Imperialism in Asia - U.S. Imperialism in The Pacific and Asia

U.S. Imperialism in The Pacific and Asia

As the United States emerged as a new imperial power in the Pacific and Asia, one of the two oldest Western imperialist powers in the regions, Spain, was finding it increasingly difficult to maintain control of territories it had held in the regions since the 16th century. In 1896, a widespread revolt against Spanish rule broke out in the Philippines. Meanwhile, the recent string of U.S. territorial gains in the Pacific posed an even greater threat to Spain's remaining colonial holdings.

In 1867, the Midway Islands were occupied by the U.S. and Alaska was purchased from Russia. The next advance was in the Hawaiian Islands, where Europeans had earlier set up a lucrative plantation economy exporting sugar. In the 19th century U.S. capital poured into the islands' sugar industry; and Hawaii came increasingly under the effective control of U.S. corporations. The U.S. consolidated its influence in Hawaii in 1893, when its military invaded Honolulu, seized it and installed a white regime consisting of mostly non-nationals.

As the U.S. continued to expand its economic and military power in the Pacific, it declared war against Spain in 1898. During the Spanish-American War, U.S. Admiral Dewey destroyed the Spanish fleet at Manila and U.S. troops landed in the Philippines. Spain later agreed by treaty to cede the Philippines in Asia and Guam in the Pacific. In the Caribbean, Spain ceded Puerto Rico to the U.S. The war also marked the end of Spanish rule in Cuba, which was to be granted nominal independence but remained heavily influenced by the U.S. government and U.S. business interests. One year following its treaty with Spain, the U.S. occupied the small Pacific outpost of Wake Island.

The Filipinos, who had been assisted by U.S. troops in fighting the Spanish, wished to establish an independent state and, on June 12, 1898, declared independence from Spain. However the U.S had another objective in mind and the Filipinos realized it too late. Prior to the American invasion, the first Filipino president Emilio Aguinaldo had questioned the motives of the Americans after they had approached him during exile in which they denied any imperialistic objective. Aguinaldo requested a written document recognizing Philippine independence from the Americans but was denied by the latter. Emilio Aguinaldo gave his trust however as he reviewed the American constitution and found no need for colonies.

On the day the armistice ending hostilities of the US war on the Spanish empire became effective, the U.S. invaded the Hawaiian Islands again and annexed it thus securing a supply line for waging war against Filipino nationals it was in the process of betraying after having made promises of support for independence.

In 1899, fighting between the Filipino nationalists and the U.S. broke out; it took the U.S. almost fifteen years to fully subdue the war. The U.S. sent 70,000 troops and suffered thousands of casualties. The Filipinos, however, suffered considerably higher casualties, through fighting, extrajudicial executions (massacres) and disease.

U.S. attacks into the countryside often included scorched earth campaigns where entire villages were burned and destroyed, tortured, and concentrated into camps known as "protected zones." Many of these civilian casualties resulted from disease and famine. Reports of the execution of U.S. soldiers taken prisoner by the Filipinos led to disproportionate reprisals by American forces. Many U.S. officers and soldiers called the war a "nigger killing business."

In 1914, Dean C. Worcester, U.S. Secretary of the Interior for the Philippines (1901–1913) described "the regime of civilisation and improvement which started with American occupation and resulted in developing naked savages into cultivated and educated men." Nevertheless, some Americans, such as Mark Twain, deeply opposed American involvement/imperialism in the Philippines, leading to the abandonment of attempts to construct a permanent U.S. naval base and using it as an entry point to the Chinese market. In 1916, Congress guaranteed the independence of the Philippines by 1945.