Latest / Ridiculous History / The Capture of Guam Was Bloodless and Quick, All Due to a Misunderstanding

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The Capture of Guam Was Bloodless and Quick, All Due to a Misunderstanding · Ridiculous History

0:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, welcome to the show, friends and neighbors, thanks for
0:26
Speaker 1: dropping by. Join us on a journey. We are based
0:30
Speaker 1: in Atlanta, Georgia, here in the United States, but today
0:34
Speaker 1: our adventures take us to the northwestern Pacific Ocean, to
0:39
Speaker 1: a place that was formerly known as the territory of Guam. Hi.
0:44
Speaker 1: I'm Ben, Hi, my name is not. So we're going
0:46
Speaker 1: on a bit of a tropical vacae today. We are.
0:49
Speaker 1: We are and I have wanted to travel to this
0:53
Speaker 1: area of the Pacific Ocean for such a very very
0:56
Speaker 1: long time. Our longtime friend of the show and co worker,
1:02
Speaker 1: Scott Benjamin is actually a very well traveled man. He's
1:06
Speaker 1: get this noal. He's been to Bora, Bora, I know, man,
1:09
Speaker 1: I I didn't even think. I thought that was like
1:11
Speaker 1: an imaginary land. And and and then then you can come
1:14
Speaker 1: to find out. Scott Benjamin or is I like to
1:15
Speaker 1: call him f Scott Benjamin has been there. Yes, yes,
1:19
Speaker 1: Scott Benjamin. So today we're going a true tale that
1:24
Speaker 1: still feels as surreal as a story by Kurt Vonnegut
1:28
Speaker 1: or something he does. That's a really good connection, Ben,
1:31
Speaker 1: because it's got all of the pathos and set up
1:34
Speaker 1: for a grand you know, battle of epic proportions, a
1:39
Speaker 1: naval battle, you know, at sea with cannons and all
1:42
Speaker 1: that good stuff that goes along with it. But there's
1:44
Speaker 1: a twist and and and then the twist is sort
1:47
Speaker 1: of a very Vonneguchian Vonna Good esque. Yeah, and that
1:53
Speaker 1: you know, not much happens. I don't think that's fair.
1:56
Speaker 1: And I don't mean to pin like to say nothing
1:58
Speaker 1: happens in Vonnegut books. I justan it subverts your expectations
2:03
Speaker 1: a little bit. Let's say that. Yeah, it feels in
2:05
Speaker 1: a very relieving way, somewhat anti climactic. And we're of
2:10
Speaker 1: course not going on this journey alone, folks. We're bringing along,
2:14
Speaker 1: in our opinion, one of the best parts of this show,
2:17
Speaker 1: Super producer Casey Pegram. May he be our spirit guide
2:22
Speaker 1: on this journey today, Yes, and hopefully our navigator as well,
2:26
Speaker 1: because I don't remember if we packed the GPS, I
2:28
Speaker 1: am garbage with directions. As you know, well, we we
2:33
Speaker 1: already know where we're going and let's travel there through
2:35
Speaker 1: the magic of podcasting. But first we have to get
2:40
Speaker 1: to Guam by way of Cuba, because to paint the scene,
2:44
Speaker 1: we need to talk about something called the Spanish American War.
2:48
Speaker 1: The Spanish American War declared on April twenty five of eighteen.
2:54
Speaker 1: You see, the US was doing a lot of business
2:58
Speaker 1: with Cuba, and Cuba wanted to become independent from Spain,
3:04
Speaker 1: which was controlling it at the time. It's very true,
3:07
Speaker 1: and there were rebels, there was an uprising in Cuba
3:11
Speaker 1: um and they wanted to separate themselves from Spanish rule.
3:16
Speaker 1: And the US had some pretty significant interests in helping
3:20
Speaker 1: them accomplish this because they were doing trade upwards of
3:25
Speaker 1: a hundred million dollars a year with Cuba. One of
3:28
Speaker 1: those goods, the primary good in this equation being sugar,
3:32
Speaker 1: and that's in terms, so it's a huge amount of money.
