The Philippines had been a Spanish colony, so during the Spanish-American war we took our fleet to the island of the Philippines where the American troops recruited Filipino rebels to fight alongside them where they helped capture the island of Luzon. The rebels declared independence from Spain. William McKinley, President of the United States. Wanted to Christianize and educate the Filipinos. He started off by trying to uplift and civilize. Eventually he told the Mapmakers to put the Philippines on