One way the United States might be exceptional or distinct from European imperialism is that it is not as brutal – or so has it been celebrated.
After the Spanish-American war, the Filipinos causing problems were called “rebels,” and one reason why people today do not hear much about the Philippine-American War is that it is remembered as an “insurrection” rather than as a “war.”
Even in the Library of Congress’ entry, it is called an insurrection rather than a war. It serves imperialism to portray the war as a smaller kind of insurrection, supported by rebels, rather than something that was sustained by the Philippine people.
Mark Twain wrote the War Prayer around 1905 to express his outrage over United States actions in the US-Philippine War. The War Prayer was found among Twain’s unpublished writings in 1910. He had sent it to Harper’s Bazaar but they had considered it too radical. (*)
Kipling’s “The White Man’s Burden” was published in McClure’s in 1899, urging Europe and the United States to take up the White Man’s Burden to colonize places and people like the Philippines and Filipinos
The African American activist Bruce Grit wrote in 1899 that the white man’s burden had been shared by the black man.
Also faded from popular consciousness is the Philippine-American War.
Often, Japanese imperialism and British imperialism are regarded as particularly violent; however, the Philippine-American War ended 100,000 Filipino lives, and perhaps 1,000,000 when we include famine.
The United States military retaliated by making Sumar into a “howling wilderness” after antiimperialist Filipinos attacked US troops. The “water cure” was enacted on resistant Filipinos. A half-hour film entitled Savage Acts chronicles this.
A history of race and racism in the United States lent a certain legitimacy to U.S. colonial violence in the Philippines. There is a relation between the white treatment of African Americans and United States’ treatment of Filipinos and Filipinas.
Since the idea of willingness of the annexed was not taken into consideration at that time why should it be taken now, especially (it was argued) since the Filipinos, like the Native Americans and Negroes, are childish?( Theodore Roosvelt)
An 1899 cartoon shows a Native American telling a Philippine native over wireless Marconi telegraphy, “Be good, or you will be dead.” In the background is a sign reading “Hawaii.” The Philippines’ inhabitants are depicted as somewhat African American, somewhat Native American.
The journal The Judge shows the “white man’s burden”: Figures representing England and the United States carry their respected colonized peoples. Uncle Sam is carrying a Filipino. The character representing England is carries Chinese, Indian, and Pakistani people.