How Mindanao Was Almost Sold to the Germans by the Americans
Excerpt
The Philippines is no stranger to colonization. Spain, the United States of America, and Japan all fought to keep the Philippine islands under their rule. And Germany, through Denmark, could have been another Philippine colonizer if history had gone another way.
Before the Great War, the U.S. was contemplating proposing a huge land deal that would have split up the Philippines as we know it. Back in the early 1900s, western countries (namely the U.S. and European empires) strategically traded colonies in an effort to expand their own influence in other parts of the world. It was a game of “pass the colonies,” and the Philippines was a prime product to trade—even parts of it, like Mindanao.