3:37
Speaker 1: Shall we inflation calculator and my friend, yes, this is
3:42
Speaker 1: an appropriate enough amount of money that we may want
3:45
Speaker 1: a drum roll casey one million dollars in eighteen nine
3:49
Speaker 1: five is equivalent to two point seven five billion dollars
3:58
Speaker 1: in as it's like an economy of scale, it's massive.
4:04
Speaker 1: There's really no there's really no way someone in the
4:08
Speaker 1: US could argue against protecting this valuable trade. And the
4:14
Speaker 1: US public was behind this as well. They were supporting
4:17
Speaker 1: American intervention because people were checking out the newspapers of
4:23
Speaker 1: note at the time, the yellow papers, right of the
4:27
Speaker 1: like the William Randolph Hurst era of the Yellow journalism,
4:30
Speaker 1: where it was kind of this, uh alarmist or let
4:33
Speaker 1: maybe not alarmist, but more um sensationalized coverage, right, yeah,
4:37
Speaker 1: absolutely sensationalized by muck rakers, by people with a strategic
4:42
Speaker 1: acts to grind. Spain was taking incredibly brutal measures to
4:47
Speaker 1: repress the rebellion, and the U. S public learned about
4:52
Speaker 1: this through graphic depictions in these newspapers, and this caused
4:56
Speaker 1: American sympathy for the Cuban rebels to rise. As we know,
5:00
Speaker 1: the best way to get a war going is not
5:02
Speaker 1: to say it's in our economic interest. It's to say
5:05
Speaker 1: we are doing a noble thing, humanitarian reasons. Have you
5:09
Speaker 1: heard of this guy, General Wiler the butcher. Lay it
5:12
Speaker 1: on me, this is nuts. I did not know this
5:14
Speaker 1: was a thing. But this gentleman was sent to deal
5:17
Speaker 1: with by by Spain, to deal with the Cuban rebels,
5:20
Speaker 1: and he actually rounded them up and put them in
5:23
Speaker 1: concentration camps. Um. They weren't, you know, gassed like the
5:27
Speaker 1: Jews were during the Nazi regime, but they were left
5:31
Speaker 1: in horribly unsanitary conditions to starve and just wither away.
5:36
Speaker 1: And so you know that was happening, and this was
5:38
Speaker 1: being reported, and so there was strong sentiment for the
5:42
Speaker 1: humanitarian aid angle there. And tensions are rising, intentions are escalating.
5:48
Speaker 1: At this point, let's say around the early part of
5:52
Speaker 1: the year. Right, the American public is largely behind or
5:57
Speaker 1: supportive of an intervention, but there are people still on
6:01
Speaker 1: the fence, and that all changes in less than a
6:05
Speaker 1: few days. Yeah. In fact, with the permission of the
6:09
Speaker 1: Spanish government, UM President McKinley ordered a battleship, the U. S.
6:14
Speaker 1: S Main, to hang out in the Havana Harbor to
6:18
Speaker 1: kind of safeguard American interest during this time of upheaval
6:22
Speaker 1: in Cuba. And on February in the evening, an explosion
6:28
Speaker 1: sank that ship, killing two sailors and two officers. And
6:34
Speaker 1: this was a problem. This was bad what they call
6:37
Speaker 1: bad optics, ben right, So the means destruction did not
6:42
Speaker 1: immediately launch a war with Spain, but it uh pretty
6:48
Speaker 1: much guaranteed that there would not be an easy, peaceful
6:52
Speaker 1: resolution to this conflict. It's like a Pearl Harbor kind
6:55
Speaker 1: of moment, you know. I mean, it's not it's not
6:57
Speaker 1: quite as extreme, obviously because there was no direct proof,
7:00
Speaker 1: but it is that powder keg moment where the public
7:03
Speaker 1: really sees, oh, there's a threat here. They got our
7:05
Speaker 1: guys right, and that those yellow journalists we talked about
7:09
Speaker 1: really pushed that line, didn't They like saying, oh, they
7:12
Speaker 1: blamed Spain, even though there wasn't any proof that was
7:14
Speaker 1: actually what happened. But it seems likely that that's what happened.
