US takes the entire Spanish Empire in 1898

When we remember what a close the US came to giving the Philippines independence immediately after the war, we'll realize how little the US was interested in the game of empire outside the Western Hemisphere.

Bill, I agree that the US didn't want to hang on to the Philippines. But even if the Americans weren't keen on a long term political/military occupation of the islands, they did succeed in culturally colonizing the Filipinos to a surprising degree. Over a relatively short period of time Spanish has almost disappeared in the Philippines, with English taking its place alongside Filipino as a major language. The culture has absorbed many American influences (though the Filipinos held onto Catholicism and many Spanish influenced Filipino customs as well). The Americans accomplished this all within roughly fifty years of occupation. It took the Spanish a lot longer to integrate the Filipino people into their culture. Why were the Americans so successful in Americanizing certain aspects of Filipino life, especially if the Americans were not overtly interested in a long-term or permanent occupation of the Philippines?
 
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Bill, I agree that the US didn't want to hang on to the Philippines. But even if the Americans weren't keen on a long term political/military occupation of the islands, they did succeed in culturally colonizing the Filipinos to a surprising degree. Over a relatively short period of time Spanish has almost disappeared in the Philippines, with English taking its place alongside Filipino as a major language. The culture has absorbed many American influences (though the Filipinos held onto Catholicism and many Spanish influenced Filipino customs as well). The Americans accomplished this all within roughly fifty years of occupation. It took the Spanish a lot longer to integrate the Filipino people into their culture. Why were the Americans so successful in Americanizing certain aspects of Filipino life, especially if the Americans were not overtly interested in a long-term or permanent occupation of the Philippines?

There are several reasons for the American success. The Spanish language was never that deeply ingrained in the Philippines to begin with. Their population did not experience a disease-influenced collapse, and few Spanish settled there compared to other Spanish colonies. The Philippines were actually administered as a colony of Mexico rather than Spain until Mexican independence (and as a result there are a bunch of Nahuatl loanwords in Filipino).

English was growing everywhere as a language at the time, (look at all the British colonies in SE Asia) so it's no surprise it grew in the Philippines as well. The US came in to the ready-made network of schools that the Spanish built up over the centuries. The US also brought much more funding to the islands than Spain ever had.
 
Why were the Americans so successful in Americanizing certain aspects of Filipino life, especially if the Americans were not overtly interested in a long-term or permanent occupation of the Philippines?


Proximefactum,

Thousands and thousands of "school marms". Seriously.

Lugal touched on several of the issues involved with Spain's tenure as the Philippines' colonial power. The islands were "ruled" from Mexico for centuries, the Spanish weren't interested in much of anything other than baptisms, funding was always a problem as the colony didn't pay it's own way, and so on.

The US came into the imperialism game fresh, naive, and at the height of the "We're Colonizing Them For Their Own Good" mythos. Colonial powers were supposed to be uplifting "primitive" peoples and training them for self-rule. McKinley without a hint of irony spoke of making America's new "brown brothers" into "Christians", apparently oblivious to the fact that the islands had been Catholic for over 400 years. Kipling even wrote that poem with the "white man's burden" line to convince the US not to grant the Philippines independence.(1)

Over the next 50 years, the Filipinos saw more teachers, more money, and more infrastructure projects flowing into their islands then they had ever seen during the centuries of Spanish rule. Honey always catches more flies than vinegar and "Uncle Sugar" was busy doling out honey by the ship load.

A big part of why the honey worked was that it wasn't being applied cynically. The US wasn't buying or co-opting the Filipinos, most of the Americans working in the islands truly believed in the whole "uplift" schtick. Imagine a relatively well funded Peace Corp mission staffed with nothing but true believers and give them a half century in which to work on what was essentially a blank canvas.

It isn't surprising that miracles occurred, it's surprising that more of them didn't happen.


Bill

1 - The "lesser breeds without the law" line in the same poem didn't refer to colonial peoples as many now assume. It was a reference to the Germans instead.
 
