THE TREATY OF PARIS OF 1898 ended the Spanish American War. For twenty million dollars Spain sold to the the United States of America its territories and colonies in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. Today, even the most rabid anti- Western imperialists are forced to defend it against China which claims everything in the South China Pond-- not only the Spratly ("Nansha") Islands, but even a place they call the Isle of Gold:
"Son Lu." ARTICLE III
A line running from west to east along or near the twentieth parallel of north latitude, and through the middle of the navigable channel of Bachi, from the one hundred and eighteenth (118th) to the one hundred and twenty-seventh (127th) degree meridian of longitude east of Greenwich, thence along the one hundred and twenty seventh (127th) degree meridian of longitude east of Greenwich to the parallel of four degrees and forty five minutes (4 [degree symbol] 45']) north latitude, thence along the parallel of four degrees and forty five minutes (4 [degree symbol] 45') north latitude to its intersection with the meridian of longitude one hundred and nineteen degrees and thirty five minutes (119 [degree symbol] 35') east of Greenwich, thence along the meridian of longitude one hundred and nineteen degrees and thirty five minutes (119 [degree symbol] 35') east of Greenwich to the parallel of latitude seven degrees and forty minutes (7 [degree symbol] 40') north, thence along the parallel of latitude of seven degrees and forty minutes (7 [degree symbol] 40') north to its intersection with the one hundred and sixteenth (116th) degree meridian of longitude east of Greenwich, thence by a direct line to the intersection of the tenth (10th) degree parallel of north latitude with the one hundred and eighteenth (118th) degree meridian of longitude east of Greenwich, and thence along the one hundred and eighteenth (118th) degree meridian of longitude east of Greenwich to the point of beginning.The United States will pay to Spain the sum of twenty million dollars ($20,000,000) within three months after the exchange of the ratifications of the present treaty.
It is obvious from the above map and distance legend that a good bit of the Spratley Islands is well within the 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone recommended by the United Nations Law of the Sea for Archipelagic nations. ABSCBN News carries Newsbreak Magazine's three part series by Miriam Grace Go on this subject,
A Policy of Betrayal: Parts
One,
Two and
Three with lots of links to pertinent documents.
THE TREATY OF PARIS OF 1898 ended the Spanish American War. For twenty million dollars Spain sold to the the United States of America its territories and colonies in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. Today, even the most rabid anti- Western imperialists are forced to defend it against China which claims everything in the South China Pond-- not only the Spratly ("Nansha") Islands, but even a place they call the Isle of Gold: "Son Lu." 
6 comments:
the 1935 concon deliberations pointed out a problem, though, see nicolas buendia's report on the inaccuracies concerning our border with formosa, now taiwan. the committee on territorial delimitation wanted a readjustment, which did not take place.
see:
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2004/09/23/2003204030
and the treaty of paris was followed up with a treaty between the usa and the uk on the turtle islands.
it's not a question of defending the treaty of paris but rather, that the treaty of paris ended up the internationally-accepted deliniation of our territory, as was the case with all ex-colonies. you have to start somewhere.
what's interesting is that you ask the spaniards the philippines extended to guam and included the carolines, though filipino revolutionaries themselves didn't conceive of those areas as part of the philippines. an additional interesting point is that according to a spanish historian i talked to, as late as the commonwealth, efforts were still made to claim guam for the philippines but obviously uncle sam disagreed.
MLQ3,
We shan't ever look at the Treaty of Paris the same way again. And if the new perspective on the ORIGIN of the national territory is anything to go by, this will mean a reassessment of the rest of the "firsts" that colonialism gave...like our "true" identity as Asiatics made over into Westerners. Inexorably, because like human beings, a nation's "childhood education" sets its cultural context for a very very long time, maybe forever.
So if we can accept that our territory was creation of foreigners and we have made it our home, why can we not accept for example English as our language now. Once the territory was foreign now it is native. So too with the language that empowered the Filams.
Unfortunately we National Artists and nationalist thinkers who can't see beyond...well, the Spratley's!
I meant: unfortunately we HAVE national artists... who can't see...
"Rabid" nationalists don't need the Treaty of Paris, just the UN law.
Your argument about accepting territorial rights designated by foreigners and English as "our language now" is illogical.
It is as if you are implying that nationalists believe that all of their arguments should not come from foreign sources. That criticism of nationalism does not make sense to me, especially given the fact that nationalism was also very strong in countries of foreigners that colonized the country!
MB (Anon):
You make two suggestions: DON'T accept the Treaty of Paris and DON'T accept English.
You're not even doing the last suggestion yourself (obvious ba?) and I can't believe you are serious about the first!
This is not a criticism of "nationalism" but of "nationalists"--like you who still don't get it...Come back when you can write these same arguments in Pfilipino...and mean it!
Why can't we just enforce the delineation as set out in UNCLOS?
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