Wednesday, March 9, 2011
HIST300F: Degenerating in the Tropics
After reading the first half of Hoganson and Adas's chapter on the Philippines, both authors offered us examples of how war and empire offered opportunity to American men. After considering those examples, how does Hoganson reveal the rising domestic fears that empire corrupts and causes American men to degenerate? How does Huntington's work on the tropics further reinforce this early-twentieth-century view that the tropics were a corrupting force?
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Huntington argued four main reasons that the tropics were a corrupting force. First, he said that in the tropics people drink till excess. Next, men become unduly angry when things that would usually make a man more irritable instead provoke him to extreme violence. Third, he exclaimed that the “slowness of tropical people is exasperating (43).” Normally hard workers in the U.S., the tropics cause men to become lazy. Finally, Huntington believed that “men are in more danger of deteriorating in character and efficiency because of the women of the tropics than from any other single cause (47).” These factors are then combined with tropical diseases, which Huntington argues, prevents a community from rising high in the scale of civilization (39). Furthermore, the children suffer most because they are in more close contact with the natives who tend to help watch after them. All these elements together create a cycle of corruption, which is why the tropics can cause men to degenerate
ReplyDeleteHoganson examines the relationship between the U.S.'s emergence as an international force and its impact on the domestic market and particularly its influence on women. As the U.S.'s influence across seas spread, so did the American people's awareness of other cultures (though this view was heavily distorted via missionaries, propagandist photos, etc.). Having a cosmopolitan theme to one's home not only declared imperialist tendencies, and by extension, American tendencies, but it also denoted one's social standing and even individualism. Women could reaffirm their place in society by having a foreign themed room or home and their ability to choose what kind of theme gave them a degree of individuality during a time period when they wouldn't have necessarily been able to express themselves very well anyway.
ReplyDeleteThis all relates to how the American middle class and upper class were able to try and take advantage of the imperial benefits of the time.
Hoganson talks a lot about Roosevelt's idea of the "strenuous life" and how men needed to hunt and fight and give into their more savage natures in order to be real men. Before the war in the Philippines there hadn't been any fighting since the Civil War and people who thought like TR felt that the lack of fighting may have contributed to the degeneration of men in the United States.
ReplyDeleteHuntington's main argument is that climate causes white people to degenerate because of the tropical temperatures. In my 471 class we talked about the early racial theories of how climate caused different races and Huntington expands on the theory and basically says that the climate can negatively white people and make them act like native people.
I love the strenuous life. It sound ruggud and seems like the key to regaining American manhood. Men today are getting a little to soft and seem to whine a lot more than usual. Along with the death of chivary, I think perhaps American Manhood has started to fall down the drain as well. But really, Hoganson seems to agree... but only in the negative since.
ReplyDeleteHoganson agrees that this "strenuous life" is a bloody version of man hood. Personifying the fact that men needed to hunt and fight to keep there manhood was ging a little over board. If this were the case, then pillaging the villages should have been apart of this plan... making the Ruff Riders the norm (OUCH).
When reading over what Rachel posted, I was trying to understand Huntington's argument that a hotter climate causing people to degenerate. People wear fewer clothes, and tend to get a little arrogant in the sun. But instead, this was not the argument. Instead... they were saying that it cause people to act like natives... which was terrible. The darker skin is fun for a little bit.. but when it lasts for too long... well... its a terrible thing.
Per Gene:
ReplyDeleteHoganson:
I thought it was extremely interesting how the anti-imperialists/expansionists that Hoganson describes throughout her chapter entitled “imperial degeneracy” utilize the same degrading racial lenses of Filipino men and women to frame their reasons against expansion citing that Filipino racial inferiorities placed American troops and women in jeopardy of degradation. (186-187) Expressing the belief that American servicemen were in jeopardy because they would be greater tempted by the vices inherent on the island, propagated by the inferior indigenous populations, just seemed to me to be a laughable concept to use as the framework for denouncing future imperial expansion. But I did see an eerie parallel between Hoganson’s description of the dangers perceived by the “antis,” of a deplorable Filipino social environment, to the ideas of tropicality that the class discussed earlier in the semester. Both these misconceptions circulated at the time were both based on drastic overestimations about the dangers of a distant, dark, and foreboding place. Any thoughts?
According to Roosevelt, whom we all know was a Jingoist and believed in the ever expanding American Empire, he also believed in the “strenuous life”. He was a strong advocate of the notion that men leading strenuous lives, such as engaging in war and conflict and the state of empire building, kept them from leading sedentary lifestyles. Roosevelt believed in fighting for a cause, and in the case of the Philippine- American and the Spanish- American Wars, he believed that cause was to instill the notions of manhood and to keep men from living sedentary lives. Roosevelt also believed that the Civil War was a good thing, and that it helped build character among men.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to read these opinions of him because I do not believe that war is necessary to make men feel masculine. On page 183 in Hoganson, “According to anti-imperialists, the great irony of imperial endeavors was that they were making American Soldiers even more savage than the people they were sent to redeem”. Not only were some unconventional methods of warfare used, such as the “water cure”, but according to Hoganson, reports of American soldiers desecrating and looting churches also surfaced as well. These acts among others led to many people feeling like the war led to the degeneracy of American men. Many people began to feel as if the soldiers were becoming more savage than the ones they were fighting against.
