Does America have a special relation with its former colonies like the Philippines or Liberia?

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Suspicious_Act_7858@reddit

The answer is yes.

The colonization of the Philippines is a huge reason why they love the US today. The United States is by far and away the largest destination of Filipino immigrants, and being a former US colony has a lot to do with that.

Similar vein with Japan. The US essentially ran Japan after WWII, and because of the policies instituted during those times, today the US and Japan have a phenomenal relationship, despite what we did to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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Slow_D-oh@reddit

>despite what we did to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Everyone knows that was Cow and Chicken. Unfortunately the Japanese were confused and thought it was Whale and Dolphin although that was recently corrected by the US Government via a Special Envoy from Colorado.

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UltraShadowArbiter@reddit

Explain your analogies please.

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Slow_D-oh@reddit

A SouthPark episode where Stan and Kyle join the crew from the show "Whale Wars", a flash in the pan reality show where the crew were defending* whales from Japanese whalers. Instead of posturing and talking about how bad ass they are, Stan kills the crew of a whaling ship.

Later they end up in Japan and ask the head of the Hiroshima museum why they want to kill all the whales and dolphins. He shows them a picture of the Enola Gay that the US gave them, only it has a whale and dolphin at the controls and explaining their anger. Later, Stan is authorized by the US Government to show them the REAL picture where the actual pilots are revealed to be a cow and chicken. The Japanese then turn their anger towards them and start slaughtering ever cow and chicken they see. Or, as Randy says at the end, "makes them like us".

*They even faked the Capitan getting shot.

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We_R_the_Penguins@reddit

I mean… that was nothing compared to Tokyo. Okay, not nothing, but much less property damage and many fewer lives lost. They also knew what more firebombing and a ground invasion would have cost.

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AcanthaceaeOk3738@reddit

The U.S. doesn't really have former colonies in the traditional sense.

There are many places that were formerly occupied by the U.S., like the Philippines, South Korea and Iraq. In all cases though, there was a plan in place from early on to end the occupation, and that happened.

The Marshall Islands, Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia do have a bit of a special relationship, known as a Compact of Free Association. They get various economy benefits, the U.S. gets military privileges. But, again, they weren't territories -- they were German and then Japanese islands the UN took, and tasked the U.S. with administering unit the 90s. But again, the plan was always to get rid of them.

The U.S. exercises its international power in different ways. Not through traditional colonialism.

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Ix_fromBetelgeuse7@reddit

What do you call places like American Samoa, Guam, and Puerto Rico?

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sparksbet@reddit

The technical term for them is US territories, but yeah they're colonies in all but name. Ignoring them while discussing former territories like X is... a choice.

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AcanthaceaeOk3738@reddit

I’d call them territories. But even if you want to call them colonies, they’re current colonies. Question was about former colonies.

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SaltyEngineer45@reddit

The Philippines yes. We have a big military presence there and many Filipino people join the US military to fast track US Citizenship. As for Liberia, I would argue that many Americans never even heard of it. While it’s not a secret, it’s just not talked about very often. It was an attempt to send former slaves back to Africa with the hopes that they could establish their own autonomous nation. It failed miserably.

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SnooCupcakes9068@reddit

Cuba was an American protectorate until the 1930s. Guam and Liberia too. Puerto Rico is a territory Hawaii was a colony before 1950s. I think the difference between protectorate and colony is a colony becomes peopled by the colonizing country like our 13 colonies or French colonies in Canada, Louisiana Territory. I dont think any Americans went to live in Guam or The Philippines or Cuba

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TillPsychological351@reddit

I would argue that Liberia wasn't a US colony, rather a colonial enterprise started by private US citizens. Many European colonies in Africa started as similar private ventures, only to later by nationalized by their respective governments. Liberia never underwent a similar evolution with respect to the US. As such, there's not much a special relationship between the two countries.

It's somewhat different from the Philippines. I don't think "colony" is quite the best description either, since that implies either a settlement or extractive venture, neither of which really describes the US's role in the Philippines. Rather, it was more like an outpost to project power into the region, and secure access to Chinese markets.

