Hidden Truths About the Philippine-American War

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The United States fought many wars over borders and territory throughout the course of its history. Among the most famous of such wars are the American-Indian wars and the Mexican-American war, both driven by Manifest Destiny—the belief that God gave Americans the right to occupy and civilize the entire continent. These two topics are frequently covered in history textbooks and are usually emphasized in class. Little is known about the Philippine-American war, however, despite being considered as one of United States’ first colonial war as a world power (http://www.historyguy.com/PhilipineAmericanwar.html). Most of us have probably learned about the sinking of USS Maine in Cuba and George Dewey’s destruction of the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay. But the following gruesome and bloody events that took place from 1899 to 1902, shortly after the Spanish-American war, is almost always left out in most standard U.S. history textbooks. It seems like the war isn’t part of the U.S. curriculum at all and I might have found possible reasons why: the United States doesn’t want to admit that they lied to Filipinos and denied them their long-awaited freedom; they are ashamed to expose how horrible they treated and tortured Filipinos; and they don’t want the public to see how little the United States has changed in more than a century. Upon arrival in the Philippines, Americans were greeted by Filipinos as liberators from the 333-year Spanish rule. But then they were quickly despised as colonizers. The Filipinos were shocked to have been betrayed by the Americans who asked them for help to defeat the Spaniards and who promised them freedom from the oppressive rule of Spain. By the time the U.S. military came in 1898, the Filipinos had not only pushed the Spaniards back to the walled city of Manila, but had also beleaguered the city. It seemed like Philippine independence is already
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