Mark+Twain+-+F08

Samuel Langhorne Clemens aka Mark Twain
Born: November 30, 1835 Died: April 21, 1910

Background Information

 * Attended Oxford University
 * Earlier in life signed pictures by the name of Josh and also Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass
 * Most noted for novels of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
 * Known as the father of American Literature
 * Last 20 years of life was anti-imperialistic and anti-capitalistic
 * Vice-president of the American Anti-Imperialist League
 * Wrote many political pamphlets and books against imperialism

Views on Imperialism

 * Originally for United States imperialism in Cuba and Philippines until he saw what United States planned on doing
 * Felt the Filipinos should give their freedom to themselves and not let the Americans do it
 * Believed in imperialism up until reading the Treaty of Paris
 * Originally believed the U.S. was fighting exclusivley for the freedom of Cuba and not as a pretext for expansion
 * Argued the Fillipinos were capable of governing themselves
 * Believed we were there not to grant them freedom but to keep them under our control
 * Idea of the Anti-Inperialist League believed that we were merely replacing Spain in the Philippines
 * Wrote about the horrors of the U.S. Army to the Filippinos for the Anti-Imperialist League