Imperialism In The Philippines

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The great Mark Twain or Samuel Clemens did it again. His intelligent prose is quite noticeable in the article he wrote about the Moro Massacre in 1899. Though it comes in a matter of fact manner, there is quite a bit of sarcasm laid out throughout his writing. His commentary proved his position in participation of the Anti-Imperialist league. Clemens used the language that was plastered all throughout the media at that time. The type of language used claimed that the people who lived in the Philippines were nothing more than savages. They were not men, women, and children, they were third-world country savages who lived in their land naked and without imperialism to control them. The United States at that time wanted to take control of all …show more content…
Clemens went on to emphasize “capture or kill” a few times during the article. Though the “Christian” military had the option of just capturing those “savages”, they chose to kill them. There were 600 men, women, and children who were no match for the U.S. soldiers, and they weren’t expecting the attack either. The unfair advantage the troops had over the Filipino people was unjust but General Wood still went through with the attack. Wood felt it was his duty to finally take over the Philippines no matter what it took to do …show more content…
There was no interest in the lives lost on the Philippines side. Only the U.S. soldiers were remembered. That was until the end when photos of the massacre emerged however it was still celebrated in the media as General Wood’s troops that beat the savages. The troops were able to overcome adversity even though they had a choice in capturing the Filipinos and to save their lives as a Christian would do. Instead, they allowed their power and ego to overtake them during the attack to see how many heads they could blow off. It was almost as if they were playing a video game in real life and forgot that they were holding this community’s fate in their palms. The media portrayed this massacre as heroism. The soldiers came back from Moros with less people their troops but a great story to tell which was that they were gallant in their quest. Clemens could have equated this attack to the what the Spaniards did to the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Cuba when they initially took over the islands with pillaging and raping those who lived there. The U.S. soldiers did not go as far as to take over the community, instead, they just killed everyone
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