Domestically people were fearing that tropical places that were being incorporated into the empire would lead to the corruption and degeneration of American men. The heat would cause men to become lazy and more irritable. People wear less clothing, including tempting tropical women. Also, the men would degenerate because of there close contact with the natives and from the native diseases. I also, agree with Lindsey about the part in Hoganson about people believing that the war itself was making American men at times more brutal than their so-called savage enemies.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that I noticed both in Hoganson and in the Huntington reading is the application of a weird pseudoscience to the intentions and goals of the imperialist endeavors. Roosevelt's preoccupation with 'strife' and the idea that the Civil War had been "character building" were both related to the idea - which seems like an extension of social Darwinism - that the "strenuous life" would lead to democratic and capitalistic fitness. Leading imperialists - Lodge, Roosevelt, and Beveridge - feared that comfort with which white middle class men were accustomed would lead to corrupted democracy and a weak nation.
ReplyDeleteWhich makes Huntington's ideas of the tropics as a corrupting influence to the white man sort of interesting. Huntington claims that life among native residents of the tropical regions will cause a "weakness of will" in white men, demonstrated by "lack of industry, an irascible temper, drunkenness, and sexual indulgence." Because one of the funny quirks of the imperialist thought involved a sort of mutual benefit for the white soldier and the non-white native, where US men could benefit from "savage virtues," even while helping to 'civilize' the tropics.
Hoganson's point about the Phillipines was very similar to the Spanish American War because both off the talk about male superiority. Like the Spaniards, Hoganson believes that the Filipinos were savages and uncivilized, which were negative descriptions of Native-American men. Furthermore, Hoganson wrote, "They also paralleled the images of African-American men as bestial rapists that white supremacists were working so hard to disseminate in this period" (Pg. 134). Hoganson also believes that Filipino men were not disciplined because like the Spanish, they treated their woman badly. The solution that Hoganson gave was that the American soldiers can teach the Filipinos to be more disciplined, which can make them better citizens.
ReplyDeleteHoganson makes the argument apparent on pg 181, when she states the concern of men living in tropics would degenerate. She goes on to continue by stating soldiers who lived there were “invalids for life”. Huntington was a nice parallel to Hoganson’s argument. Huntington first points out how many viewed the natives as lazy workers, who will only work enough to provide food on the table for that day. Laziness, anger, drunkenness, and immorality were all mentioned as social causes that were corrupting forces.
ReplyDeleteBefore the Philippine-American War, anti-imperialists had always believed that taking and governing the Philippines would be a shocking break from American democratic traditions and would undermine the characters of American men. Over the course of the war, more Americans also started to believe that the imperial policies were actually not building American manhood as they had previously thought. Hoganson reveals the domestic fears that empire causes American men to degenerate. Many Americans believed that Americans could not live in tropical areas, like the Philippines, without degenerating. Huntington pointed out that the tropics cause men to lose self-control - they become angry, lazy, and immoral. Some Americans also were afraid of the spreading of venereal diseases that spread quickly in the Philippines. Not only did they suggest a loss of manliness but they also posed a threat to future American generations. American blood would eventually become contaminated with the spread of venereal diseases if Americans stayed in the Philippines. The fact that American men in the Philippines could mix with the inferior race also led to concern since many Americans believed that whites were the superior race. They feared that racial mixing could eventually lead to the contamination of American blood as well.
ReplyDeleteAs with most of the others I see the main issues coming from this time being the idea that for some reason we have to show the world how masculine we were. I understand we were looking for a fight and saw the the Spanish Empire as a good target after the USS Maine. The problems showed up as several point out that the soldiers we sent there became more of a problem that the people they were sent to control. This issue has several roots. The lack of well trained troops and good leadership. Most of the commanders there had either never had field command or had been in the service for more than twenty-five years. Hoganson speaks about the need for new leadership. This is not a new problem. In the American Civil War there are all kinds of control problems, and I think this is mirrored in the Philippines as there are many officers who are still holdovers from the Civil War.
ReplyDeleteThe issues of contamination is also a real fear, that American blood will in some way be tainted, we see this problem again half a century later in Vietnam, so did the US learn anything from our adventure in the Philippines?
Hoganson used the anti-imperialist "the fathers" to explain how empire corrupts and causes American men to degenerate. As the antis referred to the tropics as "those distant and disease-ridden islands" (Hoganson 181). As the war dragged on the idea of fulfilling masculinity faded and antis idea of degeneration came to the forefront. This also goes along with Huntington's idea, that the tropics will change American men. He blames the open life style of the "tropics" culture for example women in their scanty dress is to blame for immorality and sexual promiscuity. He made an interesting comment that a missionary had said, "when I come here, it seems as if lust were written in the very faces of the people" (Huntington 48).
ReplyDeleteHoganson’s argument about American degeneration while in the tropics is quite interesting. He claims that men in the tropics are introduced to a different lifestyle compared to Anglo-Saxon American culture. Men are susceptible to excessive drinking, promiscuous relations with native women as well as a lazy lifestyle. I think the basis for this argument is cultural more than anything else. The protestant work ethic of American culture at this point in history placed heavy emphasis on chastity and hard work. This cultural difference is the primary factor towards the theory of degeneration. The notion of white supremacy and the supremacy of American culture caused people to perceive tropical life as primitive and a social step backwards.
ReplyDelete