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Philippines were placed under U.S. protection. The U.S. paid Spain $20
million for public buildings and improvements in the Philippines.

In the Philippines, the U.S. now faced the same messy insurgent revolt that
had begun under Spanish rule. The revolt had become a civil war as the
insurgents attacked villages that would not support them. The Philippine
revolt was far more difficult than the Spanish-American War. The
American public demanded that Cuba and the Philippines be granted
democratic status. The U.S. government and military were more inclined
to make them colonies. The islands could not be granted any definite
status until new governments were created. This gave the newspapers
much to report and comment on in 1899.

In late 1899, as the Spanish-American War news faded, a new war began.
The Boer War had a powerful emotional impact on Dutch-Americans. In
the early 1800's, Britain captured Holland's African colony at the Cape of
Good Hope. However, the resident population of Dutch and German
people moved inland and created two independent countries, named the
Orange Free State and the South African Transvaal Republic. The
displaced people were called Boers, which means farmers in Dutch. For a
few years the British were satisfied with controlling the coastline.
However, the Boers discovered and developed rich gold and diamond
mines in the interior of South Africa. Britain wanted to possess these
riches and made demands that would give them control of the two Boer
republics. The Boers refused, so in October 1899 the British began a war
to conquer them.

The British assumed their well-trained soldiers would quickly defeat the
60,000 poorly trained Boers. The British were stunned as the Boers won
several victories from October through February 1900. Reinforcements
increased the British to 500,000 soldiers, but they could not completely
win the war. The British began to destroy the countries, burning all of the
crops, killing all the animals, and burning all of the homes, including
civilians hiding indoors. Any civilians that were found alive were placed in
concentration camps where they worked as slave labor until they died of
starvation. Estimates place the number of deaths at 22,000 British
soldiers, 14,000 Boer soldiers and between 40,000 and 80,000 civilians.
Adolph Hitler in Germany and Joseph Stalin in Russia later copied the
British concentration camps. At first the world disbelieved the terrible
stories, but photographs and the testimony of British soldiers stirred
worldwide outrage against Britain. In May of 1902 the war ended with
control held by the British and by greedy mining corporations.

Pella's Weekblad and the Blade happily published stories of the early Boer
victories. As news of British atrocities arrived, the Dutch-American
communities were outraged. Many people refused to speak in English,
believing it was the language of the devil. Some churches reverted to
Dutch language sermons. Public collections raised money, food, and

(11-2006) - Published in Pella - page 7 -