USH ACT Philippine-American War TEXTBOOK REWRITE - 17075002

Introduction: In this activity, you will rewrite portions of the textbook account of the Philippine-American war in a process called “articulating the silences” where you analyze an alternative source of this event and incorporate the new information that challenges the existing textbook's narrative which only mentions, or omits certain information. Directions: (1) Read the existing textbook account of this event closely, and do the same for the alternative source (attached to the Classroom post). (2) Select TWO different sections of the existing textbook and incorporate TWO changes to the textbook account using material from the alternative source. Don’t just copy and paste the new material; put it in your own words. Each of your changes must be at least 3–4 sentences, for a total of 6–8 sentence changes. Write your edits in RED TYPE so they are easily identifiable and label the source number in parentheses as well. For example: “The…words, words, words…. (Source 22). (3) Research an alternative photograph from the event that better illustrates your rewrite of the text and caption it with a brief explanation for the reader’s understanding

Existing Text Account & Your Rewrite

Existing Textbook Photo & Your Photo

Filipinos Rebel

In the Philippines, Filipinos reacted with outrage to the Treaty of Paris, which said that the US could own the Philippines Guam the Spain Pacific Islands in Puerto Rico which called for American annexation of the Philippines. The rebel leader Emilio Aguinaldo believed that the United States had promised independence. When he and his followers learned the terms of the treaty, they vowed to fight for freedom and declared war on the US.

Philippine-American War

The Philippines declared Independence during the Spanish-American war. Even some people in the US never wanted the US to own the Philippines. US forces and Spanish forces set up a mock battle in the Philippines. After that, the Philippines and US troops traded fire with each other during the war between the US and Spain. The US wanted to own the Philippines. The Philippines wants to be an independent country not owned by anybody. Wikipedia. The Philippines was controversial even among the American people. US Gov’t. I agree that the US shouldn’t buy the Philippines. The Filipinos have already decided to make a gov’t for the Philippines. The US ignored it.

In February 1899, the Filipinos, led by Aguinaldo, rose in revolt. The United States assumed almost the same role that Spain had played, imposing its authority on a colony that was fighting for freedom. When Aguinaldo turned to guerilla tactics, the United States forced Filipinos to live in designated zones, where poor sanitation, starvation, and disease killed thousands. And then the US burned down some villages as well. Wikipedia. The quote “As soon as the mails from the army reached this country after the beginning of hostilities, the newspapers began to publish statements from soldiers and officers that the war against the Filipinos was being prosecuted with great barbarity; and it became apparent that there was at least a considerable element in the army who despised the native inhabitants, and were willing to kill prisoners, to burn villages, and to rob and murder non-combatants upon little or no provocation” Source 5. The army was willing to do very bad things to the citizens. The US soldiers had the command to kill every native people in the Philippines. Source 17 This was the very same practice that Americans had condemned Spain for using in Cuba.

During the occupation, white American soldiers looked at the Filipinos as inferiors. Some Americans called Filipinos barbarians. Some sources. And the Filipinos were called very bad things. They were dehumanized, so that the US soldiers don’t feel bad when they killed the Filipinos. Dehumanization is when one removes human traits from a person in their mind, making them human. The most common form of Dehumanization is name-calling. For example, I call green people (people with green skin color and red nail color and silver hair color. It’s unrealistic, but just read this. I don’t want to offend other people) mold, so that I don’t feel bad for hurting or killing them. Filipino people were sent to Concentration camps. Another form of dehumanization because it’s like how farmers put farm animals in pens. However, many of the 70,000 U.S. troops sent to the Philippines were African Americans. When African-American newspapers questioned why blacks were helping to spread racial prejudice in the Philippines, some African-American soldiers deserted to the Filipino side and developed bonds of friendship with the Filipinos. Good job to those who joined Team Philippines.

It took the Americans nearly three years to put down the rebellion. In 1900, President William McKinley assigned a gov’t for the Philippines. US gov. About 20,000 Filipino rebels (1,500,000 Filipino rebels and civilians) died fighting for independence. The war claimed 4,000 American lives and cost $400 million – 20 times the price the United States had paid to purchase the islands.

Aftermath of the War

After suppressing the rebellion, the United States set up a government similar to the one it had established for Puerto Rico. The U.S. president would appoint a governor, who would then appoint the upper house of the legislature. Filipinos would elect the lower house. Under American rule, the Philippines moved gradually toward independence and finally became an independent republic on July 4, 1946.

Textbook Photo/Caption

Caption: U.S. military action in the Philippines resulted in suffering for Filipino civilians. About 200,000 people died as a result of malnutrition, disease, and such guerilla tactics as the burning of villages

Your Photo/Caption for Your Textbook

Never gonna give you up

Caption: US forces are fighting the Filipino forces. They open fire on the Filipino forces. The Filipino forces are protecting a Filipino town.

My version of the textbook is better than the existing one because it has more details about the Brutality of the Philippine-American War and a crash course in Dehumanization. The current textbook has some censorship of the Philippine-American War. I also put some censorship of the Philippine-American War (but less). I put a crash course on Dehumanization because Dehumanization has a lot to do with the Philippine-American War. We go to war with Spain to free Cuba. But, we wanted to own The Spain Pacific Islands due to money, social Darwinism, and wanting bases there.