Legacies of Spanish-American War: Political, Governmental, and Constitutional

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

This panel conducts an overdue investigation of one of effect of the Spanish-American War and the 1898 Treat of Paris on the American state, broadly understood. The addition of these new island territories permanently altered the politics and government of the United States and challenges understandings from the Founding of the United States as a federal republic. In particular, the Treaty of Paris produced new conflicts over race and military service, challenged existing veterans' policies, altered existing systems of political representation for the territories, and created a longstanding dependencies that continue to fit uneasily within the US political system.

Julie Novkov investigates how Asian-American and Filipino soldiers and sailors occupied a complex, liminal space amid the narratives of American military success and US empire. She uses primary and secondary sources to show how US policymakers struggled to recognize the contributions of Chinese-American and Japanese-American war veterans amid the widespread anti-Asian sentiments of European Americans dating since the 1850s. They also grappled with the rights of Filipino war veterans so as to determine if they were citizens, subjects, or something else, given their service in the Navy and Army Scouts.

Colin Moore looks at Filipino war veterans of WWII, who again faced issues of racial discrimination with respect to medical and pension benefits. With the Trump Administration’s August 2019 decision to end special immigration privileges for Filipino veterans, the race-based legacies of empire and colonial inequality continue to impact public policy.

Jonathan Lewallen studies one of the implications of the inclusion of Puerto Rico and the Philippines as liminal members of the US political system. He examines the establishment of the US House Resident Commissioners, where the delegates from the new island territories were not treated the same as those from the continental U.S. territories (Alaska was not formally organized as a territory until 1912). He shows the distinct politics behind the establishment of the "resident commissioners" and reveals how their behaviors at once differed from other House representatives and exerted lasting effects on the role of the subsequent territorial delegates and the representative from the District of Columbia.

Bartholomew Sparrow reviews congressional and court records to show how Puerto Rico and the other US territories have occupied and continue to occupy a strange position in the constitutional system of government, and how neither Congress, nor the Executives, nor the Courts, nor Puerto Rico itself have been able to find a solution to the odd situation they find themselves in: as colonies, or dependencies, in a political society founded on republicanism, individuals rights, and resistance to domination.

Sub Unit

• Division 7: Politics and History

Individual Presentations

• Asians or Filipinos or Veterans? Service and Citizenship after 1898 - Julie L. Novkov, University at Albany, SUNY

• Second-Class Heroes: Filipino Veterans and the Legacies of Empire - Colin D. Moore, University of Hawaii

• "Congress's Loneliest Job": Establishing the U.S. House Resident Commissioners - Jonathan Lewallen, University of Tampa

• Litigation Island: The Political and Constitutional Status of Puerto Rico - Bartholomew H. Sparrow, The University of Texas at Austin

Chair

• Rogers M. Smith University of Pennsylvania

Discussants

• Kathleen S. Sullivan Ohio University

• Rogers M. Smith University of Pennsylvania