That being said, the US has more of an ongoing, somewhat complicated relationship with the Philippines. The US long kept a military presence in the country, and although there are no longer any permanently assignment bases in the country (like Germany, Japan and Korea), US service members regularly do rotations in the Philippines. The US also still pays the pensions of some Philippine military personnel.

Plus, there's a lot of familial connections between the two countries.

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Shoshuaa@reddit

No.

I would even go further and offer that most Americans don't even know about our special past with the Philippines, Liberia, and I would add Cuba. I would very much hesitate calling Liberia a former colony; the Philippines you could make a better case for.

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ScatterTheReeds@reddit

Americans do know about these countries. They’re at least mentioned in school. The only thing is that some people, years ago, thought that the people in Philippines spoke Spanish, but they speak their native languages.

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Drew707@reddit

People did speak Spanish in the Philippines, but it has largely died off with Tagalog and English remaining dominant. You can still see the influence in many Filipino names. Hell, even "Filipino/Filipina" is Spanish-coded.

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ScatterTheReeds@reddit

Yes, and I spoke to someone (gotta be 20 years ago now) who thought that they only spoke Spanish. The Spaniards tried to make that happen, but they speak Tagalog along with other dialects.

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Drew707@reddit

I see what you mean. They don't even all speak Spanish in Spain lol.

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ScatterTheReeds@reddit

🤔 Basque?

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Drew707@reddit

Basque, Catalan, Galician, and some others I am forgetting.

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SnooCupcakes9068@reddit

In Madrid they speak Spanish and in Andalucia and Sevilla.

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Drew707@reddit

Castilian is the main language of most of the country, don't get me wrong, but many people learn it as a second language or in parallel to a more local language. They have five co-official languages along with protected languages.

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CatheriWells@reddit

And in Tagalog, many food words are the same as in Spanish.

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Dave_A480@reddit

How do you get Cuba as a 'US colony'? The US has never governed it...

Liberia was populated by people the US wanted nothing to do with (ex-slaves)

The Philippines was an actual US colony.

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Shoshuaa@reddit

I agree with you. I never said Cuba was a colony, just that we have a "special" relationship with it. It was a protectorate that Spain ceded.

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BoringPrinciple2542@reddit

Cuba was never even a U.S. territory. We merely held it under military occupation for 3 years immediately following the Spanish American war & then a second 3 year period when their government collapsed in 1906 (there were several military interventions in the following 20 years but those were not occupations). That doesn’t really qualify as a colony.

Liberia as you pointed out wasn’t really a colony either; that was more of a way to dump a bunch of freed slaves and not have to deal with them.

The Philippines one absolutely could argue was a colony as we formally recognized them as a U.S. territory & maintained control for almost 50 years but we actually do have something of a special relationship with the Philippines (EDCA, USG is largest investor in their economy, close diplomatic ties, etc).

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PacSan300@reddit

The Philippines is also classified as a “Major Non-NATO Ally” of the US.

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Shoshuaa@reddit

Didn't say Cuba was a colony, just qualified it with "special past" because we declared it a protectorate following the Spanish-American War. I would still say most Americans don't know this.

Not arguing or attacking! Just defending my word choice.

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PacSan300@reddit

I my history classes, we learned basically nothing about US rule over the Philippines except in the context of the Spanish-American War, and WW2 (notably about General MacArthur’s “I shall return”).

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Suspicious_Act_7858@reddit

The Philippines was a literal colony. You don’t even have to make an argument for it. It was a colony.

We legally owned the Philippines after Spain ceded the territory to the US in 1898 until we voluntarily granted them independence in 1946 after retaking the islands from the Japanese. It was a straight up colony, no if’s and’s or but’s about it.

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Proud-Delivery-621@reddit

It depends on the state, as usual. I don't remember being taught about the Phillippines in school. If we did it was a very small footnote with little actual information other than the date of the treaty or something like that.

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Suspicious_Act_7858@reddit

Everything depends on the state, but I can almost promise you you were taught this.

A lot of American history that people say “they don’t teach” they actually DO teach, you all just don’t remember it 20 years later. But this has been in almost every curriculum for decades.

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fasterthanfood@reddit

A lot of American history that people say “they don’t teach, they actually DO teach, you all just don’t remember it 20 years later.

