The anti-imperialists in the United States, unified in the Anti-Imperialist League (AIL) used race among various other arguments to oppose the annexation of the Philippines after the Spanish...Show moreThe anti-imperialists in the United States, unified in the Anti-Imperialist League (AIL) used race among various other arguments to oppose the annexation of the Philippines after the Spanish-American War (1898). The primary argument of the AIL was that the annexation devalued the American founding principles, although other arguments, such as race, were raised as well. Earlier works have examined the relation between race and (anti-) imperialism in the context of American imperialism at the end of the nineteenth century, albeit in a broader context. This thesis aims to determine in what ways race was fundamental to the AIL’s views of the annexation of the Philippines. To determine how fundamental race was to these views, this thesis analyses documents and speeches of six AIL members, belonging to three different movements within the AIL: the rights activists, the Social Darwinists, and the white supremacists. These documents show that the perception of race plays a role in structuring the argument of race, yet it also structures other political, administrative, and labor-related arguments. These results show that the perception of race was fundamental in the shaping of several arguments against annexation.Show less