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The US came into the imperialism game fresh, naive, and at the height of the "We're Colonizing Them For Their Own Good" mythos. Colonial powers were supposed to be uplifting "primitive" peoples and training them for self-rule. McKinley without a hint of irony spoke of making America's new "brown brothers" into "Christians", apparently oblivious to the fact that the islands had been Catholic for over 400 years. Kipling even wrote that poem with the "white man's burden" line to convince the US not to grant the Philippines independence.(1)

Over the next 50 years, the Filipinos saw more teachers, more money, and more infrastructure projects flowing into their islands then they had ever seen during the centuries of Spanish rule. Honey always catches more flies than vinegar and "Uncle Sugar" was busy doling out honey by the ship load.

A big part of why the honey worked was that it wasn't being applied cynically. The US wasn't buying or co-opting the Filipinos, most of the Americans working in the islands truly believed in the whole "uplift" schtick. Imagine a relatively well funded Peace Corp mission staffed with nothing but true believers and give them a half century in which to work on what was essentially a blank canvas.

Bill

1 - The "lesser breeds without the law" line in the same poem didn't refer to colonial peoples as many now assume. It was a reference to the Germans instead.

Ack. Racism and religious prejudice. I think my first response was a bit rhetorical, though I did not realize that the US poured money into the Philippines at such a rate. I have difficulty believing that the mission was entirely altruistic, given the barely veiled bigotry of those funding the endeavor.

There isn't time to get into postcolonial studies I suppose, but it would be interesting to analyze why the Filipinos weren't "Christianized" (i.e. sufficiently converted to American Protestantism.) I think there's more to it than 400 years of Hispanic Catholicism, however. In fact, many Filipinos are still quite fervent Catholics. It would be interesting to see why the Filipinos absorbed much of the American "culture" but not some sort of indigenous American pan-Calvinism. Where were the religious incompatibilities? Did the Americans try to suppress Catholicism, only to fail?

Given that some Americans assumed the mantle of "civilizing" the Filipinos, were some missionaries disappointed that the Filipinos avoided converting to a generic American Protestantism?
 
...it would be interesting to analyze why the Filipinos weren't "Christianized" (i.e. sufficiently converted to American Protestantism.) I think there's more to it than 400 years of Hispanic Catholicism, however. In fact, many Filipinos are still quite fervent Catholics. It would be interesting to see why the Filipinos absorbed much of the American "culture" but not some sort of indigenous American pan-Calvinism. Where were the religious incompatibilities? Did the Americans try to suppress Catholicism, only to fail?

Given that some Americans assumed the mantle of "civilizing" the Filipinos, were some missionaries disappointed that the Filipinos avoided converting to a generic American Protestantism?

The short answer is syncretism: the Catholic church allows for it and even encourages it, most Protestant churches don't. It's the same reason most Latin American Indians are Catholics/mixed with traditional beliefs while most North American Indians are more strictly traditionalist.

If you go to the Philippines you can't help but notice lots of preChristian beliefs still in evidence among devout Catholics. Beliefs about spirits, sacred sites, rituals, etc.

I also know some Filipino scholars have written about what they term Ameriphilia and why they felt it's retarded their nation's development. Some argue it's affected the ruling classes (who tend to be mestizo, with Spanish or Chinese ancestry) far more than the general population.
 
I have difficulty believing that the mission was entirely altruistic, given the barely veiled bigotry of those funding the endeavor.


Proximefactum,

It was altruistic because the people involved thought they were being altruistic. As racist, "culturist", and as down right silly and ignorant as it appears to us today, they actually believed they were "civilizing" the Filipinos and thus were determined to "do good".

About development funding, don't forget about private efforts. While the US government did spend money on the islands, money from a myriad of private sources, philanthropic, business, religious, and secular, spread the wealth around the islands to a greater extent than any official program ever could. It had an effect similar to the micro-lending programs currently being used to such great effect in many places.


Bill
 
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