Should the United States Have Annexed the Philippines?

Should the United States have Annexed the Philippines?

By: Bailey O’Connor

How would you feel if a nation took over your freedom and religion? In 1898, the United States went to war with spain and had victory, claiming Cuba and the Philippines. We didn’t have any interest in Cuba, so they were granted semi-independence while we had our eyes on the Philippine islands. The Filipinos had been fighting for their independence with spain for a while so when spain was defeated, it was not clear to them as to if the U.S. had come to liberate or occupy the people. Some anti-imperialists such as Andrew Carnegie and Mark Twain both were very hesitant to expanding. William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt felt that they had no choice but to annex the Philippine island. Should we have? Yes. There are three reasons as to why we did: they would be stolen by another country, the Filipinos were not fit for self-rule, and spreading christianity.

William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt were right to annex the island because why should we abandon them, with Germany, England, and Japan or to those who are hungering for them? (DOC C) We would have bad business to turn them to our rivals like France and Germany. (DOC C) The last thing that the United States wants is a discreditable reputation.

The second reason the United States wanted to annex the Philippines was because they were not capable of self-rule. As President Mckinley said in (DOC C) we could not leave them to themselves. If a part of our country was in trouble, do you think we would leave them to deal? No, we wouldn’t because it would affect the other parts. It is very similar with them having problems and the Philippines being our other part. If we did not help them, they would have resulted in anarchy and misrule over there worse than Spain’s was. (DOC) It is true that some people