Should the U.S. Have Annexed the Philippines

Should The U.S. Have Annexed The Philippines?

“Should the U.S. have annexed the Philippines?” In 1898 the Americans ended up in the Philippines. We weren’t sure what we were exactly there to accomplish. America adventully chased out the Spanish who had successfully dominated the Philippines. The Filipino gergeral Emilio Aguinaldo was expecting to march hand in hand with the United States troops to claim Filipino independence. However, the Americans wouldn’t allow this and because of that the Philippines felt betrayed. The victory of the war with Spain left most Americans very proud. This suddenly caused the United States to become a major world power. Were we doing the right thing by annexing the Philippines? When something has been annexed it has been taken over. The United States should have annexed the Philippines for three reasons: other country were interested in taking over the Philippines, they wasn’t capable to self governor , and it was beniftual to the United States in many ways.

The first reason the U.S. should have annexed the Philippines is because other countries would have easily taken over. According to William McKinley “We could not give the Philippines back to Spain- that would be cowardly and dishonorable;” (Doc C) Albert J. Beveridge also mentions “ would not the people of the Philippines prefer the just, human , civilizing government of this Republic to the savage, bloody (Spanish) rule…”(Doc B) William Jennings Bryan asks the question “ what is our title to the Philippine Island ?...”(Doc D) If it wasn’t for the Americans annexing the Philippines after freeing them from the Spanish, they would have fell in the troubling hands of either Japan, Germany, or England. I believe if the Filipinos would have been in the same situation that they were just removed from. The Filipinos wouldn’t only have to fight harder for their independence, but they probably wouldn’t even have