How The US Stole The Philippines — Transcript

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1. 0:02there is a cluster of 7 000 islands that
2. 0:05looks like one of the most beautiful
3. 0:07places on earth
4. 0:09people have been living here for over 30
5. 0:11000 years traveling between these
6. 0:13islands trading with each other and with
7. 0:15the region and developing religion
8. 0:18identity and culture it eventually
9. 0:20became a country called mae and while
10. 0:22all of these advancements were happening
11. 0:24here on these islands another group of
12. 0:26humans had been evolving in another part
13. 0:28of the world over here in europe
14. 0:33but this other group had a different
15. 0:34culture a different religion
16. 0:38many of their advancements were achieved
17. 0:40through expansion not collaboration
18. 0:46and their religion thrived when they
19. 0:48stomped out others
20. 0:49[Music]
21. 0:52they wanted to conquer
22. 0:54[Music]
23. 0:56these island these people this culture
24. 0:58would soon be swallowed stripped of what
25. 1:01made them
26. 1:03them and soon their name would be
27. 1:05changed after the name of the king of
28. 1:07their conquerors
29. 1:08this isn't a story just about a big
30. 1:11powerful military
31. 1:12taking over new lands we know that story
32. 1:15pretty well the story of these people
33. 1:17offers a new perspective to anyone who
34. 1:20will listen it's a perspective that has
35. 1:22been wiped from our history books
36. 1:24because of the inherent discomfort and
37. 1:26tension with this fact that the united
38. 1:28states once a colony that heroically
39. 1:31threw off an empire to become
40. 1:34independent soon became
41. 1:36an empire itself it contradicts our
42. 1:39founding belief that it is quote
43. 1:41self-evident that all men are created
44. 1:44equal and this story isn't just history
45. 1:46that empire still exists today with
46. 1:49colonial possessions and subjects it's
47. 1:52all wrapped up in the story of these
48. 1:53seven thousand islands and their people
49. 1:56so i wanna tell you the story of how the
50. 1:59u.s stole the philippines there are
51. 2:01still american citizens today who do not
52. 2:04have equal voting rights these are
53. 2:06citizens of america's iowan territory
54. 2:10[Music]
55. 2:13the u.s constitution grants citizenship
56. 2:15to everyone born on u.s soil except in
57. 2:19one jurisdiction
58. 2:22[Music]
59. 2:29quick pause
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118. 4:27let's get back to the video
119. 4:31this video could be called how spain
120. 4:33stole the philippines since spain was
121. 4:35the first nation to conquer and control
122. 4:37these islands like 500 years ago
123. 4:39actually exactly 500 years ago
124. 4:42and indeed spain left a very deep
125. 4:45influence on these islands not least the
126. 4:47name itself which is named after king
127. 4:49philip spain brought their religion
128. 4:51their language their culture which is
129. 4:53why the most common last names in the
130. 4:54philippines are like reyes or del
131. 4:57rosario de la cruz de los santos but the
132. 5:00heyday of the spanish empire came and
133. 5:03went and by the 1800s it was kind of
134. 5:05crumbling but it was the arrival of a
135. 5:07new superpower that i believe had a
136. 5:10bigger imprint not just on the
137. 5:12philippines but on the us itself it
138. 5:15established rules and behaviors that we
139. 5:17still grapple with today and that's why
140. 5:20this is the story of how the us stole
141. 5:21the philippines so let's go to this day
142. 5:24we can see the traces of the almost 400
143. 5:27years of spanish rule over the
144. 5:29philippines
145. 5:30but even more striking is the more
146. 5:32recent influence of the united
147. 5:37u.s stand sort of looks like this
148. 5:40it's all happening on this mainland and
149. 5:42at this point there sort of became a big
150. 5:44debate of like
151. 5:45do we keep going some people wanted to
152. 5:47keep expanding the us outside of this
153. 5:49mainland the president at the time
154. 5:51wasn't a big expansion guy but he was
155. 5:53surrounded by people who loved war
156. 5:56specifically this guy and these people
157. 5:58who surrounded the president had their
158. 6:00eye on this spanish colony right off the
159. 6:03american coast called cuba where the
160. 6:05locals were rising up against spain
161. 6:11wait a minute isn't this a video about
162. 6:12the philippines why are we talking about
163. 6:14cuba we're getting there in just a
164. 6:15second okay so anyway cuba americans
165. 6:18didn't want to go to war with cuba
166. 6:19they're like we don't need more war but
167. 6:21thanks to the explosion of an american
168. 6:23submarine in cuba which is probably an
169. 6:25accident and thanks to some highly
170. 6:27unethical journalism that blamed the
171. 6:29explosion on spain and a big thanks to
172. 6:32again this guy teddy roosevelt who at
173. 6:34this point was just a peon he was
174. 6:35literally the assistant secretary of the
175. 6:38navy but he somehow cajoled his boss's
