#507 The Philippine War

Filipino prisoners of war, 1899. Library of Congress.

Background:

• In 1898 the United States took up the call of Kipling’s “White Man’s Burden.” The Philippines would remain an American colony until Japan defeated U.S. forces there during World War II in 1942. After Japan’s defeat, the islands were granted formal independence in 1946.
• Emilio Aguinaldo had led Philippine resistance against Spain, and soon turned his efforts against the United States. In 1899, he said:
  • “You repeat constantly the dictum that we cannot govern ourselves. . . . With equal reason, you might have said the same thing . . . when you, also, were rebels against the English Government. Now, the moral of all this obviously is: Give us the chance; treat us exactly as you demanded to be treated at the hands of England when you rebelled against her autocratic methods. . . . Now, here is a unique spectacle—the Filipinos fighting for liberty, the American people fighting them to give them liberty.”
• The ensuing effort to assert U.S. control in was a brutal one. Between 1899 and 1902, over 200,000 Philippine civilians are estimated to have died.
• In 1902, the U.S. Senate conducted hearings on the Philippine-American War because many Americans had become outraged at the reports of how American soldiers were treating Filipinos.

Understanding war:

• Historians today are trying to figure out what causes some soldiers to behave brutally during war. Your task is to read these documents and figure out why many American soldiers were brutal to the Filipino insurgents.
• First, review the documents that you read last night for homework.
• Next, work with a partner to use this graphic organizer to gather evidence for three possible hypotheses that explain the actions of U.S. soldiers (keep in mind that other explanations are certainly possible as well).
• Once you have completed the front, flip over to the back to create a multicausal statement that includes includes whichever hypotheses (including your own!) that you think might explain the actions of U.S. soliders.

Debrief questions:

• What evidence did you find for each of the hypotheses?
• Is some of the evidence more or less believable? Why?
• Based on the evidence, which hypothesis do you find most convincing for why some American soldiers brutalized Filipino insurgents?

Homework: Assignment #508