No Spanish-American War. What happens to Puerto Rico?

Would Puerto Rico be better off ITTL? Personally, I think it would, since the U.S. has basically treated it as a colony that we sometimes forget even exists, not really giving a damn if it gets hit by a Category 5 Hurricane. To Americans, Puerto Rico is the island of Reggaetón and Bartenders turned Congresswomen, not a part of the United States that has been unjustly neglected and allowed to turn into the Caribbean Greece.
 
I might see Spain selling the Philippines to either Germany or Japan.
Spain selling the Philippines to Japan is a really interesting alternate history.

Although the Philippines is geologically akin to Japan in being extremely mountainous and tectonically active, it is less resource-poor due to possessing substantial chalcophile and siderophile metal ores (being a major chrome ore and nickel producer at various times). Possessing the Phillippines would also have been very valuable to the Japanese as a stepping-stone for further expansion into either Southeast Asia or towards Australia.

It is easy for me to imagine that Japan might have become more aligned with the Germans at an earlier date if they had acquired the Philippines from Spain, because they would have competed with the British, French and Dutch for control of Southeast Asia. We might have seen post Meiji Japan aligned with the Central Powers rather than the Allies in World War I, and a significant “South China Sea War” with France or Pacific War with Britain and Australia.

It would be interesting to see how the Filipinos would have reacted to Japanese rule, too. Would they have found it more intolerable than American rule? Would Japanese rule have substantially altered the culture of the Philippines to today?
 
Actually, the alternative to Spain having a war with America is Spain selling Luzon and Cuba to America which means Mindanao is sold to the Germans.

I think in that case the Spanish and Chinese affiliated population in Luzon would be expelled like what is happening in America since the Americans will let the people of Bonifacio manage the island who are already hostile and want to expel the Spanish affiliated population.
 
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Actually, the alternative to Spain having a war with America is Spain selling Luzon and Cuba to America which means Mindanao is sold to the Germans.

I think in that case the Spanish and Chinese affiliated population in Luzon would be expelled like what is happening in America since the Americans will let the people of Bonifacio manage the island who are already hostile and want to expel the Spanish affiliated population.
I can see Cuba not Luzon. The US showed little interest in the Philippines prior to the war which was all about American economic interests and sympathies in Spanish Cuba. American involvement in the Philippines were the brainchild of Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt who ordered the attack on Manila by US Naval forces under the command of Commodore Dewey.after the declaration of war. The war when commenced, was about Cuba, the Philippines were not even on the radar as far as the American public was concerned..
 
I can see Cuba not Luzon. The US showed little interest in the Philippines prior to the war which was all about American economic interests and sympathies in Spanish Cuba. American involvement in the Philippines were the brainchild of Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt who ordered the attack on Manila by US Naval forces under the command of Commodore Dewey.after the declaration of war. The war when commenced, was about Cuba, the Philippines were not even on the radar as far as the American public was concerned..

Luzon is probable, because Rizal was already had American connections because he married an American named Josephine Bracken...and America wanted a territory in western Pacific in order to have influence in the West Pacific since opening Japan.
 
Luzon is probable, because Rizal was already had American connections because he married an American named Josephine Bracken...and America wanted a territory in western Pacific in order to have influence in the West Pacific since opening Japan.
The American people were still not aware of the Philippines and until the victory in the attack on the Spanish at Manila, were consumed with the war in Cuba.
 
The American people were still not aware of the Philippines and until the victory in the attack on the Spanish at Manila, were consumed with the war in Cuba.
I think aside from Americans buying Luzon, the other probable scenario would be the British buying Luzon, in a cheap price during the Height of the Revolution and Mindanao divided between the Spanish and the Dutch. why? the Netherlands were already making a move in Mindanao since the Netherlands were making a move on Miangas and the environs of Mindanao during that time.
 
