The Spanish American War and the Philippine “Insurgency” were very fascinating events to learn about in the film and the sources that were given. Entering the Imperial Age, America was in its reconstruction era and was culturally divided due to the recent conclusion of the civil war. During this time America was very interested in expanding its empire and turning itself into a world superpower. America felt that it was their destiny to be on the top as shown by this quote from Modern History Sourcebook: Albert Beveridge: The March of the Flag “I answer, The rule of liberty that all just government derives its authority from the consent of the governed, applies only to those who are capable of selfgovernment We govern the Indians without their consent, we govern our territories without their consent, we govern our children without their consent”(Internet History Sourcebooks)America felt that it was their duty to help struggling countries and try and impose their “superior” values in their governments. In the documentary film Crucible of Empire: The Spanish-American War which was directed by Daniel A. Miller in New York for PBS, America was searching for a reason to expand their territory and saw the Cuban War of Indepences as a perfect opportunity to do this. At the time Cuba had been trying for years to gain its independence from Spain and The Cubans were crying for help from America. Newspapers at the time were flooded with horrific atrocities that were being committed against the Cuban people and the American people felt that they had no choice but to help the struggling people. William Randolph Hearst was a lobbyist for the aid of the Cubans as supported by this quote “ Hearst took up the Cuban independence movement as a jingoistic way to bring America together. We were a nation in that period that was at each other’s throats….And Hearst saw that the way to pull everybody together was with some war.” (Film: Crucible of Empire: The Spanish-American War, act 1). Although there were many supporters of this war some felt that diving into the war was not the route for America to go down. A very famous and outspoken anti-imperialist was Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie wrote about his feelings toward imperialistic views in a journal entry in the North American Review. Carnegie claimed that America was not ready to take the next step in becoming a world power. This is supported by this quote. “I say, that no American statesman should place his country in any position which it could not defend, and relying only upon its own strong right arm.” (Carnegie, Andrew. “Americanism versus Imperialism”). Despite the fact that there were many anti-imperialistic supporters, in February of 1898 the USS Maine sunk in Havana harbor as a result of an explosion on the ship. Newspapers spread across the United States and blamed the ship sinking on the Spanish and that was the last straw for America. On April 22nd the united states sent its naval fleet into Cuba which led to Spain declaring war on the United States.
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The major differences between the way America handled Cuba and the Philippines were very different. While the Americans had made the teller amendment that stated that after the war America would not establish control over Cuba but there was no such document for the Philippines. In fact, the United States wanted to keep control of the Philippines and use it as a naval base to keep a foot in that region of the world. Another difference between the way America handled the united states and Cuba was who fought in the battles. In Cuba, the United States men were made up of cowboys, Indians, rich aristocrats, and a few squadrons of African American soldiers led by Theodore Roosevelt. In the Philippines, the men were mostly comprised of volunteers that were getting sick due to the disease they were exposed to on the islands. Additionally, the fighting in Cuba compared to the fighting in the Philippines was very minimal. The Insurgency of the Philippines was very brutal and there was constant battling as shown by this quote from American Soldiers in the Philippines Write Home about the War “There has not been a night for the last ten days we have not had fighting. Our force is too weak, and we cannot spare any more men and will have to wait for more troops. Then we will have hard fighting, for there are so many that, no matter how many we kill or capture, it doesn’t seem to lessen their number.”(American Soldiers in the Philippines Write Home about the War.” HISTORY MATTERS). The final difference between the two conflicts is that America at the end of the war started to fight the Philippines while after the war America left Cuba alone.
After watching the film documentary and reading the sources given I have learned a lot about the Philippines insurgency and the Spanish American War. one thing that I learned while watching the documentary was how involved Theodore Roosevelt was in this war. I had no idea that Roosevelt was in the middle of some of the battles in Cuba and I found that very interesting. Another thing that I found interesting was how much of an effect the media had on convincing America to rally for the war. I had no idea that the media was so invested in the war at the time and I found some of the propaganda very interesting. America had a very sked view of the Filipinos as shown by this quote from the textbook “Americans spoke of the “savage” Filipinos; one soldier declared that the Philippines “won’t be pacified until the Filipinos are killed off like the Indians.”(“9-5a Philippine Insurrection and Pacification” A People & a Nation: a History of the United States). I believe that if Americans saw through this propaganda and were given completely truthful information they would not have supported the Insurgency of the Philipines and would have forced the government to take its troops out of the country.
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Analysis of Documentary about the Spanish American War and the Philippine “Insurgency”.
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