176. 6:40boss the president of the united states
177. 6:42to go to war in cuba to like liberate
178. 6:45the cubans from spain so the u.s
179. 6:47declared war on spain in 1898. but this
180. 6:51begins a new era of war in the united
181. 6:54states no longer can you just go into
182. 6:56war and just like take over land you
183. 6:58need an angle you need to sell the war
184. 7:01to the american people so the angle on
185. 7:03this war was liberation we are
186. 7:05liberating the people the people you
187. 7:06liberate will witness the honorable and
188. 7:09decent spirit
189. 7:10of the american military no no no that's
190. 7:13that's later we're talking about 1898
191. 7:15but yes the whole idea of selling war to
192. 7:18the american public didn't really go
193. 7:19away after this why did the us go to war
194. 7:22in iraq we're in the early stages of
195. 7:23military operations
196. 7:26so anyway the us is now at war with
197. 7:27spain which is an empire that is deeply
198. 7:30in decline as i mentioned it's not going
199. 7:31to be hard to win but soon it's not just
200. 7:33cuba the us really meaning teddy
201. 7:36roosevelt who again is just an assistant
202. 7:38secretary of the navy he's like not a
203. 7:40big decision maker he somehow maneuvers
204. 7:43the situation to say like let's liberate
205. 7:46next door puerto rico and while we're at
206. 7:48it let's go into the pacific and
207. 7:50liberate guam and the philippines from
208. 7:52spain as well teddy didn't even ask his
209. 7:54boss to do this he literally sent off a
210. 7:57cable to the navy commander in asia that
211. 7:59was like george dewey go attack the
212. 8:01philippines where spain is that is what
213. 8:03your mandate is and george dewey's like
214. 8:05okay i'm being told to go to war with
215. 8:08spain in the philippines teddy was sort
216. 8:10of of the mind like better to ask
217. 8:11forgiveness than permission i mean i get
218. 8:13that but
219. 8:15kind of nuts that he pulled it off
220. 8:17anyway and now because of teddy
221. 8:19roosevelt who we literally named the
222. 8:21teddy bear after
223. 8:22side note we are at war not in the
224. 8:24caribbean only but also in the pacific
225. 8:27the u.s arrives to the philippines and
226. 8:29sees that the locals had already been
227. 8:31fighting against the spanish for like
228. 8:33years the spanish were weak and were
229. 8:36totally declining so it's like the top
230. 8:39of the ninth inning or like the fourth
231. 8:40quarter of the spanish in the
232. 8:42philippines and the u.s shows up and is
233. 8:44like let us liberate you and the
234. 8:46philippines were like well we've sort of
235. 8:47already been fighting this bloody war
236. 8:49for years against the spanish so yeah i
237. 8:52guess united states if you want to come
238. 8:53help us deal the final blow to spain
239. 8:55like sweet so george dewey this navy
240. 8:58commander and his fleet show up to
241. 8:59manila meanwhile back in the u.s people
242. 9:01are like
243. 9:02wait weren't we just supposed to invade
244. 9:04cuba what are we doing in the
245. 9:05philippines now and the u.s government's
246. 9:07like because the philippines is a
247. 9:08perfect hub for commercial opportunities
248. 9:11in asia and we think that if we don't
249. 9:12take it japan or germany might take it
250. 9:14which would clearly diminish our
251. 9:16geostrategic advantage in the pacific
252. 9:18no
253. 9:19they didn't say that they said we want
254. 9:21to liberate the people
255. 9:24of the philippines liberate the people
256. 9:26you liberate will witness the honorable
257. 9:28and decent spirit
258. 9:30of the american military so the spanish
259. 9:32see the u.s arrive to the philippines
260. 9:34and they're like great we're done so the
261. 9:36spanish military commanders asked to
262. 9:39meet with the us military commanders
263. 9:41they meet in secret and spain's like
264. 9:44listen i know we're losing but we really
265. 9:46want to save some face here we don't
266. 9:48want it to look like we lost to the
267. 9:49filipino revolutionaries and i'm not
268. 9:52kidding the spanish commander literally
269. 9:53said that he would quote be willing to
270. 9:56surrender to white people but not to the
271. 9:58filipinos so the u.s commander's like
272. 10:01okay there's an opportunity here we said
273. 10:03we were here to liberate the filipinos
274. 10:05but we haven't promised anything yet
275. 10:07so we would much rather it look like the
276. 10:09us defeated spain instead of
277. 10:12helped the filipinos defeat spain much
278. 10:14better for our brand says the united
279. 10:16states so together the united states and
280. 10:19spanish militaries organize a fake
281. 10:21battle
282. 10:22a fake battle in which the u.s would
283. 10:25fight the spanish in manila and the
284. 10:27spanish would intentionally lose and the
285. 10:30climax of this whole theatrical battle
286. 10:32according to the plan was that at the
287. 10:34end the u.s would storm towards the
288. 10:37inner walled city of manila the last
