After reading the first half of Hoganson's work on the Philippines, she offers us examples of how war and empire offered opportunities 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 do the suffragettes' concerns confirm these growing fears? How does Major Sweet respond to the prostitution problem?
Major Sweet, response to the prostitution problem was to write in his report to Congress about he is cleaning up the problem, and how the problem is no way his fault. The measures that he is reportedly taken are to banned speak-easies and enforce laws against prostitution, even going to so far as to deport prostitutes. He discusses the prostitution problem as something that he and troops are a victim of. One of the parts I thought was interesting was his denial about receiving a watch as a gift. His denial shows his lack of wanting to be in anyway associated with the Filipinos. Sweet’s use of the ‘malicious’ to describe rumors that he is received at a watch as a gift reinforces many of the racist notions of the earlier 20th century.
ReplyDeleteHoganson argues that for American in the early 20th century the was in the Philippines was not ‘splendid little war’, they way the Spanish-American War in Cuba was. A good part of this was because the news of American atrocities in the Philippines were reported to a greater extent than any wrong doings in Cuba. Hoganson writes on the Americans views of the war with the Philippines, “… the United States was fighting a sordid war, one unworthy of American men.” (184)Americans loved the war in Cuba with Spain because it was short and straight forward. The war with the Philippines though was a long and messy affair, and for many they saw the Philippines conflict as causing American soldiers act out and the blamed the tropical environment for the soldiers degenerate behavior.
American men during war the with the Philippines were given the opportunity to regain lost manly virtue. The war effort and experiences of policing Filipinos immediately afterwards provided a theatre to experiment with power structures and control. The men were able, via the military, to take over most aspects of daily operations in the Philippines and practice supposedly virtuous methods of controlling and indoctrinating a lesser Filipino race into responsible westernized individuals. However, as Hoganson demonstrates in her book, many of the ideological benefits of men going to Philippines actually resulted in degeneration, rather than increasing virtue. Many of the imperialists argued that imperialism rested on building men's martial values, while many of the anti-imperialists disagreed. These anti-imperialist, such as the woman fighting for suffrage, argued rather than martial values achieved in nation building, domestic fostering of intelligence and civic virtue. Furthermore, as the men continued to morally degenerate, the military in attempts to increase spoils of war and manliness, sometimes even encouraged prostitution on the islands. Major Sweet brought in Filipina woman for the exclusive sexual us of officers and men station in the area. These acts of moral degeneration as a result of empire building further supported anti-imperialist sentiment of the degeneration of men.
ReplyDeleteAs most could have guessed, Major Sweet's response to the prostitution problem was him merely trying to avoid any fault that could be put on him or his men. The Major played the victim card and acted as if prostitutes were the root issue and that he was in no way to blame. In regards to the degeneration of men, Hoganson does make a legitimate argument. I think it is important to note that the nature of the two wars previously mentioned, the Spanish-American and Philippine, are very different. Ashley makes a good point above about how different the two wars were and how this directly effected the soldiers' morale. In addition, the fact that many Americans pointed toward the tropical environment as the underlying reason for the degeneration of American soldiers clearly illustrates racial tones and attitudes during the era.
ReplyDeleteHoganson depicts a Philippines in which the U.S. Soldiers are degenerating themselves through sexual endeavors, rape, and substance abuse. She show that people in America saw these things and become appalled at the acts these men were committing. In response suffrage movements and lobbyists responded by investigating the Philippine conditions and looking to destroy this imperialistic system in which they said caused this.
ReplyDeleteIn Major Sweet's report to the U.S. Congress, he repeatedly emphasizes the evils he encounters in Jolo and the evils his men are subjected to by the collection of immoral Asiatic people who reside there. In respects towards prostitution he makes the claim that in no way shape or form the prostitution system was introduced by his company of men. To emphasize this he uses severe racial language to degrade the local people to show how their immoral behaviors affected his men. So in response to this problem the Major sets up a system in which he quarantined, detained, deported or surveilled all women suspected of carrying diseases. In his account he gives no actions of punishment towards his soldier or the men of that town.
