Question

In your opinion, should the United States acquire the Philippines as territory in 1898? What are the arguments to defend your position?

2. Critique Andrew Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth philosophy (pp. 523-24). In your opinion, is Carnegie an American hero?

3. How is the government of the Progressive Era different from that of the Gilded Era?

4. In your opinion, why did U.S. join World War I in 1917 after years of promising neutrality?

Answer 1

Abstract

Yes, United States should acquire the Philippines as territory in 1898

Arguments to defend this opinion

United States acquired Philippines in 1898 and controlled it almost for 48 years

If we look at the history, American settlement in the Philippines began during the Spanish colonial period in which Philippines were part of the Spanish Empire as the Captaincy General of the Philippines from 1565 to 1898.

The period of American Expansion Strategy during which rule of America over Philippines lasted 48 years, from cession (formal giving up of rights, property, or territory by a state) of the Philippines to the U.S. by Spain in 1898 and it become U.S. recognition of Philippine independence in 1946.

While the Filipinos believed that a U.S. defeat of Spain would lead to a free Philippines, the U.S. refused to recognize the new government. Outraged by the betrayal, the Philippine republic declared war on the United States.

After the Spanish-American War, while the American public and politicians debated the annexation question, Filipino revolutionaries under Aguinaldo seized control of most of the Philippines’ main island of Luzon and proclaimed the establishment of the independent Philippine Republic.

When it became clear that U.S. forces were intent on imposing American colonial control over the islands, the early clashes between the two sides in 1899 swelled into an all-out war.

After this decision, Representatives of Spain and the United States signed a peace treaty agreement in Paris on December 10, 1898, which established the independence of Cuba, ceded Puerto Rico and Guam to the United States, and allowed the victorious power to purchase the Philippines Islands from Spain for $20 million.

The decision by U.S. policymakers to annex the Philippines was not without domestic controversy. There was a lot of internal debate in Americans' politics about this decision

Americans who advocated and taken the decision to capture Philippines was motivated due to below reason :

1) Desire for commercial opportunities in Asia.

2) Concern that the Filipinos were incapable of self-rule.

3) Fear that if the United States did not take control of the islands i.e. Philippines another super  power such as Germany or Japan might take control of it and America will loss a lot of revenue in term of wealth and trade.