How Did America Take Over The Philippines

Why America Took Over the Philippines
America had to keep them out of rivals hands, Christianize them and thought that they were 'unfit' to rule themselves.
President McKinley who was the current president at that time tells us himself why the USA colonised the Philippines, “(1) That we could not give them (i.e. the Philippines) back to Spain - that would be cowardly and dishonourable; (2) that we could not turn them over to France and Germany - our commercial rivals in the Orient - that would be bad business and discreditable; (3) that we could not leave them to themselves - they were unfit for self-government - and they would soon have anarchy and misrule over there worse than Spain’s was; and (4) that there was nothing left for us to do
False Hope
One of the ways America took over the Philippines was false hope. When the Filipinos were at war with Spain to gain their freedom, America joined the war at the right time and sided with the Filipinos. They told the Filipinos that they were here to help them win the war, but in reality, they wanted to take over the Philippines (“U.S. War Crimes…”). As President McKinley (the U.S. president at that time) told them, “we come not as invaders or conquerors, but as friends, to protect the natives in their homes, in their employment, in their personal and religious rights.” (Toribio).

Treaty of Paris and Negotiations with Spain
Nearing the end of the war, when the United States joined the war they told the Filipinos to stay out of Manila while they themselves battled Spain. However, in reality they were planning and negotiating terms with Spain. During this negotiation, America told the Spanish that they wanted the Philippines and this deal was later known as the Treaty of Paris (1898) which had transferred sovereignty of the Philippines from Spain to the United States of America, which the Filipinos had no idea of at that time (“Philippine-American War”). Toribio tells us that to save their honour Spain had staged a “mock war” and surrendered saying that America was a ‘superior force’, this war was known as the Battle of Manila Bay. Adding on to this, America is said to have paid to Spain 20 million dollars for the Philippines
As “U.S War Crimes” stated that “Philippine military deaths are estimated at 20,000 with 16,000 actually counted while civilian deaths numbered between 250,000 and 1,000,000 Filipinos. These numbers take into account those killed by war, malnutrition, and a cholera epidemic that raged during the war.” The amount of deaths on the side of the Filipinos was massive compared to those on the side of the United States.

Civil Rights
The United States had taken away a few of the civil liberties from the Filipinos. On paper, the civil liberties were the same as the Americans had. Nonetheless, in reality, this was not true. From 1921 to 1926 and in 1907 an old Spanish Sedition Law was passed which had taken away the Filipinos civil liberties. If any Filipino man, woman or child broke this law, then they were punishable by death or long-term imprisonment. In the later years, this became more dominant as the Filipinos took over. However, over the years this has reduced and today this is not an issue. (“Civil