I think this raises the question of what it means to “teach” something. On the one hand, it’s not the school system’s fault if Little Johnny can’t read despite 12 years of intensive efforts to teach him to read. At the other extreme, one paragraph in the assigned reading that doesn’t even get mentioned in class, out of the millions of words we’re expected to consume, doesn’t seem like it really counts.

When schools really want to teach you something, they emphasize it and repeat it (I can remember learning half a dozen times about how humans crossed the Bering Land Bridge to settle North America; it’s ironic that after I graduated I learned that scholars think that’s not primarily how the hemisphere was populated).

Other times, information is presented basically as context for the real lesson, which might be a takeaway as brief as “the United States decisively won the Spanish-American war and acquired territory worldwide as a result, marking the end of Spain as a world power and the beginning of America as a world power.”

(For what it’s worth, the lesson as I recall was that the U.S. acquired Cuba — the main emphasis — as well as Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and “other stuff.” I definitely remember being surprised in college when a professor mentioned that the Japanese bombed the Philippines at the same time as Pearl Harbor, and another class talked about some of the brutal stuff that happened in the Philippines… I had no memory of learning or thinking about when the Philippines STOPPED being an American territory.)

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Proud-Delivery-621@reddit

Out of curiosity I went and pulled up the state standards for History in K-12 education. The only requirement for the Spanish-American War is:

Objective 6.3.1: Describe the sequence of events that led to the Spanish-American War.

Objective 6.3.2: Describe the consequences of the SpanishAmerican War on the United States.

Additional content to be taught: • Identifying major people involved in the Spanish-American War Examples: Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders, William Gorgas •

Locating major territories that were part of the treaty ending the Spanish-American War

That's consistent with my memory of it.

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Proud-Delivery-621@reddit

I'm talking specifically about our colonial relationship with the Phillippines (Spanish-American War, Phillippine-American War, etc). Yeah, we were taught about their role in the Pacific Theater. The Spanish-American War and its effects were a much less important topic in school.

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FilthyMindz69@reddit

I was and all about McArthur at the same Time.

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Shoshuaa@reddit

And I didn't learn about the relationship with Liberia until my civil war class in college. Never a mention of it in primary school.

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pgm123@reddit

I was taught it as a general part of abolitionist efforts without golf into the details of how deep the relationship went. It was in high school, not primary school, though.

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Shoshuaa@reddit

I'm a dumbass, I meant secondary/high school.

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LoreKeeperOfGwer@reddit

i can actually say, because i have all my history books from school, that in arkansas, from 1993 to 2004, not a single one of our history or sociology books mentioned puerto rico, the phillipines, or liberia in more than a single sentence, we had the same books from sociology books from 3rd ti 6th grade and the same histiry books, from 3rd to 9th grade, i went to 7 different schools between 3rd and 12th grade, ive got multiple copies of the same 3 books. its changed a whole hell of a lot since then, but my nephew, who is 14, doesnt even know where the philipines are. i didnt learn about them in any kind of detail until college history courses.

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Practical-Ordinary-6@reddit

And Liberia never was a colony of the United States. It was founded by an independent organization called the American Colonization Society. You could say it was a colony of a non-profit group. From there it went to independent status as a sovereign country in 1847, long before the Civil War.

I used to live in Liberia and it's safe to say that Liberians know far more about the US than Americans know about Liberia. Liberians have a special relationship with the US. I don't think Americans have a special relationship with Liberia except that the governmental level.

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OldRaj@reddit

Which is better: a literal colony, a colony, or an actual colony?

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Suspicious_Ad_6271@reddit

I find it funny that their profile says “Naturalized Mainer”

Remember the Maine!

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94grampaw@reddit

The Philippines yes, Liberia no.

As there are alot of Filipino's in the US.

Ive never met a Liberian.

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giraflor@reddit

Liberians sometimes get lumped in with other West Africans and people just don’t realize that the person they know isn’t from Nigeria, for example.

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94grampaw@reddit

Also, there are 44 Filipinos for every Liberian in the US.

If you have ever been to a hospital in the US you have probably met a Filipina.