There was a dominant idea among imperialists that war and empire offered American men the opportunity to “develop their ability to govern” and wield power over the Filipinos (155). This sentiment stems to a large degree from the stereotypes surrounding Filipinos. Hoganson details three racist assumptions Americans made: Filipinos were uncivilized savages, childish in nature, and feminine. By casting Filipinos in this light as people unable to govern themselves, imperialists asserted that Americans should step in to assist development and bring Filipinos closer to manhood. The accepted logic seems to be that making Filipinos more manly would reinforce Americans’ own manhood. Unfortunate for the imperialists backing this view, though, the longer American soldiers were in the Philippines the more the tropical environment seemed to corrupt them and cause degeneration. While “in the midst of races in a different and lower stage of development,” rather than bring the Filipinos closer to a manly ideal, Americans found that the soldiers were negatively influenced and brought to this lower level of civilization at which the Filipinos lived. Major Sweet’s report to Congress in 1902 tells of how some American men may have “slipped up” morally and become involved with prostitution in Jolo, but is adamant in assuring Congress that he had taken strict measures to deal with the issue and that now the moral integrity of Jolo mirrored that of towns in New England.
ReplyDeleteI agree with James in that Major Sweet's report was just him simply trying to cover himself and make sure that blame could not be placed on him. He also appears to try to refute the antis argument that the prostitution was the fault of the US soldiers. Hoganson argues that the anti-imperialists were using the arguments of the Imperialists against them. Every time the imperialists used an argument for Imperialism, the antis countered it by revealing reasons that the argument could degenerate not just American Men but women and the society itself also. The women's suffrage advocates also point out that militarism has a detrimental effect to their crusade for women's voting rights. They also use the argument that the brutality and sexual promiscuity being shown by US troops in the Philippines would harm American Women. One argument used by the antis that Hoganson brings up I found extremely interesting and that was the argument that by engaging in wars for colonial territories the US was robbing the White Race of their "best" men which meant that only the "second best" men were still around to propagate the race, and that this would also lead to a degeneration of the American Society.
ReplyDeleteHoganson reveals the fears of the corruption that empire brought by focusing on the reactions that the American public had towards the situation in the Philippines, particularly upon the release of prostitution, rape, and the like. As Ashley stated above, the Philippine and Spanish-American wars differed greatly; the Spanish-American war was more of a glorified skirmish while the Philippines demonstrated the real brutalities of war. Americans were shocked by the idea that their own could show such animalistic qualities, especially towards women. Soldiers like Major Sweets could attempt to justify the soldiers' behaviors or pass the blame to others but realistically, the American public had romanticized war. Between the golden glowing memories of the Civil War and the whirlwind triumph of the Spanish-American War, Americans had forgotten what actual battle was like. Soldiers acting out in bestial ways is unfortunately inevitable---people do what it takes to survive. Americans blamed the tropical environment for the soldiers' behavior, but the tropical climate was not at fault so much as the soldiers' desire to avenge their friends, demonstrate their physical power/manhood, and conquer.
ReplyDeleteImperialists had argued that war would be the best strengthener of manhood; however, this did not seem to be the result. Paternalistic and chivalrous metaphors were used before the war to encourage Americans' sense of duty, but after they were used to emphasize the imbalance between the two sides and depict an aggressive, dominating American military. Stories of American soldiers harming women and children as they pillaged and burned villages also undermined their chivalry. The American intervention in the Philippines was compared to rape, because Filipinos had not consented and our "lust of empire" had brought out the barbaric qualities of previously civilized men-- the opposite of the strengthening of manly virtue and civilization promised by imperialists and jingoes. Domestic concerns arose about increasing male brutality and the potential for uncivilized Filipino traditions to be adopted and imported back home. Suffragettes brought to light the issue of legalized and regulated prostitution in the islands, causing concern over the degeneracy of manhood, the threat to future generations, and disrespect for women. I also agreed with the suffragettes' claim that another militaristic generation would hurt the advancement of women in politics. By the end of the war, suffragettes and anti-imperialists had influenced public domestic opinion that knowledge, religion, and democracy through self-governance were the best indicators of many virtue.
ReplyDeleteSweet instilled mandatory inspections, quarantine or deportation of diseased women, and breaking up the businesses of gamblers and liquor dealers. He denied the participation of any officers in such activities and placed all blame on the Oriental culture. I also agree he was just trying to cover himself.
