anti-imperialism

The American government in 1898 under President William McKinley buoyed by Admiral Dewey 's conquest of the Spanish navy in the Battle of Manila Bay , found itself in the unprecedented position of unchallenged supremacy in the Pacific , capable of taking possession of the Islands by force if necessary . There was a caveat , however : the Filipinos wanted independence . To calm his conscience , McKinley adopted the Jingo philosophy that the acquisition would in essence amount to taking up the white man 's burden 'i .e , to civilize and educate the natives train them in

government , etc . It was based on the assumption that the white man knew better . In his directive to the commissioners tasked to confer with their Spanish counterparts regarding the cession of the Islands through the Treaty of Paris , McKinley claimed the government had no design of aggrandizement and no ambition of conquest ' The commercial opportunity presented by the acquisition , according to him would be incidental ' to American tenure . Yet he betrayed his colonial design by instructing the commissioners to demand full right and sovereignty of the Island of Luzon , which as history went extended to the entire country . Thus , the so-called white man 's burden ' was nothing more than a pretext to justify the cost of acquisition of the Islands at the cost of 20 million dollars , as if the transaction covered real estate and the inhabitants no more than chattel . The cost of acquisition soon multiplied tenfold even as precious American lives were wasted in the ensuing protracted war with Filipino patriots . Branded insurgents ' by American policy-makers the Filipinos , who had waged a popular revolt against Spain and were on the verge of victory when Dewey arrived on the scene , yearned for freedom after centuries of colonization by Spain . In effect , McKinley 's aim to educate and civilize the natives was to be achieved at the point of the bayonet , as the troops who were later sent to occupy the territory sang ditties about civilizing the Filipinos with a Kragg rifle . The Philippines may be called America 's first Vietnam : it was here that American troops first encountered strength-sapping guerrilla warfare , fighting insurgents ' mostly armed only with machetes in the flooded rice paddies , in the jungles everywhere . Incapable of distinguishing friend from foe , the Americans resorted to hamletting forcing villagers to stay in one place , resulting in casualties due to starvation , sickness and disease

The Anti-Imperialist League was in essence a voice in the wilderness crying havoc over greedy expansionist designs by the strong over the weak . It espoused the idealistic vision that peaceful co-existence among nations was possible , that free market and free trade in a free world was the wave of the future . Its opposition to empire and colonialism stems from its recognition of the evils caused by them . If the Anti-Imperialist League were in existence today , it would no doubt condemn international aggression , criticize the war in Iraq , denounce the hawks in Washington . Anti-imperialism may be defined as the opposition to policies among governments...