The First US War Overseas Was A Genocide—It Was Erased From History
Posted by Christopher Blackwell on June 11, 2026, 3:58 pm
LEE CAMP dtSprnooesY90ml rgmfut3hs 9eu0iae9ai5a9u91Mdt2:a56y4tAh f6g8 · 🚨 The First US War Overseas Was A Genocide—It Was Erased From History 🚨 During the Spanish-American War, which was largely created by US propaganda, the US went after Spanish colonial territories — one of those being the Philippines. In the Battle of Manila Bay in 1898, the US won a decisive victory, destroying the Spanish Pacific fleet. Afterward, one might think the Americans would turn around and sail home, singing sea shanties with grog in hand. …But no.
President McKinley decided it made more sense to try to take over the entire Philippines even though few Americans knew what it was or where it was.
About this decision, McKinley stated: “One night late, it came to me this way. There was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos and uplift them and Christianize them, and by God’s grace do the very best we could for them, as our fellow men for who Christ also died.” (Quotes are from the book "Overthrow".)
It’s unclear if the hundreds of thousands of Filipinos who would die in McKinley’s pursuit felt uplifted by the experience. Also interesting is the fact that McKinley believed there was “nothing” else he could do but subjugate, oppress, convert, and control the Filipino people. Apparently no one made him aware of the idea of leaving them alone. (I bet when he heard about that years later, it was a real head-smack moment.)
Prior to the arrival of the Americans, there were already Filipino guerrilla forces fighting against the Spanish colonizers. After the Battle of Manila Bay, the head of those forces, Emilio Aguinaldo, met with Commodore George Dewey, the head of the US naval force. The two of them differed on what happened at that meeting. Aguinaldo believed they had agreed to defeat Spain together, at which point the Filipino people would have their independence.
Dewey later claimed that’s not at all what happened. But then again the two of them didn’t speak each other’s language, and there was no interpreter. Also, the United States has broken every promise it has ever made to indigenous people — so this was just par for the course.
A few months later the US and Spain signed the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898, which brought the Spanish-American War to a close. In the agreement, the US paid Spain $20 million for the entire Philippine archipelago, which consisted of 7,000 islands and was home to 7 million people who had no idea they’d just been sold from one colonizer to another. (That means the US paid $2.85 per Filipino.)
The Filipino people proceeded with implementing their newfound independence. They approved a constitution, created a republic, and proclaimed Aguinaldo president.
“Twelve days later, this new nation declared war against the United States forces on the islands. McKinley took no notice. To him the Filipinos were what the historian Richard Welch called ‘a disorganized and helpless people.’”
Oddly, at this time in American history, some percentage of Congress believed the US should not be a dastardly and repulsive imperial hegemon. (I know. I’m as shocked as you are.) Therefore, the Senate (for a bit) refused to ratify the Treaty of Paris.
“Senator George Frisbie Hoar of Massachusetts warned that it would turn the United States into a ‘a vulgar, commonplace empire founded upon physical force, controlling subject races and vassal states, in which one class must forever rule and the other classes must forever obey.’” Ha! Can you imagine that? The US would never do something so grotesque! …except for the next 125 years and counting.
Hmmm, so how can America’s ruling psychopaths get Congress to play along with the subjugation of 7 million Filipinos? I bet those pesky politicians would change their tune if the US forces in the Philippines were attacked by the barbarians who lived there. Oh, what do you know?! That’s exactly what happened next!
During the Senate’s debate, the Filipino rebels attacked the American forces in Manila. This helped push the Senate to finally ratify the treaty. …But it was later revealed that the American troops actually fired the first shots. So we can see the US tradition of false flags used to drag us into bloody wars goes back quite a way. (Apparently, the long arc of history bends towards repeating itself.)
In the battles that followed, the Filipinos—up against superior US weaponry—used every guerrilla tactic they could think of in order to defend their land, families, villages, and lives. The Americans responded with genocide. In just one example:
“General Wheaton ordered every town and village within twelve miles to be destroyed and their inhabitants killed.”
The US military worked to stop any reporting of the ethnic cleansing from getting back to the home audience. Eventually, in 1901, some of the extent of the horror made its way into US newspapers. Average Americans found out the troops were using torture, rape, and ethnic cleansing to subdue the local population. They rarely differentiated between combatants and noncombatants.
