Neander97 / Historical Trivia: Following its victory in the Spanish-American War the United States was confronted with the question of the division of the spoils of war. . . a decision that captured the attention of the world and divided the nation.

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Civilize them with a Krag

Following its victory in the Spanish-American War the United States was confronted with the question of the division of the spoils of war, in the form of Spain's colonial possessions in the Caribbean, the Pacific, and Asia. The dilemma faced by America--whether to join the ranks of the Imperial Powers through the annexation of Cuba, Guam, and the Philippines or to remain a non-imperial, continental power--captured the attention of the world and divided the nation, politically into extra-continental expansionists and anti-imperialist camps. The debate over the fate of the Philippines proved especially divisive.

The expansionists or Imperialists, who favored annexing the Philippines, were led by such notables as Theodore Roosevelt, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, and Admiral Dewey. The Anti-Imperialists attracted the support of William Jennings Bryan, Andrew Carnegie, and Mark Twain. President McKinley appeared unable to reach a decision, first appearing to support annexation, then seeming to favor the Anti-Imperialists. Indeed, his inability, or, perhaps, mere unwillingness, to reach a decision, prompted one political wag to ask: "Why is the President's mind like a bed? Because it must be made up for him before he can use it." 

While the debate raged in America, the world community, especially Britain and Germany, watched and awaited its out come with great interest. German concerns were, for the most part, quite simple. It hoped to colonize the Philippines, if the United States did not. Great Britain's interests were far more complex. Britain clearly hoped that America would, by annexing the Philippines, join the ranks of the Colonial Powers. Such a move would, it was believed in London, compel the United States to cooperated with Britain, its fellow imperialist, in matters of foreign policy. Rudyard Kipling, poet laureate of imperilism, published a poem urging America to accept the task of "civilizing" the peoples of the Third World, especially the Filipinos.

Take up the White Man's burden--
Send forth the best ye breed--
Go bind your sons to exile--
To serve your captives' need. . . .

It was as Roosevelt noted, "rather bad poetry, but good sense from the expansionist standpoint."

In February of 1899 just as the Senate--at the urging of McKinley, whose mind had finally been made--approved a treaty providing for the annexation of the Philippines, war broke in that island land. Filipino patriots, under the leadership of Emilio Aguinaldo, rose up in arms and sought to expel the Americans and determine their own destiny.

The war's onset took the American military and, indeed, the American people by surprise. Who could have imagined that the Filipinos might choose independence rather than, again, submit to colonial status? At first the Army, ill-equipped and under-manned to fight, relied on volunteer units to fight in the Philippines. Militias from Maine, Montana, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania, to name but a few, hastily were called into federal service and shipped to the Philippines. These volunteer units--often little more than glorified marching societies--though not trained to wage jungle warfare quickly learned their trade in the face of enemy fire.

The young volunteers, so sure at first that they were engaged in a crusade to bring America's values to deserving, albeit, misguided Filipinos, soon lost their idealism as the realities of the war sank in. True to their heritage and traditions, however, the disillusioned volunteers loaded their Krag-Jorgensen rifles and soldiered on. The attitude of the citizen soldiers, as they grew ever more brutalized by the war, was, perhaps, best summed up in a popular barracks' ditty of the day:

Damn, damn, damn the Filipinos!
Cut throat khakiac ladrones!
Underneath the starry flag,
Civilize them with a Krag*,
And return us to our beloved home.

*Note: The Krag-Jorgensen, or "Krag" was the first smokeless powder, small caliber, repeating rifle adopted by the United States government. The Krag, chambered for a 30-40 caliber round and produced at the Springfield Armory, saw duty as the American military’s main-battle-rifle from 1894 to 1907.

Faced with demands from the voters to bring the volunteers home, the Department of War began, late in 1899, to replace the militia with regular Army units. The dawn of the twentieth century found some 75,000 troops, nearly seventy-five percent of the entire US Army, stationed in the Philippines. Two of the Army's finest fighting units, all African-American units—sometimes known as Buffalo Soldiers--were among the first of the regular troops sent to the Philippines. As the African-American troops disembarked at Manila, a white soldier was heard to call out, "What are you n****** doing here?" A Black non-commissioned officer, secure in his professionalism, familiar with the words of Kipling, and well aware of the irony of the situation, replied, "We've come to take up the white man's burden."

Finally, in July of 1902, the fighting in the Philippines came to an end. The little known war--which American textbooks, when they refer to it at all, call the Philippine Insurrection--cost the lives of over 200,000 Filipinos and Americans (another 300,000 on both sides were wounded). The Philippine Insurrection, which in many disturbing ways foreshadowed the United States involvement in Viet Nam, marked America's first involvement in an Asian guerilla insurgency.

Sources:

DeConde, Alexander. A HISTORY OF AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY, VOLUME 1, GROWTH TO WORLD POWER: 1700-1914, 3d edition (1978).

Karnow, Stanley. IN OUR IMAGE, AMERICA'S EMPIRE IN THE PHILIPPINES (1989).

LaFeber, Walter. THE NEW EMPIRE, AN INTERPRETATION OF AMERICAN EXPANSION: 1869-1898 (1963).

Millis, Walter. THE MARTIAL SPIRIT (1931).

Millis, Walter. ARMS AND MEN: A STUDY IN AMERICAN MILITARY HISTORY (1956).

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