William Howard Taft: Illness in The Philippines

After the War With Spain, the remnants of its empire fell into our hands.

The USA as an Empire

By and large, most people in the United States were extremely lukewarm about inheriting Spanish colonies following the mercifully short Spanish American War. High on that list was President William McKinley.

It was definitely true that the concept of Manifest Destiny, i.e. “from sea to shining sea” was part of our agenda, but the thought of overseas territories and islands was practically distasteful. They would be difficult/expensive to manage. The inhabitants of said places were none too keen on it either. And, perhaps most importantly, the overwhelming ethos of America was freedom and liberty. We truly had no desire to “rule” anybody.

The Philippines

The crown jewel of Spain’s Pacific Empire was the Philippines – an atoll of hundreds of small islands, thousands of miles away. It had been a Spanish…