Hoganson's depiction of the two wars helps to validate her argument. The war to redeem honor vs. the bloody war. She claims that the imperialists thought the Filipinos were "unfit for independence" based on 3 stereotypes. One of them was how the Filipino men were not manly as Americans understood the term. Then how imperialists cast them as children unable to control their own devices. If the imperialists did accept these men into their society they would have to mold them into "manly" in the American term. With the Spanish war, American men were not as barbaric whereas in the Philippine war they thought they were making their manly image stronger where in reality they were destroying it. It degenerated even more with Major Sweet and his treatment of the women. Morality and ethics were clearly not present. Placing blame on the prostitutes to the point of deportation shows how racial issues stood present and how they were continuing to develop into the 20th century.
ReplyDeleteHoganson reveals that the domestic problems of male degeneration can be attributed to the war. At the beginning of the conflict, it was believed that the war would help men re-find their pride and honor. What was discovered later on though, was that the war created bloodlust and poor treatment of women. The anti-imperialists pointed to acts of war as being degenerative of men. The civilized nature of not performing war acts is contrary to the beliefs held by people like Teddy Roosevelt. Major Sweet believed prostitution was the root of the problem and the treatment fo women ran counter to the women's suffrage movement. By the end of the war, the American public was fed up in many ways with the costs of war and believed men had degenerated into barbarians or a similar civilized people as the Filipinos.
ReplyDeleteEmpire does corrupt in the Philippines and Hoganson says so with one example, that example is sexual degeneracy (Pg 189). The United States men were getting involved with Filipino women now. Then Hoganson begins to talk about suffragettes, she mentions that suffragettes said they should expand women involvement in the military which would make the men less brutal. With the women looking at a way to fix the problem it confirms that they are concerned about the men (Pg 195). Then finally for Major Sweet he is not happy with the men and being involved in the prostitution the diseases that are being spread. Therefore, Major Sweet pursued lower class women to leave and only kept the upper class women with the involvement of the men.
ReplyDeleteHoganson shows us that gender stereotypes as well as different ideas about the “virtues” of war/militarism played key roles in the rising domestic fears about the corruption of empire and degeneration of men. Imperialists had argued that it was manly to go off to war and then bring democracy to the Philippines, but other people saw the Filipinos as a weaker group of people. Fighting a weak enemy, they argued, was not manly at all and actually turned American men into tyrants, rather than building respectable character. People also raised the issue that war really wasn’t very virtuous—the horrors of war would take a negative toll on the soldiers in the Philippines. Waging (and losing) wars against weaker enemies in a strange tropical environment would lead to the moral and physical degeneration of men. The prevalence of prostitution in the Philippines provided grounds for these fears.
ReplyDeleteThe suffragettes concerns about prostitution confirm the growing fear that the situation in the Philippines was getting out of hand. They are appalled that the government has condoned and regulated prostitution in the Philippines, but they also fear that this means prostitution can be regulated in the United States, thus showing the fear that the corruption in overseas empires can come back and corrupt home.
Major Sweet pawns the prostitution problem off on the natives and argues that it’s their fault. He claims that he is trying to take care of the problem, and seems very keen to show that he is apparently doing everything in his power to stop the prostitution, as well as disassociate himself from the Filipinos and uphold his character. He even denies accepting a watch as a gift, which seemed quite odd and unnecessary.
Hoganson's argument in the second portion of the book basically states that the gist of going to war is strengthening men. As the book progresses, Hoganson provides details that why most people are against war. First, the United States militia in the Philippines became savages, and they became akin to the Filipino race. An example out of the book of how they became savages was that they ransacked villages, and raped the innocent women and perhaps children in the islands. Hoganson then points out how rape was an issue when the American troops were over there. Many scholars argued that prostitution over there was akin to rape because prostitution was illegal during the Spanish reign. Aforementioned. the men would take women and perform explicit acts towards them, and they would get away with it. This was an enormous ordeal to the American public, especially to the female activists because they did not younger men to turn into savages like the men over at the Philippines. They wrote letters to the President of the United States and politicians that demanded oversight over at the Philippines. In regards to the Major Sweet reading, it basically summed up how the American troops treated the prostitutes. He placed them in quarantines or deported the Asian women because they were brining in disease to the islands. It's clearly evident that Sweet is covering himself and the troops and attempting to make him look good, but this issue could have been the starting point that embarked racial tensions during the genesis of the 20th century. This also has to do with the battle of the sexes because according to the reading, the soldiers were not the ones who got into trouble, but it was the prostitutes that were deported, and forced to exile remotely away from the troops.
