A Sea of Opinions: British Advises on the Philippines’ US Government in Asian Transcolonial Public Spheres, 1898-1916

This project delves into the British influence on the US colonial rule in the Philippines (1898-1916). It studies how Britons in the archipelago and nearby Asian colonial posts swayed the local US rule to protect their interests in the islands. The project hypothesizes they shared advice on the best forms to govern the Philippines through diplomatic and commercial lobbying and the Anglophone press published in ports like Hong Kong, Rangoon, or Penang—which, as recent historiography has demonstrated, constantly flowed around Asian ports. All this information defended the establishment of a protectorate that granted Filipinos some degree of selfgovernment and the preservation of Philippine markets open for commerce. Through an analysis of the Anglophone Asian media, the archives of the people whose interests they represented, and the archives of the American colonial elites that received them, this project will elucidate how these powerful British communities in Asia conditioned another empire’s colonial rule, building upon recent developments in transimperial history. Also, this research explores the influence Britons exercised over Filipino elites. It inquires whether influential Filipino political leaders—some of whom had been exiled to British ports like Hong Kong—also considered British opinions when strategizing the best way to face the US presence in the archipelago. Moreover, it will explore how they used these nearby British media, uncensored by the US authorities, to attack the US administration in the islands, knowing that its content could arrive there. More broadly, this project proposes to understand the Southeast Asian Public spheres, like that of the Philippines and nearby ports, as connected spaces of debate, where citizens of alien nations and colonized subjects without political power could express their points of view and influence those who did have authority.