American Old School Colonialism

 

In Massacre in the Clouds: An American Atrocity and the Erasure of History, by Kim A. Wagner, we learn that a feature of colonial warfare was the atrocity.  By this Wagner means the wholesale massacre of indigenous, civilian men, women and children by an occupying power under the guise of military necessity.  When the massacre documented in this book took place, in 1906, many other colonial powers were engaged in similar behavior.  Unlike in European wars up to that point, where efforts were made to protect civilians, indigenous peoples were viewed as sub-human, and their lives were not considered important enough for the laws of war.  This atrocity – and the other American actions during the colonization of the Philippines, is no longer remembered in the US.  The people of the Philippines, however, remember them well.