ReplyDeleteHoganson writes about how with Americans being worried about men losing that manly fiber that is grown in a frontier environment, many thought that a war in the Philippines would be a perfect environment for American men to go and grow this manly character. Imperialists of the time thought that holding a colony in a subordinate role would help keep American men from degrading. I thought it was interesting that many used the Chinese as an example of a non-ideal manhood; they wanted to “Prevent the men of the US from degrading toward Chinese immobility and decay” (p 139). This shows that racism was playing a key role in this fear of degradation. When American troops were actually in the Philippines this fear of degradation was realized as troops began to lose self-control. Many troops became ‘brutish killers’ and rapists while many others turned to vices such as prostitution, gambling, drugs, and alcohol.
ReplyDeleteSweets response to the unethical practices that plagued his unit was to try and clean up the town. He deported, arrested and quarantined many women to try and stop the problem. He also tried to get rid of the gambling alcohol and other vices that his unit indulged in. As many said before he clearly was trying to save himself and say that he is trying to do something about it. He blames the natives of Jolo for this problem, using race as a cause for such degradation.
Simply restating other posts, I do too agree that Major Sweet deliberately covered up his blunders to Congress in effort to avoid any fallout. Sweet's war on lower-class natives, women prostitutes specifically, leads to the disjoining of the natives with Americans. Sweet believes and wants everyone to believe he is trying to end prostitution. The Americanization of the Philippines was viewed as method to develop the Filipino men into the American ideal of masculine. Warfare progressed mightily within a short The Philippine-American War was harsh and brutal. Unlike the Spanish-American War where combat was viewed as a mean to recapture manliness/backbone, the Philippine-American War was immoral and subjected the natives to harassment/abuse. War against an inferior enemy eludes to a superiority complex and the necessity to expand. In this case the US expanding its colonial power to Southeast Asia. Because of the brutish nature of the American soldier during the war, the belief of the degeneration of the American man began. Fear in the US was rapidly expanding of the harshness of war. Suffragettes began calling for female involvement in the military to combat the demise of the righteousness of the American soldier. Also, the war would bring about another generation of militaristic attitudes, which pose a threat to the advancements of women's suffrage.
ReplyDeleteHoganson brings to light the fact that the empire and consequently the Philippine-American War (‘mandatory’ to expand the empire) corrupt and cause American men to degenerate. Anti-imperialism started to notice that because of the war, American men lost ‘their allure’, their civilization and their education.
ReplyDeleteWar, contrary to what they expected, was destroying or at least undermining their manliness.
First of all, the topical conditions do not fit with the American men; they are not use to these high temperatures and make them lazy (which is not a criteria for manliness).
Moreover, war kills the most courageous and brave men and left the weak one alive. As a result it will only remain a weak society.
Anti-imperialism also emphasize the fact that principally American soldiers but also American citizens are childish since they show off and are so proud of their victories in the Philippines.
Secondly, they are gradually losing their civilization; they let their animal instincts gain the upper hand and rape women, girls every time they want/need to have sex. They also start to have homosexual relations with other soldiers, knowing that homosexuality was even less accepted in this period.
They also killed all the natives without distinction between civilian, mother, soldier, pro-American one… They started to kill everyone without thinking about the wrong or right attitude to have.
Soldier also started to mix with the population, with men while they were training them to become soldier on the side of the US but also with women, giving birth to a new ‘race’. The increase of ‘mixed children’ made the American annoyed because their race will be link with an inferior race, with colored people.
According to Hoganson, the war in the Philippines was degenerating morally, mentally and physically the American men. Soldiers became more and more like barbarians, killing everyone around them and torturing them but also insane because of the numerous venereal diseases.
As far as the suffragette is concerned, they formed the ‘National American Women Suffrage Association’ promoting the need for women to vote too. But the main argument to reject their demand was the fact that they do not fight among the men, consequently they are not allowed to vote. As a result, suffragettes started to promote nonmilitary ideals of citizenship. Their ideas were joining the one of the anti-imperialism.
Major Sweet, in his letter, deals with the prostitution problem by blaming everyone except him and his soldiers. First when he arrived, the Spanish had not settled up a system of regulation or at least officials to maintain the order in the city. Then, he declared that if something had happened it was after his departure. He also announced that the soldiers were more victims than guilty, and he presented himself has a ‘heroes’: he started investigations to know the truth, close all the gambling houses that he found and then put in place a strict police regulation. Finally, everything was under control and perfectly clear thanks to him.
