The price of real estate
It came as news to this outsider (unless I had heard of it earlier and then forgotten it) that after the mysterious sinking of the American battleship USS Maine in Havana harbor in February 1898, US President William McKinley, still unenthusiastic about the prospect of war with Spain, had contemplated offering to purchase Cuba, then in revolt against the colonial power, for $300 million. This is interesting in that it provides another illustration of Washington’s apparent belief that territories which non-American (or, at least non-Caucasian American) people called home could be treated as no more than real estate. Earlier examples were the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, in which over 2 million square kilometers were transferred from French control for a mere $15 million, and the acquisition of Alaska from Russia in 1867 — over 1.5 million square kilometers for the bargain price of $7.2 million, which worked out as just under two cents an acre. What makes the historical footnote even more interesting, however, is that later in 1898, under the Treaty of Paris, the Philippines passed from Spanish to US “ownership” upon payment of $20 million. Source: The Daily Tribune ALTERNATE URL: http://www.tribune.net.ph/commentary/20100302com5.html |
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29. Alam n'yo kaya na ngayon ang ika-115 na pagdiriwang ng pinakaunang
labanan ng Himagsikan bago pa man ang pangkalahataang pag-aaklas? Ngayon
unang lum...
12 years ago
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