Ken jerico Sy

Ms: Arlen

Moro Massacre

Reaction paper
After the United States' military defeat of Spain in 1898 and the Treaty of Paris that
followed it, the McKinley Administration decided that the Philippines would be annexed that is, made
into a formal U.S. territory, to be governed by U.S. officials. This decision produced a storm of protest
in both the Philippines and the United States, and tens of thousands of Americans joined a new
organization, the Anti-Imperialist League, to fight the annexation decision and to denounce U.S.
expansion overseas altogether. By the time of the Moro Crater Massacre, in which U.S. forces fired
upon hundreds of poorly-armed Moros Muslim Filipinos, they had experienced near-bankruptcy, the
death of a daughter, and the death of wife. Moreover, their views in general had become ever-more
critical of American society and government. "Comments on the Moro Massacre," which was not
published in Their lifetime, reflects Their growing moral outrage in its brutal sarcasm and sense of
betrayal.

Expansion has been the United States feature of American life from manifest destiny to
Seward’s icebox. In the 1890’s, America becomes increasingly aware of itself as an emerging world
power. Henry Watterson writes “We are a great imperial Republic destined to exercise a controlling
influence upon the actions of mankind and to affect the future of the world” Opposition to this claim is
shown through Samuel Clemens’ Samuel Clemens, also referred to as the infamous pen name “Mark
Twain” uses a mind with a pen rather than an arm holding a firearm, as a weapon of satire. He was an
active anti-imperialistic leader biased against U.S expansion. He demonstrates this bias belief in his
influential writing “Comments of the Moro Massacre” which contradicts the yellow journalism glorifying
the battle. Commander of the American forces in the Philippines, General Leonard Wood, ordered; “Kill
or Capture the six hundred” leading to the commencement of war . The or was taken as to see fit
according to taste And the army followed as it has always done, with a palette of Christian Butchers.
The war concludes with six hundred Moros sentenced to death in comparison to fifteen American
“heroes” put to rest. “The enemy numbered six hundred – including women and children – and we
abolished them utterly, leaving not even a baby alive to cry for its dead mother ” Clemens’ sarcastically
remarks this as the greatest victory ever accomplished by the Christian Soldiers of the United States.
Symbolically, throughout this war the U.S holds the high ground, standing over the underdeveloped
Moro tribe who were stuck in the crater they now lay in. He uses imagery of the six hundred Moros
consisting of men, women, and children being annihilated from a higher position held above them
almost.