In a way, he is smart to do that since he knows that none of the high officials back in the US cannot really know what is actually going on in the Philippines.
It's ironic how the idea of barbarian virtues shifted during the war. At first, the war was a grand reinstatement of manly values that would bring a generation of leaders to America. However, as the war progressed and the military began realizing the obstacles of victory, there is a general degradation of morality in the soldiers.It was blamed on the tropical conditions and lack of "civilization" in the Philippines (which corresponds to an increased interest in the U.S.) that were eroding manly character, not the soldiers fault. Major Sweet extensively sees prostitution as the problem. I viewed this entire situation as the U.S. generally pealing back Filipino culture. Ethnocentrism, as well as racism, are major forces in shaping military, and political, policy for the Philippines.
ReplyDeleteIt is clear that Americans look down on the Filipino people. This is especially clear among military leaders who would be just fine exterminating the population of the Islands. This does not mean that Americans were not taking advantage of the situation over seas; many people who had little ties to the American mainland were willing to live in the Philippines like kings and exploit the local people. However, American citizens at home were less open to the Filipino culture. Many feared the degradation of the American man because of promiscuous women, and the apparent loose moral fiber of the Islands.
ReplyDeleteAs for Major Sweet, according to him, he and his men were victims of prostitution rather than the people perpetuating it. In his letter to congress he spoke of the steps he was taking to rid the islands of this problem such as getting rid of illegal alcohol serving institutions and deporting known prostitutes.
Hoganson points out how one of the biggest fears of the war was that American men would degenerate. Looking back at the beginning of the war it is easy to see that there was an overall fear, however, many people thought that the war would build manly virtue. As the war continued, it became apparent that fears of men degenerating were very much real. Like all things there was an excuse for American soldiers behavior, this one was that it was the war and overall tropics that caused men to degenerate and act like animals. As anti-imperialists point out, the men became animal like because the war made them lack civilization, education, and morality. While reading, however, I realized that it was not just American Soldiers that were “corrupting” but also American citizens. While some arguments supported the Philippian women, the main concern was with American soldiers. It seems like the soldiers are victims because of the environment that they were put into and yet the women who are actually sexually harassed were rarely seen as victims? Again, playing the victim role was Major Sweet. Instead of taking any responsibility on himself or his soldiers he puts the blame on prostitution on everyone else. As a way of showing that he wanted to stop these lewd acts, he arrested many of the women and tried to clean up some of the gabling and drinking within his unit. Everything Major Sweet does just show that he was trying to save himself. Though he seemed to be a selfish man he also was a smart one. He knew that since American citizens were not in the Philippians it would be really hard to see the truth.
ReplyDeleteOn the heels of the Spanish-American war, intervention in the Philippines seemed a sure thing to further bolster american manhood. With new-found national unity between North and South, war seemed to be the most certain manufacturer of strong men. However, the prolonged involvement of the U.S military in the Philippines, in contrast to the brevity of the Spanish-American war, allowed for a new evolution with regard to ideas of manhood and empire. The two main struggles for Americans in the Philippines were the guerilla war that Filipino insurgents waged and the idea of uplifting the Philippines for self-government. Unsurprisingly, Weyler-esque tactics adopted by U.S generals there, such as concentration camps and the wholesale slaughter of all Filipino males over the age of ten, did nothing to promote a Filipino self-government. Not only were such brutal measures counter-intuitive to the American mission there, but ideas of furthering manhood through conflict were damaged when signs of degeneracy became evident in Americans in the Philippines. Drawing upon British models in India at the time, the U.S military essentially ran the sex trade of Manila. It is ironic that while policies in the Philippines were enacted to uplift the natives from their backwards way of life, young American men took to drinking, drugs, and prostitution. suffragettes' fears in the U.S were well-founded, given that the national metaphor of the Philippines being raped by the U.S was grounded in literal rapes of Filipina women by American soldiers. Major Sweet's actions to mandate the inspect of prostitutes was effective in its mission: reducing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases to his troops. However, the loss of morality and the endangerment of American Exceptionalism that came with such measures cost American efforts in the Philippines the undivided support of their country. Because American men clearly were not made better from their time spent fighting to further democracy in the Philippines, as was the intended mission, the best way to save face came in 1902 when President Roosevelt abruptly announced an end to Philippine war.
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