1898: A message from the USA to the Philippiine rebels

What if at the start of the Spanish-American War the USA makes it quite clear to the Philippine rebels that they must agree if the USA puts boots on the ground in the Philippines the rebels must agree in advance the USA can stay in control until it feels the Philippines are ready for self-government and can permanently keep a naval and military presence there to repel any other powers such as Germany and Japan from taking over? If the bargain is made the USA does observe it.

Do the rebels agree? What do they do if they don't? Can they be trusted?
 
Some would agree, but others would be outraged.

The Filipinos at that time were divided into 2 camps. One side, mostly composed of the upper-class, wanted a protectorate under the US. While the other side wanted complete independence.
 
What if at the start of the Spanish-American War the USA makes it quite clear to the Philippine rebels that they must agree if the USA puts boots on the ground in the Philippines the rebels must agree in advance the USA can stay in control until it feels the Philippines are ready for self-government and can permanently keep a naval and military presence there to repel any other powers such as Germany and Japan from taking over? If the bargain is made the USA does observe it.

Do the rebels agree? What do they do if they don't? Can they be trusted?

Umm..,. US boots were not needed in the Philippines in OTL. The Philippine campaign is totally different from the Cuban front. In Cuba, all the weight is carried by the USA. In the Philippines, the rebels carried all of the weight in the landwarfare with US doing the naval action. The only land action the USA had in the Philippine front was a mock battle in Manila between Spain and USA when Spain already surrendered to save Spanish honor. After that, all action in land by USA was because of the Philippine American war.

Of course unless you make Philippines in ATL even more badly led. But I doubt you can even sink further badly led than Aguinaldo.
 
*cough*Pedro Paterno*cough*

I don't think he is worse. He is less nationalistic/loyal but smarter/wiser than aguinaldo.

I even doubt you can even put Pedro paterno as the leader of the rebels. He is just too careful to become the rebel leader.
 
I don't think the Filipinos would like that very much. If the US just wanted a naval base, it could either negotiate basing rights with the Filipino Rebels, or just buy some territory from the Philippines (sort of like a benevolent Hong Kong). I'm sure the new Filipino government would be willing to trade away a decent-sized harbor for financial support and military protection from Japan/Germany/France/Britain.
 
The Spanish didn't have strong control outside of Manila. The Americans were the ones to basically conquer the Philippines. Therefore it might not be seen as Americans liberating them if they do not show up until after the war is over.
 
I don't think the Filipinos would like that very much. If the US just wanted a naval base, it could either negotiate basing rights with the Filipino Rebels, or just buy some territory from the Philippines (sort of like a benevolent Hong Kong). I'm sure the new Filipino government would be willing to trade away a decent-sized harbor for financial support and military protection from Japan/Germany/France/Britain.

Why would they need protection from these nations? Of those you listed, they were in friendly terms half of that, and asked help from the other half of those list before they asked help from the USA.

Of the ones you listed plus USA, USA is actually the worst possible protector for the philippines due to the philippines having no connections/ties nor diplomatic missions to the USA prior to Spanish-American war.
 
Why would they need protection from these nations? Of those you listed, they were in friendly terms half of that, and asked help from the other half of those list before they asked help from the USA.

Of the ones you listed plus USA, USA is actually the worst possible protector for the philippines due to the philippines having no connections/ties nor diplomatic missions to the USA prior to Spanish-American war.

Err, you do remember what Japan did to the Philippines in OTL, right? And Britain seemed to have a habit of colonizing every island they could get their hands on.

And of course the Philippines had no diplomatic missions to the US prior to the Spanish-American War. The Philippines, as a country, didn't exist prior to the Spanish-American War.
 
Why would they need protection from these nations? Of those you listed, they were in friendly terms half of that, and asked help from the other half of those list before they asked help from the USA.

Of the ones you listed plus USA, USA is actually the worst possible protector for the philippines due to the philippines having no connections/ties nor diplomatic missions to the USA prior to Spanish-American war.

The German navy was steaming on their way to the Phillipines at the time witth German documents stating they planned to buy or take it. They had to make do with the Caroline's and Samoa instead. The Japanese also sent letters to the Americans stating that while they were fine with the Americans being there, if they ever wished to leave...
 
The German navy was steaming on their way to the Phillipines at the time witth German documents stating they planned to buy or take it. They had to make do with the Caroline's and Samoa instead. The Japanese also sent letters to the Americans stating that while they were fine with the Americans being there, if they ever wished to leave...

There is nothing wrong with Germany and Japan protecting the philippines except if you are competing world power like the USA. The locals will be more accepting of Japanese and Germans. The local educated of the time are in awe of their culture. There is a reason why japan is the first power the locals asked for help not USA, being the last.

Going back to the point, japan and Germany had ties with the locals which USA never had. So invasion of the Philippines became only possible in the event that it is USA who gets to help the locals. This means there would be no cries in us press for independence like Cuba.
 
Umm..,. US boots were not needed in the Philippines in OTL. The Philippine campaign is totally different from the Cuban front. In Cuba, all the weight is carried by the USA. In the Philippines, the rebels carried all of the weight in the landwarfare with US doing the naval action. The only land action the USA had in the Philippine front was a mock battle in Manila between Spain and USA when Spain already surrendered to save Spanish honor. After that, all action in land by USA was because of the Philippine American war.

Of course unless you make Philippines in ATL even more badly led. But I doubt you can even sink further badly led than Aguinaldo.

Well, if that's true I suppose the rebels need not take the deal and the USA stays out, but tries to work something out to keep other powers from taking over.
 
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