Foreign Policy on Philippines
The United states now won the Spanish-American war. Now what? Continuing to take more, this was American's supreme goal. The reason the U.S. "purchased" Philippines because this was cheaper than continuing war with the Spanish. However, U.S seems to be putting threats on Philippines rather than colonizing them. Disagreements rose amongst the Filipino, and this is where the U.S. policy comes in. After the "splendid little war" with Spain, in the Treaty of Paris. Spain would cede Puerto Rico, Guam and Philippines to the U.S for $20 million. United States didn't really purchase the Philippines, but rather just putting investments and making regulations on them. Technically, the Philippines has already won its sovereignty over Spain but the U.S has not recognized that fact. As a result of that unrecognized fact, the Filipinos grew impatient on the U.S. Finally declared war against with the United States. The U.S had an imperialistic behavior all along from the Spanish-American war till the Filipino-American war. U.S' ultimate goal was to colonize the Philippines for imperialist power of course. Since Theodore Roosevelt; who would become president in 1901, believed that pursuing aggressive foreign controls would mean that he would achieve his "big-stick" policy. This was basically a military threat handling international affairs, you can also say that this can involve a portion of militarism. This policy was used on the Philippines, even though Filipinos disagreed big time on this policy. As a result, U.S has recognized Philippines' independence, the Filipinos had control and security of their country. Also this situation took so long to solve it had became transparent to President Roosevelt, and had took 46 more years to withdraw their troops. Getting more will result of wanting more. U.S won the Spanish-American war and gained control of 3 lands. The imperialistic minds of the Americans are huge, this gave the other nations a perspective of Imperialism. If U.S hasn't been using the "big-stick" policy on Philippines, history will surely be rewritten. Using Collective Security would be the best, the U.S could collaborate with the Philippines rather than taking over them. If they wouldn't refuse the fact that they have the ability to actually gain autonomy , then the U.S can just have traded with the Philippines since Filipinos can manage their country themselves. If collective security was used, the Philippines today will be completely different. Their country would be considered a state, and wouldn't be in the 3rd world class. They would prosper with United States having a good relationship all along. Philippines would not have poverty, or hunger, more people will have jobs, life would be just better. Overall, I think that the U.S was greedy and irresponsible. Firstly, they won the Spanish-American War already, and they still want all that land. Then taking them and mistreating them, when they can peacefully negotiate with them. Also, it took them almost a decade to conclude the war and another 46 years to withdraw troops. I think they actually have forgotten about this problem, letting it happen without thinking about how other nations will feel.
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