During an interview, President William McKinley explained his thought process for his decision to keep the Philippines. He argued that the disastrous consequences of allowing Filipino independence outweighed the right of self-governance, and decided that “that there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them.” From the start, President McKinley shows that the Philippine-American war was not motivated by democracy, but by racial reasons. He deems the Filipino people as inferiors and the Americans as superiors by planning to change the “savage” characteristics of Filipino people to characteristics that America approves
During an interview, President William McKinley explained his thought process for his decision to keep the Philippines. He argued that the disastrous consequences of allowing Filipino independence outweighed the right of self-governance, and decided that “that there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them.” From the start, President McKinley shows that the Philippine-American war was not motivated by democracy, but by racial reasons. He deems the Filipino people as inferiors and the Americans as superiors by planning to change the “savage” characteristics of Filipino people to characteristics that America approves