The American Colonial Period

Benevolent assimilation

"Benevolent Assimilation": The American Conquest of the Philippines, 1899-1903 is a non-fiction book documenting the history of the by (1927-2010), a professor at , published in 1982 by . The title refers to U.S. President 's "" proclamation of December 21, 1898 of the .

Reception[] wrote, "Benevolent Assimilation is the most thorough, balanced and well-written study to date of America's imperial adventure in the western Pacific and the most persuasive analysis of the varied reactions of the American people to the military subjugation of the Filipinos."The magazine Asia wrote: "A triumph of research, synthesis and storytelling, this is the wisest book on its subject and, implicitly, a significant cultural critique of the United States at the turn of the 20th century." wrote: "Written with clarity and argued with passion from a wealth of primary sources." wrote: "The author's balanced summary of the historiography of imperialism and the epilogue, which considers the Philippine/Vietnam analogy, are valuable features of the work...Should remain the definitive account of these events."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benevolent_assimilation

The term Benevolent Assimilation refers to a policy of the United States towards the Philippines as described in a proclamation by U.S. President issued on December 21, 1898. The proclamation was issued after Spain was defeated in the but before fighting began in the . Prior to the proclamation, the United States had defeated Spain during the naval on May 1, 1898. Subsequently on June 12, 1898, and established a revolutionary government whose the Filipino revolutionary armed forces surrounded Manila and the occupying American Army. This created a stand-off between opposing armies that would erupt in fighting in early 1899.

The proclamation reads in part:

Finally, it should be the earnest wish and paramount aim of the military administration to win the confidence, respect, and affection of the inhabitants of the Philippines by assuring them in every possible way that full measure of individual rights and liberties which is the heritage of free peoples, and by proving to them that the mission of the United States is one of benevolent assimilation substituting the mild sway of justice and right for arbitrary rule.

The proclamation was sent to General , U.S. military commander and in the Philippines. Otis sent a version of the proclamation that he had by removing mention of U.S. "to stress our benevolent purpose" and not "offend Filipino sensibilities," by substituting "free people" for "supremacy of the United States," and deleting "to exercise future domination." General Otis had also sent an unaltered copy of the proclamation to General Marcus Miller in who, unaware that an altered version had been sent to Aguinaldo, passed a copy to a Filipino official there. The unaltered version eventually made its way to Aguinaldo.

Otis later explained,

After fully considering the President's proclamation, and the temper of the Taglos, with whom I was daily discussing political problems and the friendly intentions of the U.S.A. Government toward them, I concluded that there were certain words and expressions therein such as "sovereignty," "right of cessation" and those which directed immediate occupation and so forth, which though most admirably employed and tersely expressive of actual conditions, might be advantageously used by the Tagalog. The ignorant classes had been taught to believe that certain words such as "sovereignty," "protection," and so forth had peculiar meanings disastrous to their welfare and significant of future political domination, like that from which they had been recently freed.

McKinley's Benevolent Assimilation Proclamation

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 21, 1898.