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anonymouse278@reddit

I used to work with a Liberian doctor! But yes, he was wildly outnumbered in the hospital by Filipina nurses.

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Crab-_-Objective@reddit

You could probably drop the probably. Even if you didn’t talk to them, 5 minutes in a hospital will result in a Filipina walking past you.

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DelcoUnited@reddit

Well you understand the whole concept of Liberia is for African Americans to emigrate to Liberia correct?

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Firefly_Magic@reddit

The problem is, when African Americans went to Liberia in the 1800s, they started doing to their own people what they didn’t want done to them in the trans Atlantic slave trade. They enslaved other blacks. Who would’ve thunk it??? 😳

A lot of Americans don’t know this part about history because it gets messy and confusing and schools don’t want to teach it. It doesn’t fit political narratives that are currently dividing the citizens.

If more people took time to know history, they wouldn’t be so angry with each other today. But the politicians like it when the people are angry and divided because they’re easier to control that way.

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External-Slip3578@reddit

Yeah so if you want to meet Liberians you need to go to Liberia. If they came back to the United States they would just become Americans again.

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JudgeJuryEx78@reddit

Not without...going through the whole immigration process.

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External-Slip3578@reddit

Tell that to 90 percent of the people on Reddit and they will call you a fascist.

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MyUsername2459@reddit

Any more strawmen you want to attack today, or was that your quota?

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JudgeJuryEx78@reddit

Who did, a long time ago. Today they're just Liberians.

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ScatterTheReeds@reddit

I’ve only met one Liberian.

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TheGaujo@reddit

Whatever you do don't ask them about legalizing drugs!

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ScatterTheReeds@reddit

🤓 ok

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TheGaujo@reddit

Try not returning your books on time and they will find you!

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External-Slip3578@reddit

Yes and they will act all snooty too!

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anyname6789@reddit

Shhhhhhhh!

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SeamusPM1@reddit

Minneapolis has the largest population of Liberians in the country. They host a Liberian Independence Day celebration every year. I only know because I used to work with a Liberian.

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Ok-Possibility-9826@reddit

It’s my experience that you can run into a lotta Liberian folks in DC.

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Ok-Possibility-9826@reddit

I mean… no, not really. America barely even acknowledges its nearest territory (Puerto Rico).

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PghSubie@reddit

What more should we do to acknowledge Puerto Rico? There are plenty of people who don't even realize that New Mexico is a state. I don't think that Liberia nor Philippines were colonies per se. Liberia was founded by Americans and Philippines had been Spanish until its people starting fighting for independence then Spain lost it (dumped it?) after the Spanish American war. But, neither were really "colonies"

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Oliver_W_K_Twist@reddit

The Philippines were absolutely an American colony. We lost thousands of soldiers fighting the independence movement after we took them from Spain. We invested in building schools, infrastructure, military bases. We had thousands of soldiers and wings of bombers and fighters stationed there at the outbreak of WWII, under the command of General MacArthur.

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SatisfactionHour1722@reddit

New Mexico is a state?!!?

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The3rdBert@reddit

I fail to recognize their ascension. Fly a 49 state flag

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BlueSoloCup89@reddit

There’s a New Mexico?!?

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SeventyFix@reddit

Right?!? Just how many Mexicos are there exactly???

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No_Profession1935@reddit

Just make it the 51st state already and leave our (former) bff Canada alone

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snmnky9490@reddit

Not really. I don't think most Americans would know that we used to have colonies

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kjlsdjfskjldelfjls@reddit

Puerto Rico is a colony in everything but name, now

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Worstmodonreddit@reddit

And they aren't the only colony

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snmnky9490@reddit

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B8s6ELgCcAAxKua.png

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Kirbo_Lord@reddit (OP)

I guess that makes sense, I have never heard of either of these countries being mentioned in American media much, so I was suprised to see they have a history with America. Apparently Liberia was only a ‘private’ colony which confuses me more now. Fun Fact their capital is named after a US president

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anneofgraygardens@reddit

The back to Africa movement and the Liberia colony is pretty interesting. But yeah, it wasn't what I would call a colony, since it wasn't organized by the US government. However, as far as I can tell, the colonists were complete assholes to the indigenous people anyway! It's like there's something about colonialism....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back-to-Africa_movement

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Liberia#Americo-Liberian_rule_(1847%E2%80%931980)

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Proud-Delivery-621@reddit

Liberia was created by a private US organization that promoted the idea of repatriating Black slaves and former slaves to Africa. Of course, they were all sent to the same place with little deference to their actual origin and many of them were second or more generation descendants of the original slaves so it ended up being a colonial state like any other.