“‘We have actually come to do the thing we went to war to banish,’ the Baltimore American lamented. The Indianapolis News concluded that the United States had adopted ‘the methods of barbarism,’ and the New York Post declared that American troops ‘have been pursuing a policy of wholesale and deliberate murder.’”
Of course, plenty of US newspapers fell all over themselves to defend the genocidal colonizers. Can you guess which rag led the way?
“The New York Times argued that ‘brave and loyal officers’ had reacted understandably to the ‘cruel, treacherous, murderous’ Filipinos.”
In early 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt had succeeded the recently assassinated McKinley. In yet another moment of foreshadowing, Roosevelt — pretending to care — pushed for hearings in the Senate to address the charges of misconduct by American forces. Teddy then got his allies to steadfastly limit the scope of the hearings. The committee never even issued a final report.
As with the Warren Commission on the assassination of JFK and the 9/11 Commission, the mere appearance of an effort to “figure it out” was enough to distract the American public. The commissions never got to the truth, nor were they meant to.
By July of 1902, Teddy Roosevelt announced that the Philippines had been pacified. Most of the rebel leaders had been killed, and the indigenous population had given up its resistance.
“In three and a half torturous years of war, 4,374 American soldiers were killed… About 16,000 guerrillas and at least 20,000 civilians were also killed. Filipinos remember those years as some of the bloodiest in their history. Americans quickly forgot that the war ever happened.”
Britannica puts the death toll higher: "An estimated 20,000 Filipino combatants were killed, and more than 200,000 civilians perished as a result of combat, hunger, or disease." The first time US troops ever fought overseas they committed genocide. It does not seem that much has changed over 125 years. ----------------------------------------------- Ironically I first learned about this in the Marines, in my Marine Corps history class.
The first overseas war fought by the United States was the First Barbary War (1801–1805).
I was taught about our ten year long war against the Philippines in my Marine Corps history class.
In our regular school history classes they do not mention it at all, just our shorter war with Spain. The Filipinos had been fighting against Spain before us. Neither country had any right to the Philippines.
In the Marine history it was suggested that 300,000 Filipinos, or more, died fighting us. Nothing unusual in our history of fighting within our own country.
...but expected as an indoctrination process of the military.
Re: Hardly convincing...
Posted by Christopher Blackwell on June 12, 2026, 2:28 pm, in reply to "Hardly convincing..."
Allah Fubar * The Marines, like the rest of the military, are far more likely to understate, rather than overstate, the number of people they kill. Especially when killing non-white people.
Countries that create colonies have history of treating the people they take over viciously. There is no such thing as a nice conqueror. Rape, rob, and plunder is what conquering is all about.
Sorry if you cannot deal with reality in history.
The US Military likes us white folk better than they like the darkies?
That’s doubtful. And causes me to believe you might be a self hating white. Regarding genocide, the Philippines are the least of the murderous outrages. Let’s start with the American indigenous population. Next add in the South. Next include the Plains Indians. I’m told we as a people are “exceptional”. Except..,,,
Re: The US Military likes us white folk better than they like the darkies?
GOG, Judging by the long history of badly treating non-whites in the military up to and including then present time, I would think it was rather obvious.
As for being a self hating white person, first I would have to shelf-identify with being white. I have never identified with being white. I have never understood the oddities of the alleged white culture. I am human, no special attachment to my ancestors, not responsible for what they may have done, no illusions about them either.
then I must reassess my comment. You are not self-hating, but a racist. A strong accusation not meant to be. I’m simply not understanding your retreat from the herd social fabric. Translate your handle to mean a black Christian? You could have used Christopher Whitehead. There are 8 billion reasons for disdain. We know our psychology. You post the defects. Musk wants to retreat to Mars.
Re: If you are not white,
Posted by Christopher Blackwell on June 13, 2026, 10:23 am, in reply to "If you are not white,"
GOG, as I have stated I have never hated anything nor anyone. Hatred devours the person doing the hatred. I just never identified with term white as my parent never used the term. Nor did the friends that I have had.
I have never needed to be part of any group. I could work with groups on certain things that I agreed with. But mostly I lived outside of groups as an outsider, never needing to belong. Groups tend to develop internal politics and political conflicts.
