HISTORY 1301 – Mark Twain, Returning Home, an article in New York

Document 3Mark Twain, Returning Home, an article in New YorkWorld (1900)You ask me about what is called imperialism. Well, I have formed views about thatquestion. I am unsure if our people are for or against spreading themselves over theface of the globe. I should be sorry if they are for it, for I don’t think that it is wiseor a necessary development. We have no more business in… any other country thatis not ours. There is the case of the Philippines. I have tried hard, and yet I cannotfor the life of me comprehend how we got into that mess. Perhaps we could nothave avoided it –perhaps it was inevitable that we should come to be fighting thenatives of those islands –butI cannot understand it, and have never been able to get at the bottom of the originof our resentment toward the natives. I thought we shouldact as their protector –not try to get them under our control. We were to relievethem from Spanish rule to enable them to set up a government of their own, and wewere to stand by and see that it got a fair trial. It was not to be a governmentaccording to our ideas, but a government that represented the feeling of themajority of the Filipinos, a government according to Filipino ideas. That wouldhave been a worthy mission for the United States. But now –why, we havegot into a mess, a quagmire from which each fresh step renders the difficulty ofgetting out immensely greater.Questions:1)Is Mark Twain for or against Imperialism? Why?2) What are two aspects of U.S. Imperialism that Twain disagrees with?3) Does Twain think that the United States acting as a “protector” of certainnations is acceptable? Cite specific evidence from the text.