The Phillippines are a little more classic colonialism, but it wasn't something we founded. We won them in a war against Spain (in 1898) and then held them for a few decades until they declared their independence and rebelled. After a bloody war and quite a few American atrocities, and then World War II, we finally acknowledged their independence in 1946.

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CockroachNo2540@reddit

In the 1980s The Philippines was more prominently featured in the news because of the overthrow of Ferdinand Marcos. Marcos had a strong relationship with the US. The Philippines also has/had a lot of US military presence.

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Raibean@reddit

We still have colonies

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snmnky9490@reddit

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B8s6ELgCcAAxKua.png

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I_Am_Mandark_Hahaha@reddit

A lot of Americans don't know this but the US has a mutual defense treaty with the Philippines. This is similar to article 5 of NATO. If the US gets attacked or invaded, they are obligated by treaty to support us and vice versa.

Now take this in the context of China being aggressive towards the Philippines right now because of the territorial dispute over islands in the south China Sea.

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TheFishtosser@reddit

The US being committed to protecting the Philippines is why Pearl Harbor happened

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SideEyeFeminism@reddit

I mean, partially. There were also oil considerations. Shockingly just not ours for once.

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The3rdBert@reddit

The Japanese couldn’t take the Dutch East Indies for the oil without taking the Philippines. Thus why war with the US was unavoidable if they were to take that route.

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SnooCupcakes9068@reddit

Dont think the Phillipines were an American colony. They were a Spanish colony named after King Phillip

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jezzarus@reddit

Yes to the Philippines. It’s one of the strongest and most strategic US allies, and Filipino culture is highly present in the US relative to other immigrant communities.

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MMAGG83@reddit

Fucking love Filipinos. Great food and always great for a party.

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OwnLime3744@reddit

Then there is Cuba....

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jephph_@reddit

fun fact- Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, is named after US President James Monroe

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DontReportMe7565@reddit

90% of Americans dont even know the Philippines was a "colony". But there are lots of Filipinos in the US. All the polls show they really like America and we really like anyone who likes us.

Not so much Liberia.

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OceanPoet87@reddit

Liberia was not a colony. It supported the removal of free blacks and former slaves but was not administered by the US. That protection did keep it from being colonized but that was about it.

The Phillipines had a lot more impact.

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Ok_Orchid1004@reddit

No the average American couldn’t care less about Liberia or the Philippines. And Liberia was never a colony of the USA.

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thisunrest@reddit

As an American, I can only speak for myself and not all Americans, but no, I don’t have any special knowledge about the former site of American colonies, or the cultures around them.

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natoned1@reddit

Guam and Samoa?

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TipsyBaker_@reddit

Other than import half the Filipino population as our Healthcare workers, not really.

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GrayEagle825@reddit

America doesn’t have former colonies. Those were protectorates.

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AZJHawk@reddit

Liberia was not a colony of the US.

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External-Slip3578@reddit

Liberia was not an American colony.

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Blue387@reddit

There are Filpinos here in the US and Jollibee has opened up places across the tristate area

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stopsallover@reddit

Sure but that doesn't mean people learn history.

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jigokubi@reddit

I see Filipinos all the time at work, and I had no idea the Philippines were once a US colony.

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NekoArtemis@reddit

They are Americans tho and they know their country of origin or ancestry's history. But yeah that's not the question as intended.

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Danibear285@reddit

That’s the neat part:

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LifeAdhesiveness8071@reddit

Anyone interested in read a book about the history of American colonization there's a good one called How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States.

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Lower_Neck_1432@reddit

Philippines, yes. Liberia, no.

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Jubilies@reddit

The military has a large Filipino community.

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capsrock02@reddit

No

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CraftFamiliar5243@reddit

No never, not in gym class, not in the playground.

