Paul Stanley
Banned
So I think the PoD for this is technically 1898, but since virtually all of this idea is in the 20th century, I think it belongs here.
What if America decided to turn the Philippines into a settler colony, the way the Brits did in North America, or the French did in Algeria?
Would it work? Tropical diseases might have acted as a deterrent to Anglo settlers in a way they didn't during the mid-19th-century westward expansion (although that did have people die of dysentery). What the Filipinos wanted would have been ignored by the Americans at the time - read any writings from that time, and it's clear that the Americans regarded Filipinos with contempt, similar to American Indians (who also had their lands settled on by Anglos)
The logistics of getting to the Philippines wouldn't have been that bad by 1898, since there was a transcontinental railroad, and looking at Ellis Island, transoceanic ship journeys took a couple of days. (by comparison, when my ancestors came to America in the 1700s, it took about 2 months to cross the Atlantic)
What if America decided to turn the Philippines into a settler colony, the way the Brits did in North America, or the French did in Algeria?
Would it work? Tropical diseases might have acted as a deterrent to Anglo settlers in a way they didn't during the mid-19th-century westward expansion (although that did have people die of dysentery). What the Filipinos wanted would have been ignored by the Americans at the time - read any writings from that time, and it's clear that the Americans regarded Filipinos with contempt, similar to American Indians (who also had their lands settled on by Anglos)
The logistics of getting to the Philippines wouldn't have been that bad by 1898, since there was a transcontinental railroad, and looking at Ellis Island, transoceanic ship journeys took a couple of days. (by comparison, when my ancestors came to America in the 1700s, it took about 2 months to cross the Atlantic)