Philippines were weak due to their lack of government, and to prevent other countries from taking over the Philippines.

The Philippines were under rule of Spain for a long time, “the savage, bloody (Spanish) rule … from which we have rescued them” (Document B). This means that the Philippines have little to no experience in self-government. President McKinley, in a speech to a group of clergymen on November 21, 1899, spoke about how the Philippines “were unfit for self-government – and they would soon have anarchy and misrule over there worse than Spain’s was” (Document C). With the Philippines being inexperienced in self-government, they are weak. The U.S. is helping the Philippines by annexing them and providing a civilizing government to the Philippines to prevent them from misrule.

The United States also felt the need to annex the Philippines in order to prevent other countries from taking it. America knew that if they had let go of the Philippines, other countries such as Germany, England, and Japan would have gobbled them up. According to William McKinley, it “would be bad business and discreditable” (Document C).