North American or Global Empire?

By Larry Kerschner

 

The end result of the war between the U.S. Empire and the Spanish Empire in 1898 marked the beginning of the global American Empire.  Spain had been losing control of its empire due to internal corruption and external national liberation movements, especially in Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Philippines.  On September 23, 1868, at Lares, nearly 1000 Puerto Rican revolutionaries declared the first Republic of Puerto Rico.  Many of these rebels were former African slaves who had escaped. The revolt would be known as El Grito de Lares (the Cry of Lares). These revolutionary forces eventually controlled the mountains and much of the rural areas around the towns with Spanish garrisons.

    Although unable to push the Spanish from Puerto Rico, the Spanish Empire finally agreed to negotiations which resulted in many concessions for the people of Puerto Rico. 

      The Cuban War of Independence (1895–1898) was the last of three liberation wars that Cuban rebels fought against the Spanish occupiers. The final three months of the conflict escalated to become the part of the Spanish-American War. With the abolition of slavery in Cuba in October 1886, former slaves joined the ranks of farmers and urban working class. The number of campesinos and tenant farmers rose considerably.  The rise of labor movements began at the same time.  

     “El Partido Revolucionario Cubano” (The Cuban Revolutionary Party) was officially proclaimed on April 10, 1892, with the purpose of gaining independence for both Cuba and Puerto Rico. By the end of 1894, the basic conditions for launching the revolution were set.

    The insurrection began on February 24, 1895, with uprisings all across the island. From the very beginning of the war, one of the most serious problems for the rebels was the acquisition of suitable weapons. This lack of arms led to guerrilla-style fighting, using the environment, the element of surprise, a fast horse, and a machete. Most of their weapons were acquired in raids on the Spaniards. Attempts to bring in weapons from outside were thwarted by the British Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard.

    The rebels eventually had fighting forces in all the provinces. Madrid decided to change its policy towards Cuba and drew up a colonial constitution for Cuba and Puerto Rico and installed a new government in Havana. But with half the country out of its control and the other half in arms, it was recognized by the rebels as powerless and this move was rejected by the rebels.

     With concessions offered to rebels in Puerto Rico and Cuba, the weakness of the Spanish Empire began to become evident to other Powers.

    Starting in the early 1880s, Spain had also suppressed an independence movement in the Philippines which was intensifying so Spain was now fighting two wars, which put a heavy burden on its economy. But it turned down offers in secret negotiations by the United States in 1896, which was closely following the war, to buy Cuba from Spain.

    In the Philippines, the liberation struggle  had already formed a national government with a large peoples’ army which had swept the Spanish Colonial Army and its administration from most of the Philippines. 

    The U.S. capitalist power structure viewed with alarm the rise of nationalist forces of independence. They were also concerned that the British or one of the other great powers of the time might step into the power vacuum created by these anti-colonial movements before the U.S. could annex them. 

    So on April 25, 1898, the U.S. declared war on Spain while at the same time invading Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Philippines.  The Treat of Paris, at the end of the Spanish–American War, transferred control of the Philippines, without consulting the people of the Philippines, to the United States.

     Under the pretext of aiding the Philippine rebels, the first U.S. troops landed on June 30, 1898. U.S. troops continued to arrive even after the last of the Spanish troops surrendered on December 10, 1898.

    On February 4, 1899, the U.S. troops began to wipe out the Philippine forces under an order that allowed no truces or ceasefires. Over half of the total U.S. Army of that time, 1.2 million U.S. troops eventually occupied the Philippines.

    The Philippine people were totally unprepared for the genocidal attack of the American military.  Unable to cope with the guerrilla tactics used by the Philippine revolutionary forces, the U.S. military began using the same approach they had used against the indigenous peoples of North America, and which they reprised for use more recently against the Vietnamese people in the American War in S.E. Asia.

    The general outlines of this tactic called for destroying all organized social and economic life in guerrilla areas. Villages were burned while crops and animals were destroyed, diseases were intentionally spread in biological warfare, and people were either killed or forced to become refugees in their own country. Large areas were declared “free-fire zones” in which any Filipino seen was shot on sight.

     Media at the time supported the indiscriminate killing, looting and torture encouraged by the U.S. Military high command.  The Boston Herald said: “Our troops in the Philippines….look upon all Filipinos as of one race and condition, and being dark men, they are therefore ‘niggers’ and entitled to all the contempt and harsh treatment administered by white overlords to the most inferior races”. 

     In Samar Province, U.S. General Jacob Smith ordered his troops to kill every Filipino man, woman and child they could find “over ten”.  The war and occupation by the U.S. changed the cultural landscape of the islands, as people dealt with an estimated 34,000 to 220,000 Filipino casualties (with more civilians dying from disease and hunger brought about by war), disestablishment of the Roman Catholic Church (as a “state Church” – as previously in Spain), and the introduction of the English language in the islands as the primary language of government, education, and business.

     By 1901, the Filipino, Cuban and Puerto Rican patriots had all been defeated and the question of the U.S. expanding from a North American Empire to a Global Empire was decided.