Pre WW2 Phillipines Independance - Possible ?

I think making the Philippines something akin to a protectorate would be most ideal. Like they can govern themselves, but the USA protects them and gets special economic concessions and basing rights.

It won't be that great for the development of the Philippines, trust me, Cuba and a whole lot of other places in Central America and the Caribbean are a testament to that.
 
I am dubious as to the German Navy's ability to pull this off.

Too, there will be massive international fallout if the US has guaranteed Filipino independence.

They could have at least had as much control over the Manila as Dewey had at the same time. The German Asiatic Squadron under Rear Admiral Von Diederich had 5 armored ships, mostly cruisers to Admiral Dewey's 4 cruisers and 2 gunboats. The German had at least even odds of defeating Dewey and driving making their own claim to the Phillipines. I think there are a couple old threads on this sparking a possible German-American war in 1898-99. Assuming the Germans can gain control of the Phillipines without going to war with the US, say the US abandons the islands after the Battle of Manila Bay I'm assuming Germany has to fight an insurgency or 2 like the US did before losing the islands to Japan or Anzacs in WWI like Tsingtao and the other Asian parts of the German Empire.
 
If Germany does lose the Philippines in an alt-WWI, it'd most likely be to Japan since they have a much bigger force. Unless of course, the ANZACs have a plan to seize the islands before Japan does.
 

GarethC

Donor
Annexing the Phillipines was controversial. Cooldge Vetoed an independence bill.

Apr 6 1927 - Coolidge vetoed a bill to hold a plebiscite on independence in the Philippines.

By 1927, though, what's the nature of anti-US sentiment in the Philippines? Would a de facto client-state that granted basing rights be an acceptable outcome to Filipinos?
 
Apr 6 1927 - Coolidge vetoed a bill to hold a plebiscite on independence in the Philippines.

Now thats a possible PoD in the time frame I was looking for - does anyone have any knowledge of how this vote could be affected in order to make him not veto it or the bill to pass without intervention ?
 
So a veto was used - if the referenda had taken place would the Filipinos have picked independance ? If so by what sort of degree.

Also how much interest and control would the USA seek to maintain ?
 
So a veto was used - if the referenda had taken place would the Filipinos have picked independance ? If so by what sort of degree.

Also how much interest and control would the USA seek to maintain ?

Bases, enough economic interests to make the Philippines an economic vassal of the United States, and likely immigration terms that heavily favor a continued stream of cheap, underpaid Filipino labor.
 
So a veto was used - if the referenda had taken place would the Filipinos have picked independance ? If so by what sort of degree.

The referendum would have had no legal bearing on the status of the Philippines - it was non-binding. That was one of the reasons Coolidge vetoed it.
 
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