289. 10:40stronghold of where the spanish are oh
290. 10:43and the key detail in this whole plan
291. 10:45they would not let the filipino fighters
292. 10:46the ones that had been doing all the
293. 10:48actual fighting against the spanish join
294. 10:50them as they stormed towards the walled
295. 10:52city to deal the final blows to the
296. 10:55spanish empire and this would mean that
297. 10:57the filipinos technically didn't gain
298. 10:59their independence it was actually the
299. 11:00us who conquered the spanish and then
300. 11:03the spanish were like oh can you give us
301. 11:0420 million dollars for our troubles and
302. 11:06the us was like yeah sure so now the u.s
303. 11:09wins the war and they claim sovereignty
304. 11:11over the philippines
305. 11:14so yeah this happened they did the fake
306. 11:16battle they won the war instead of
307. 11:18liberating the filipinos they just say
308. 11:20hey we're your new colonizers
309. 11:22psych meanwhile back in the united
310. 11:24states they gotta keep up this white
311. 11:26savior liberation narrative that they
312. 11:29created to justify going to war with
313. 11:31spain so you see a lot more theatrical
314. 11:34pr by the government they staged this
315. 11:36giant military parade in new york city
316. 11:39where this military commander who did
317. 11:41the fake war george dewey marches down
318. 11:43they called it dewey day it was like a
319. 11:45two-day parade in new york city they
320. 11:47created a big like military arch for him
321. 11:50he became like a military hero for
322. 11:52having like liberated all these people
323. 11:54from the spanish and then you start to
324. 11:56see these like crazy advertisements like
325. 11:58this soap advertisement that has george
326. 12:00dewey the commander
327. 12:02washing his hands with the caption quote
328. 12:04the first step towards lightening the
329. 12:06white man's burden is through teaching
330. 12:08the virtues of cleanliness
331. 12:12and on the sides you have soap being
332. 12:14offloaded in the philippines and being
333. 12:16given to the locals the u.s had to frame
334. 12:19this not as conquest but as the
335. 12:21honorable duty of the us to civilize
336. 12:24these people or in the words of the
337. 12:26sopad
338. 12:28to brighten the dark corners of the
339. 12:30earth
340. 12:32geez
341. 12:33this is insane and was not that long ago
342. 12:36okay so this is where things really heat
343. 12:38up it's 1900 now spain loses the war
344. 12:42obviously and the us now owns puerto
345. 12:45rico guam and they claim the philippines
346. 12:49but the local filipinos who have been
347. 12:51fighting for their freedom for years are
348. 12:52like no no no no you just waltzed in
349. 12:55here on our rebellion and conspired with
350. 12:58the spanish to make it look like you
351. 12:59were liberating us no this is our
352. 13:02country we don't need another colonizer
353. 13:04and this is where things really heat up
354. 13:06[Music]
355. 13:15the filipinos start fighting again for
356. 13:18their independence and this time against
357. 13:19the united states it is a pretty
358. 13:21horrible bloody war one that i never
359. 13:23learned about in school it include
360. 13:25massacres of men women and children by
361. 13:28the united states and hundreds of
362. 13:30thousands of civilian deaths but the us
363. 13:33eventually won
364. 13:34and they established a government in the
365. 13:36philippines back in the u.s the appetite
366. 13:39for expansion continued to go down and
367. 13:41people sort of just forgot about the
368. 13:43philippines they forgot that there was a
369. 13:45war there one newspaper summed it up by
370. 13:47saying americans didn't know if the
371. 13:49philippines were islands or canned fruit
372. 13:51but the fact remained that the u.s went
373. 13:53to war and now owned the philippines in
374. 13:56addition to puerto rico and guam so this
375. 13:58begged a very important question one
376. 14:00that hadn't been asked before which is
377. 14:02is all of this land america
378. 14:05are these people americans this was a
379. 14:08huge question and the answer to that
380. 14:10question
381. 14:11affects how we see these territories
382. 14:13still today okay so a few years after
383. 14:16these wars
384. 14:17there's a guy in new york city who's
385. 14:19importing oranges from one of these
386. 14:21territories puerto rico and he's paying
387. 14:23tariffs on these imports because you
388. 14:24know that's what you do when you're
389. 14:26importing oranges from another country
390. 14:28wait a minute another country
391. 14:31this guy was like didn't we conquer
392. 14:34puerto rico and guam and the philippines
393. 14:36isn't that america the constitution says
394. 14:38that you can't put tariffs on stuff
395. 14:40coming from other parts of the us like
396. 14:42new jersey can put tariffs on like
397. 14:44avocados from california so he sued and
398. 14:47his case and a bunch of others like it
399. 14:49made it to the supreme court so now the
400. 14:51supreme court must decide is this land