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PMismydream24@reddit

American colonies" typically refers to its five permanently inhabited territories. These areas—Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands—are often described by political scientists and legal experts as modern-day colonies or overseas

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Sabertooth767@reddit

I don't think the average person considers those to be former colonies in a meaningful sense.

Liberia isn't even a former colony in the eyes of the US government, there was never a charter to establish it. The ACS kinda just... did it. You could do some wild shit back then lmao.

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snmnky9490@reddit

Philippines seems pretty colonial

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Engine_Sweet@reddit

A lot of that was because the US didn't want anybody else to have them.

There was a vague desire to cut them loose, but once Japan became a potential adversary, that wasn't happening until after the wsr

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TangerineDream92064@reddit

Liberia wasn't a colony. The Philippines were briefly. Americans who live near military bases would be aware that the U.S. and the Philippines have long had a joint cooperative program training officers. This is part of the reason there are many Filipino people in major cities near military bases in the U.S. I know several Filipino people including my neighbors. I am happy to live within about a 10 minutes drive of at least three Filipino restaurants. I like lumpia and all their desserts.

Despite the comments below, not all Americans are completely ignorant. I think it varies by state.

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WordNumSC@reddit

I think the military acknowledges a special relationship with the Philippines. A lot of Filipinos are very proud to serve and the military references history more than the rest of the country does

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PossibilityOk782@reddit

Most Americans do not even know we sent people to Liberia after they were freed from slavery.

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AfterAllBeesYears@reddit

If they took AP US History (APUSH) in high school, they would have been taught about. AP classes are a little more standardized across all school districts, but that's because the College Board administers a nationwide test for all AP classes. Each district can still chose one of a handful of textbooks that the AP approves to be used for APUSH, so there will be some differences in what everyone learns, but it shouldn't be a huge difference. (There's no guarantee that they were paying attention in class in the first place, but it was definitely covered)

If they did not take APUSH, it's usually a pretty safe assumption that they wouldn't know much, if anything, about them. If they do, it would probably be because they watched a random video on YouTube that talked about it, but that probably wouldn't come up naturally in conversation.

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Both_Painter_9186@reddit

Liberia was never a colony so no idea what you’re talking about.

Everyone knows about the Philippines to an extent. I bet most Americans think it still is a colony as theirs a ton of Filipino Americans. Despite not being a colony anymore and the Philippines being… complicated, we have defense agreements with them and the relationship is pretty cordial.

What other former colonies are you talking about? Most others are states or territories to this day.

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tivofanatico@reddit

There is a special relationship with regard to nursing. The U.S. has been open arms with Filipino nurses to immigrate there for many decades.

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Armin_Tamzarian987@reddit

MAGA does have a special relationship with the Liberian flag emoji

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Shoddy-Secretary-712@reddit

I don't think so. I have Filipino family members who are involved in a local Filipino community group that does a lot of cultural events, and most people I know in the area are surprised how large our local Filipino/ Filipino American community is, yet alone know much about their culture.

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Josemite@reddit

Many Americans don't even know our current colonies (e.g. Puerto Rico) are part of the US

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Next-Bit883@reddit

Lol, exactly. I've read a couple of articles about Puerto Ricans being denied rental cars/airline boarding because the clerks did not know that a PR drivers license is a legitimate US DL. PR man denied rental car

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einsteinGO@reddit

No

I’m sure people who are X country-Americans do, but otherwise no (especially as policy)

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AppropriateDark5189@reddit

I don't think the average American does. Most Americans don't even realize that France provided the most support to America during the Revolution.

I work with teams in the Philippines that I consider friends on a daily basis so I do know (they send me dried mango). I grew up with a couple friends from Puerto Rico so I learned from them too.

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capndiln@reddit

Almost half of america thinks Puerto Rico is a foreign country.

Most have little or no knowledge of failed/lost american colonies. Teaching that in school would be unpatriotic.

The only reason many americans would recognize the word Liberia is that they are one of two other countries that use imperial measurements.

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glowing-fishSCL@reddit

There are three independent countries that have voluntarily signed a "Compact of Free Association" with the United States (Palau, Micronesia, and the Marshall Islands). The US provides government services to these countries...despite the fact that they are independent countries. It is an unusual arrangement, but it is based on historical ties, and because they are so small, they are economically not self-sufficient.

