*During the Spanish-American War, the US had fought alongside Filipinos who sought independence from Spain led by Emilio Aguinaldo.

*When the Spanish surrendered, Aguinaldo helped create the Philippine Republic and served as its first president.  However, despite what he thought, the United States intended to keep the Philippines as a US possession to have a trading and military base near Asia and the US did not recognise the Philippine Declaration of Independence.

*Some fighting between Filipino and American forces took place in 1898, and in 1899 a large-scale uprising called the Philippine Insurrection began, led by Aguinaldo.

*The Filipinos fought a guerrilla war, attacking out of the jungle and out of villages, often hitting the US Army behind their own lines.  The US fought a war of extermination in return, particularly under the US military governor Arthur MacArthur.  Both sides tortured prisoners and generally fought in the most brutal fashion they could. 

*Insurgents tortured American prisoners, some of whom were buried alive, or worse, up to their necks in anthills to be slowly devoured, or tied to trees next to anthills with their stomachs cut open and marmalade spread on their exposed bowels. Others were castrated, had the removed parts stuffed into their mouths, and were then left to suffocate or bleed to death. Supposedly some prisoners were deliberately infected with leprosy or other diseases before being released to spread the disease among their comrades. Spanish priests were horribly mutilated before their congregations, and people who refused to support the insurrection were.

*American soldiers often shot surrendered in Filipinos or gave them the water cure, forcing water down their throats until their stomachs or bladders burst.  A few American officers were tried in courts martial for their actions, and many captured Filipino leaders were executed, but many perpetrators of war crimes went unpunished.

*Emilio Aguinaldo was captured in 1901 and only allowed to go free after swearing allegiance to the US and asking his followers to stop fighting (but he lived to see the Philippines get their independence in 1946, and in 1950 was given a post in the Philippine government).  Most of the Filipino rebels did surrender by 1902, although in more remote areas violence lasted at least until 1913.

*Over 5,000 Americans died in the Philippine Insurrection and more (perhaps many more) than 200,000 Filipinos were killed.

*One reason violence did decrease is that Arthur MacArthur was replaced by a new governor of the Philippines, William Howard Taft, who treated the Filipinos with much greater respect and allowed some self-government (although he also was strict in some areas, limiting the freedom of the press and imprisoning people who protested against American rule).

*The Spanish-American War made Theodore Roosevelt national famous, and he became Vice-President in 1901 and president a few months later when McKinley was assassinated.

*Under Theodore Roosevelt, America became more active in the Caribbean world.  This was often known as Big Stick diplomacy, as he was always willing to use force if necessary (as were subsequent presidents).

*Roosevelt saw himself as Latin America’s policeman.  This was not entirely a new idea—previous presidents had used the Monroe Doctrine to justify getting involved in the affairs of Latin American countries, usually to protect them from European powers.  Roosevelt took this further, in what was called the Roosevelt Corollary (a mathematical term for a statement which follows readily from a previous statement) to the Monroe Doctrine:  if any Latin American country had problems, America had a duty to step in and help them out—by physical force, if necessary.  Latin Americans needed this, said Roosevelt, because they could not take care of themselves and needed to be uplifted by a more civilised nation.

*One of the first places American force was needed was in Panama, a region in Panama where a French company had been working for years to build a canal (another possible site was Nicaragua, but volcanic activity in the area scared off American investors).  America bought that company, but still needed permission from the Columbian government to work on the canal.

*When Columbia’s government refused, Roosevelt sent warships to support a Panamanian revolution.  The new government of Panama gave America a ten-mile-wide canal zone for $10 million plus $250,000 a year in rent.  The United States controlled the Canal Zone from 1903 to 1979.

*The biggest problem facing workers was disease, particularly malaria and yellow fever.  Eventually the US Army found ways to prevent infection by these diseases, particularly by draining swamps and wetlands to reduce mosquito breeding grounds.

*Soon America was involved in many other Latin American countries.  During the early 20th century, the US intervened in Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Columbia, and Venezuela.

*After Roosevelt left office, Taft put the big stick away, or at least held it in reserve.  He preferred to speak softly through what he called Dollar Diplomacy:  encouraging American companies to invest in Latin American businesses (like oil in Mexico and Venezuela and sugar and banana plantation in the Caribbean Islands and Central America).  If these businesses had problems, though, the Taft was willing to pull the big stick back out.

*Some businesses even took care of themselves.  When one of the fore-runners of the United Fruit Company had problems with the government of Honduras, they hired thugs in New Orleans to go to Honduras, overthrow the government, and put in a more banana-friendly administration.  The next president gave United Fruit a 25-year waiver from paying any taxes.  Many other Latin American companies ended up under the domination of United Fruit as well, earning them the name ‘banana republics.’

*When Woodrow Wilson became president, he planned to use Moral Diplomacy to convince Latin American countries to live up to American standards. 

*In fact, Wilson used military force fairly often as well.  When he was worried that France or Germany might invade Haiti (because both of whom had economic interests there), he sent US Marines in first.

*In Mexico in 1913, Victoriano Huerta overthrew the old government and set himself up as president after executing the last one.  He promised to protect American investments, but Wilson felt it was immoral to murder presidents, so he invaded Mexico to punish Huerta.  In 1914 the US Marine Corps occupied Vera Cruz.

*At first Wilson worked with a revolutionary leader named Pancho Villa who controlled much of northern Mexico to fight against Huerta, but later changed his mind when a new president who Wilson liked named Caranza, turned against the Revolutionaries who had helped him come to power.  In 1916, Pancho Villa then raided the US, killing 24 Americans (18 of them civilians) in three different attacks.

*10,000 US troops under Black Jack Pershing were sent into northern Mexico in the Punitive Expedition. 

*One of his junior officers was George Patton.  In his first gunfight, he shot Mexican bandit Julio Cardenas (who was a key member of Pancho Villa's gang).  Patton and his men then strapped the bodies of Cardenas and two other men who had been shot onto the hoods of their cars and returned triumphantly to General Pershing's headquarters.  Patton took the bandit’s spurs as a trophy.

*Pershing never captured Pancho Villa.  Villa was assassinated in 1923 by enemies in Mexico.

*In 1917 the US government pulled troops out of Mexico, largely in order to prepare for the US entry into World War I.  That in turn was party because in 1917, the British intercepted and decoded a German telegram from Arthur Zimmerman, the foreign secretary, making an offer to Mexico.  If Mexico would help Germany and attack the United States, Germany would return to Mexico all the land that Polk took from them during the Mexican War.

*In the same year, the United States bought some of the Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million (partly out of fear that Germany might buy them or just take them over to use as U-boat bases).

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