I think aside from Americans buying Luzon, the other probable scenario would be the British buying Luzon, in a cheap price during the Height of the Revolution and Mindanao divided between the Spanish and the Dutch. why? the Netherlands were already making a move in Mindanao since the Netherlands were making a move on Miangas and the environs of Mindanao during that time.
I think this makes more sense, and at this time, the British are the strongest presence in the area despite the Germans having some possessions in the South Pacific.
 
By the way, as an American public school educator, I am afraid not a lot has changed with many Americans in that we as a whole are horrible with our knowledge of geography. Around this same time, the US annexes Hawaii in 1898, and most Americans had no idea of where Hawaii was or had ever heard of it. So you can see why I am having a hard time seeing if it wasn't for Teddy Roosevelt's forward thinking, the Philippines would have never been part of the Spanish-American War.
 
I think this makes more sense, and at this time, the British are the strongest presence in the area despite the Germans having some possessions in the South Pacific.

By the way, as an American public school educator, I am afraid not a lot has changed with many Americans in that we as a whole are horrible with our knowledge of geography. Around this same time, the US annexes Hawaii in 1898, and most Americans had no idea of where Hawaii was or had ever heard of it. So you can see why I am having a hard time seeing if it wasn't for Teddy Roosevelt's forward thinking, the Philippines would have never been part of the Spanish-American War.

I think it was the British who might have suggested the Americans to annex the Philippines in the first place, I read in a history forums in facebook that it was a british noble who suggested it and the British most likely were in on and off negotiations with the Spanish in acquiring the Philippines, why? it was suggested many times after the 7 years war and what has hampered that is that the British interests in Malaya.

So Britain getting Luzon would be the result of their long plans in the Malay archipelago.
 
By the way, as an American public school educator, I am afraid not a lot has changed with many Americans in that we as a whole are horrible with our knowledge of geography. Around this same time, the US annexes Hawaii in 1898, and most Americans had no idea of where Hawaii was or had ever heard of it. So you can see why I am having a hard time seeing if it wasn't for Teddy Roosevelt's forward thinking, the Philippines would have never been part of the Spanish-American War.
But America getting both Luzon(Tagalog Republic) and Cuba as Temporary Protectorates is not impossible as the Spanish could have made it to prevent them from being dragged on to a war that they would not win and to get rid of hostile territories.
 
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Still, though, you'd have to admit that if Spain managed to retain Puerto Rico, that would be victory enough. As for the Philippines, given overall lack of interest from the US - even with tangential connections - I'd say the only realistic option would be the same solution concocted later on for Samoa - divide it up into British, German, and US zones. Madrid in that case would be keen to avoid favoring the "upstart" so hence no Luzon for the US - that would go to the Germans. Britain would probably want those areas close to North Borneo, leaving the US with the scraps.
 
Still, though, you'd have to admit that if Spain managed to retain Puerto Rico, that would be victory enough. As for the Philippines, given overall lack of interest from the US - even with tangential connections - I'd say the only realistic option would be the same solution concocted later on for Samoa - divide it up into British, German, and US zones. Madrid in that case would be keen to avoid favoring the "upstart" so hence no Luzon for the US - that would go to the Germans. Britain would probably want those areas close to North Borneo, leaving the US with the scraps.
The Americans chose the Philippines to be a part of the Spanish-American war due to them allying with Aguinaldo.

I did not say that the Spanish retain puerto rico due to the spanish retaining puerto rico in the war in my scenario, but in this scenario, the Spanish chose a settlement instead of a warring with the Americans, I think this will happen if the Spanish lost completely to the Revolt in Luzon and Cuba, because in the case of Luzon, Aguinaldo is defeated and exposed earlier, I would argue that the Spanish seemingly weakening the revolt in the Philippines is what have caused the Spanish to make a war against the Americans instead of creating a settlement with the Americans.

The Spanish can give Luzon(Tagalog Republic) and Cuba as temporary Protectorates to the US as long as they guarantee their independence in order to avoid the Spanish-American war - so it will not be a permanent arrangement but a temporary one so there will be no annexations.

If Spain choses to give Luzon and Cuba as temporary protectorates, the Americans lose in the long run.
 
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