There are also some weird ways this works out, like the people of these countries are still immigrants if they move to the US, but they normally can immigrate automatically, unless they have a specific reason not to (such as a criminal record). At least, that was the situation last time I checked.

Unless they live in a specific place with immigrants from the Pacific, the average American wouldn't know about these places, or might not be clear on the difference between them and and say, Guam/Samoa/the CNMI, which are all part of the United States.

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PrimusDCE@reddit

Yes, Filipino women marry our undesirables.

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MrHandsRadDay@reddit

No. Just because there are a shit ton of phillipinos here now, does not mean we have a special relationship with that country.

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latin220@reddit

América still has colonies. 17 colonies. The USA never relinquished all its illegally acquired territories and its biggest colony is Puerto Rico.

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Cerebral-Knievel-1@reddit

The US has a lot of Protecterats.. particularly in south pacific and pacific. The islands that are independent, used to be territories. Many use the US dollar. Guam is one such territory, and they are similar to Puerto Rico in status.

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Proud-Delivery-621@reddit

Our perception of history is very selective. Schools, media, etc put a heavier focus on the Independence War, Civil, War, World Wars, and Cold War, but much lighter focus on Spanish-American War or our colonies. I would hazard that the former are easier to paint in a patriotic lens than the latter, but I don't know for sure if that's the actual reason.

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Adorable_Dust3799@reddit

My area has a high Filipino population and the connection is definitely recognized. Somoa also, tho not as much because there aren't as many. My mom was born in the territory of hawaii. I was not aware of liberia.

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Strong_Landscape_333@reddit

I think the Philippines has a higher approval rating of America than Americans do, which is sort of interesting

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theDailyDillyDally@reddit

Yes; well, the Cuban government is not so happy with us, but we still maintain a base there. We have a treaty with our other former colonies (Compact of Free Association.) Basically, we provide international aid and military protection in exchange for military bases, infrastructure, etc. I believe they have a special VISA and can serve in the US military. Not sure how much the general American knows as it's not something that comes up often in the news. The average American is much more familiar with the going-ons in existing territories such as Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands. Also, not sure Liberia was ever considered a colony, but we continue to be big supporters and have a close working relationship.

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OldRaj@reddit

No. Americans have ancestors from all over the world but we are American. There’s some good stuff going on over here.

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MacaroonSad8860@reddit

I believe it does with the Marshall Islands

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tendie-dildo@reddit

We have a very strong alliance with the Phillipines. I would consider it special.

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Fire_Mission@reddit

Liberia not really. Phillipines yes, we have a large population of Filipino immigrants and have Filipino food/restaurants/etc.

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Nawoitsol@reddit

I suspect most Americans don’t know about the majority of former US colonies since they were part of The Trust Territory of Pacific islands. Some of them still have special relationships with the US.

Liberia is an odd case. Some Americans had the idea that slaves could be repatriated there and formed a group to colonize Liberia. There was some governmental support, but i don’t think it was ever truly a colony.

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Kaurifish@reddit

Bay Area. I’ve worked with a lot of Phillipino folks here, and there are more of their restaurants than you’d expect from such a small country.

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I_Am_Mandark_Hahaha@reddit

Small country. It has more than 100million citizens.

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B_A_Beder@reddit

The Philippines and Liberia are not quite the same type of traditional colony that the British or French had. The Philippines was a originally Spanish colony for a couple hundred years. We acquired it by winning the Spanish American War and ended our occupation a bit after WWII. Liberia was colonized as a way to resettle, repatriate, return, and/or get rid of free and freed African Americans.

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ODA564@reddit

Liberia wasn't a US government colony. It was a colony of a US based society (American Colonization Society) from 1822 to 1843.

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_use_r_name_@reddit

Most Americans don't even know about colonies.

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Cowboywizard12@reddit

Liberia wasn't a Colony, it was founded as an independent country founded by former slaves.

I wouldn't say we have a super special relationship with Liberia but I would say its a deeper connection international relation wise than we have with most countries in Africa.

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