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The Philippines / Pilipinas A History of Resistance and Assimilation |
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“If by rebellion you need to hope and desire, to labor and struggle by every peaceful means for the liberties of my country, and if for that you demand the penalty of death, then gladly, willingly shall I die.” -José Rizal (1896)- |
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A Brief Analysis of U.S. Imperialism |
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Imperialism: The Differing Viewpoints of Theodore Roosevelt and Mark Twain According to Dictionary.com, imperialism is defined as “the policy of extending a nation’s authority by territorial acquisition or by the establishment of economic and political hegemony over other nations.” Yet imperialism is not quite as concrete when placed in the context of a more practical, rather than purely theoretical, situation. Using the Philippine-American War as the backdrop for imperialism to be defined, Theodore Roosevelt and Mark Twain each express their own distinct interpretations. In Theodore Roosevelt’s essay “The Strenuous Life,” imperialism is the means to an end. In order for the United States to establish itself as a superpower in the international scene, imperialism must be used, at least initially. Roosevelt expresses this sentiment by stating that “we cannot sit huddled within our borders … if we are to hold our own in the struggle for naval and commercial supremacy, we must build up our power without our own borders” (Roosevelt 186). In other words, Roosevelt is suggesting that the U.S. needs to step outside the box; the U.S. needs to get outside its comfort zone in order to achieve the true success of a World Power status. The Philippine-American War can then be viewed as an exercise in U.S. expansion and thus as a step toward the higher ideal of becoming a superpower. In order for this expansionism to occur, Roosevelt had to gather the support of the American people. He was able to convince the populace of the necessity of U.S. occupation in the Philippines by appealing to people’s innate belief in the superiority of the United States. It is the United States, and the United States alone, that should deal with the problem of the Philippine-American War. Indeed, if the U.S is “too weak, too selfish, or too foolish to solve them, some bolder and abler people must undertake the solution” (187) and this is unacceptable. By directly attacking the American people’s pride, using such terms as “too weak, too selfish, or too foolish,” Roosevelt was able to place them on a defensive position, causing the people to want to do most anything to prove their strength and vitality. Roosevelt then explicitly states that “if we are to be a really great people, we must strive in good faith to play a great part in the world” (185). This further emphasizes how it takes action, or expansionism, to become truly great in the world. Yet this quest to “play a great part in the world,” this desire to become a World Power comes at a price, according to Mark Twain’s “Weapons of Satire: Anti-Imperialist Writings on the Philippine-American War.” In “The Philippine Incident” essay in particular, Twain discusses how we had bought the islands from “a party who did not own them; with real smartness and a good counterfeit of disinterested friendliness” (Twain 57). This suggests Twain’s already low regard for the United States. By describing the U.S. acquisition of the Philippines as theft, he calls into question the trustworthiness of the United States as a nation. He then moves on to describe how the U.S. “coaxed a confiding weak nation into a trap and closed it upon them” (57). He is thus implying that the United States is a mere bully, triumphing over a nation that is not strong enough to put up a fight. In a sense, he is calling the U.S. a back-stabbing entity, willing to do whatever is necessary in order to achieve its goals. By mere use of the words “trap” and the phrase “closed it upon them,” Twain could be comparing the United States’ treatment of the Philippines to a Venus Fly Trap, with the U.S. descending upon the small insect that is the Philippines. A more overt analogy is expressed within the same essay. Twain states that the U.S. is “the kind of World Power – for style and assets – that a prairie-dog village is, and that we cannot keep countenance when we try to look each other in the face; but no matter, we are in for it, and it is the duty of our Government to stand sentinel, with solemn mien, and lifted nose, and curved paws, on top of our little World-Power mound” (58). This analogy is particularly effective in that it impresses upon the reader the sense that the U.S. is really just a small animal defending an insignificant plot of land. This “animal” places such importance on the “World-Power mound” that it almost borders on the ridiculous with how seriously the animal (the U.S.) is intent on defending that tiny mound (the Philippines). This implies that even though the acquisition of the Philippines and other islands qualifies the United States for World Power status, the U.S. is, in reality, only playing at being a World Power. Other established powers may not recognize the U.S. as a real World Power due to how insignificant the U.S. colonial acquisitions were at that point in history. Twain also paints a different picture than Roosevelt concerning the American populace’s reaction to U.S. governance in the Philippines. In his “Stupendous Procession” essay, Twain talks about how the people would not be willing to fight in the Philippine-American War. In a dialogue between the Abjutant General and The Stranger concerning the draft, the Stranger says that “now that they have found out the Government’s game – and grab a weak little people’s country and give it our liberties for theirs, without their asking” (49), the American people would not want to fight for such a cause. Essentially, Twain is condemning the U.S. acquisition of the Philippines. More specifically, he is attacking the policies initiated by the U.S. as a result of that acquisition. By assigning the Philippines the role of victim and the U.S. as a predator, Twain helps his readers to further identify with the Philippines and thus retract any support they may have had for U.S. governance of the islands. Imperialism can thus be defined according to the context in which it is placed. While the dictionary definition is still useful, perhaps it is more valid and accurate to consider the consequences of imperialism on a colonizing and colonized nation in order to fully appreciate its real and full meaning. By: Jeannine Aquino University of Minnesota Bibliography DiNunzio, Mario R., ed. “The Strenuous Life.” Theodore Roosevelt: An American Mind, Selected Writings. New York: Penguin Books, 1994. Zwick, Jim, ed. Mark Twain’s Weapons of Satire: Anti-Imperialist Writings on the Philippine-American War. New York: Syracuse University Press. |