University of Hawai'i at Manoa

CPS Filipino Centennial Lecture Series

America's Leap into Imperialism:
1898, Hawaii and the Philippines

By Tom Coffman

About the Lecture:

Virtually unknown to the American people, the Spanish-American War of 1898 and the closely associated Philippine-American war reconfigured the USA into a far-flung imperial power. The event assured America's annexation of the Kingdom of Hawaii. It reduced the Philippines to a US colony for 48 years and virtually assured an eventual Pacific war between imperial Japan and the United States.

[Tom Coffman is an independent researcher, writer and filmmaker. His "Nation Within" -- in PBS documentary film and a 400-page book -- developed a new understanding of the centrality of Hawaii to America's design on the Pacific. In the process, the nation of Hawaii was destroyed in 1898; the Spanish empire was commandeered, to the disastrous long-term interests of both the Philippines and the US. Coffman is also the author of the much-acclaimed Catch a Wave and other publications including America's Island Edge.]

The CPS Filipino Centennial Lecture Series is free and open to the public. For more information, please visit the Center for Philippine Studies website at www.hawaii.edu/cps/seminars.html or call Clem Montero at 956-6086 or email cps@hawaii.edu.

Venue & Date: Center for Korean Studies Auditorium, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Oct. 25, 2005, Tuesday, 12:00-2:00pm.

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