American-Philippine relations from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day

Filipini so otoška država v Jugovzhodni Aziji, ki danes šteje več kot 100 milijonov prebivalcev. Filipinci, kot splošno označeno prebivalstvo te države, pa so skozi svojo zgodovino doživeli marsikaj, bili so pod vplivom različnih narodov in ver, ki so jih po eni strani zatirali, po drugi strani pa so jim nudili tutorstvo. Med državami, ki so pustile največji pečat na Filipine, moramo vsekakor upoštevati ZDA. Diplomsko delo obravnava ameriško-filipinske odnose, in sicer od njihovega samega začetka, ko so ZDA na prelomu 20. stoletja pridobili Filipine na podlagi dogovora s Španijo, preko trenutka, ko so se od ZDA tudi osamosvojili, posveča pa se tudi ameriško-filipinskim odnosom po tem, ko so Filipini že bili samostojni. Že v preteklosti so obstajala razmerja med državami in njenimi bivšimi kolonijami v obliki neokolonializma. Na primeru ZDA ni bilo nič drugače. Odnose med Združenimi državami Amerike in Filipini sicer lahko označimo tudi kot \u27\u27posebne\u27\u27, saj so pogostokrat spominjali kot na nekakšen družinski spor. Filipini so zaradi zgodovinskih, ekonomskih, kulturnih in strateških razlogov najbolj tesno povezani prav z ZDA, čeprav se v zadnjih desetletjih tudi kaže postopno oziranje Filipinov in njihovih interesov na države, ki so v neposredni bližini oziroma v regiji in ne več toliko v smeri ZDA. Ti odnosi se dejansko kažejo tudi v dediščini, ki so jo ZDA pustile na Filipinih in tudi v samem mišljenju Filipincev, ki so v številnih primerih ameriška dejanja videli kot nekaj pozitivnega ter so se po njih tudi zgledovali. Navsezadnje državi povezuje tudi praznik, saj obe praznujeta dan neodvisnosti 4. julija.The Philippines is an archipelago in Southeast Asia, home to over 100 million people. Filipinos, as a general term for people coming from this country, experienced many things throughout their history, they were under the influence of different nations and religions which were suppressing them on one side, and on the other side providing them tutoring. We must take the USA into consideration among the countries that left the biggest impact on the Philippines. The following thesis focuses on the American-Philippine relations from the very beginning when the USA gained the Philippines from Spain on the break of the 20th century, through the moment when they gained indepence from them. It also focuses on the American-Philippine relations after the independence. Throughout the historical periods relations between countries and their former colonies in the form of neocolonialism already existed. In the case of the USA it was not any different. The relations between the USA and the Philippines could also be labeled as \u27\u27special\u27\u27 because they often resembled a family feud. The Philippines is most tightly connected with the USA when it comes to historical, economical, cultural and strategical causes. Although, in the last few decades it is showing a slow turn of the Philippines and their interests towards countries which are located in their closest vicinity and region, and not that much towards the USA anymore. These relations are seen in the heritage that the USA left on the Philippines and also in the mindset of Filipino people which have in a lot of cases seen American actions as something positive and were modeling themselves after them. After all, these two countries are also connected with a holiday because both of them celebrate independence day on the 4th of July