401. 14:54where we just won a war is this america
402. 14:57are these americans if they are do they
403. 14:59get all the same rights as other
404. 15:01americans do they get to vote do they
405. 15:03get to participate in the u.s economy
406. 15:04without tariffs like any other state
407. 15:06does and honestly this isn't a question
408. 15:08about oranges and tariffs the real
409. 15:11question at stake here is is america the
410. 15:14land of the free where all are created
411. 15:17equal or are we an empire no different
412. 15:20than any other empire that scoops up
413. 15:22colonial possessions in war and rules
414. 15:25the people who are usually black and
415. 15:26brown as subjects not fully a part of
416. 15:30the country
417. 15:31that was the question that was at stake
418. 15:33and in this series of cases in the early
419. 15:341900s the supreme court decided that
420. 15:37america
421. 15:39was the latter
422. 15:40is the latter they created a new
423. 15:42category of land called unincorporated
424. 15:46territories where the people don't have
425. 15:48any representation in the democracy but
426. 15:50where congress could create laws on
427. 15:52their own particularly laws dealing with
428. 15:54revenue which would not be allowed by
429. 15:57the constitution for states within the
430. 15:58union
431. 16:00we can create revenue laws stuff that's
432. 16:02totally unconstitutional for other parts
433. 16:03of our country in other words
434. 16:05unincorporated territories are
435. 16:07land we control and exploit for revenue
436. 16:09but whose people don't get to vote and
437. 16:13don't get the right to trial by jury so
438. 16:15yeah the philippines in addition to
439. 16:17puerto rico and guam remained
440. 16:18unincorporated territories a place that
441. 16:21the u.s could kind of just ignore
442. 16:22without a lot of consequence they
443. 16:24weren't important enough or strategic
444. 16:26enough to
445. 16:27be considered to become states like
446. 16:29hawaii or alaska so they sort of faded
447. 16:31from
448. 16:32american consciousness like this is why
449. 16:34we never heard about this in school like
450. 16:36it didn't make it into the history books
451. 16:38in any salient way and how far the
452. 16:40philippines had faded from people's
453. 16:42minds became very clear in december of
454. 16:441941 during world war ii the us had
455. 16:46owned the philippines for like 40 years
456. 16:49when a fleet of japanese bombers flew
457. 16:51across the pacific and bombed an
458. 16:53american naval base in hawaii
459. 16:58[Music]
460. 17:02but what we don't really remember is on
461. 17:04that day japan bombed
462. 17:06guam and the philippines two american
463. 17:08territories as well as several other
464. 17:10american and british territories
465. 17:13yesterday
466. 17:15december
467. 17:167th 1941
468. 17:21a date which will live
469. 17:24in infamy
470. 17:25here's the draft of this speech
471. 17:28this is the original draft that fdr
472. 17:30spent the day marking up before he gave
473. 17:32it zoom in a little bit and you'll see
474. 17:34on this draft that it mentioned the
475. 17:36philippines originally
476. 17:38but fdr crossed it out he crossed out
477. 17:40the mention of manila
478. 17:43yes the philippines was on some map
479. 17:45somewhere yes we technically owned it
480. 17:48but the people really didn't want to
481. 17:49hear about it because these people
482. 17:51weren't americans
483. 17:52the supreme court had decided that they
484. 17:54weren't going to become states anytime
485. 17:56soon so why mention them after that day
486. 17:59japan actually full-on invaded the
487. 18:02philippines they didn't do that to
488. 18:03hawaii but they did to the philippines
489. 18:05until the end of the war at which point
490. 18:07the philippines were finally granted
491. 18:09independence in 1946 fast forward to
492. 18:12today
493. 18:13and this we own you but you're not
494. 18:15really americans precedent established
495. 18:18by the supreme court still applies to
496. 18:20four million people who live in
497. 18:22unincorporated territories or let's just
498. 18:24call a spade a spade let's call them
499. 18:26what they are these are colonial
500. 18:27possessions the people who live here
501. 18:29don't experience the full rule of law
502. 18:32they don't get trial by jury they don't
503. 18:34have full representation in our
504. 18:36democracy and they don't get to vote for
505. 18:38the president this is why when a
506. 18:39hurricane hits puerto rico the
507. 18:42government response is not nearly what
508. 18:44it should be the way trump talked about
509. 18:46puerto rico as almost another country as
510. 18:49not a part of us mirrors exactly how the
511. 18:52supreme court talked about these
512. 18:53unincorporated territories they're for
513. 18:55revenue not to compete with american
514. 18:57farmers we conquered these places
515. 19:00but we didn't want to bring the people
516. 19:02fully into the american project we left
517. 19:05them out
518. 19:06and there they remained today
519. 19:13[Music]