7:18
Speaker 1: It was one of the biggest political, if not the
7:20
Speaker 1: biggest political issues of that year. Let's fast forward a
7:24
Speaker 1: couple of months. Spain realizes that the water is slowly boiling,
7:29
Speaker 1: the flames arising, and they attempt to quell things. They
7:33
Speaker 1: announced an armistice on April nine of that year, and
7:36
Speaker 1: they speed up a program to grant Cuba limited autonomy,
7:40
Speaker 1: limited powers of government. So this would mean that Cuba
7:43
Speaker 1: is still a part of the larger Spanish Empire, but
7:46
Speaker 1: they have some latitude agency with local decisions. And I'd
7:50
Speaker 1: read in a few places that there was a sentiment
7:53
Speaker 1: that they weren't really that serious about doing those things
7:56
Speaker 1: that they said. It was all sort of for show.
7:59
Speaker 1: It's either dis genuine or it's too little, too late,
8:02
Speaker 1: because very shortly afterwards, the US Congress issued resolutions declaring
8:10
Speaker 1: Cuba's right to full independence, demanding the withdrawal of all
8:13
Speaker 1: of Spain's armed forces, and authorizing then President William McKinley
8:18
Speaker 1: to use force to secure the withdrawal of the Spanish
8:22
Speaker 1: forces and at the same time to make sure that
8:25
Speaker 1: everyone knows they're the good guys. I guess in this situation,
8:30
Speaker 1: the US also says, we're not going to an x Cuba.
8:34
Speaker 1: We want it to be its own thing. We're sticking
8:36
Speaker 1: up for you. And you know they gave the British
8:39
Speaker 1: two finger salute to Spain. This is Congress doing this right, Yeah,
8:43
Speaker 1: and I think the President had requested sort of a
8:45
Speaker 1: lighter version of that, and then Congress sort of doubled
8:48
Speaker 1: down and said, nah, we're gonna really go you know,
8:51
Speaker 1: ham on this. Yeah, they went hard on the paint
8:53
Speaker 1: for sure, and Spain, in a game of geopolitical double dare,
8:59
Speaker 1: said oh, you know what, you're gonna dare us to
9:01
Speaker 1: get out? Well, double dare, We're declaring war on the
9:04
Speaker 1: US on April and on the next day the US said,
9:09
Speaker 1: oh yeah, well you too, buddy. You can't declare war
9:12
Speaker 1: on us. We're declaring war on you. It's super confusing
9:15
Speaker 1: because the way it's written, um, the way I've seen
9:18
Speaker 1: the chronology of this is that they had to retroactively
9:22
Speaker 1: backdated to April one, which I believe was when the
9:26
Speaker 1: US established a military blockade of Cuba to protect their
9:32
Speaker 1: interests more or less again, and that's not like the
9:34
Speaker 1: official reason. Again, They're going with this humanitarian thing. Oh
9:38
Speaker 1: the poor Cuban people, you know, the Spanish or just
9:41
Speaker 1: mistreating them so badly, you know, because America, you know,
9:44
Speaker 1: we're all about taking care of people, right, and that's
9:46
Speaker 1: what we do. And maybe we, uh, maybe we, or
9:50
Speaker 1: at least the the American leaders at the time, maybe
9:53
Speaker 1: they really did believe that they were doing a noble,
9:56
Speaker 1: altruistic thing. I know, I'm I'm being flipped, but it's
9:59
Speaker 1: just it's hard to it's hard, man, it's hard to
10:02
Speaker 1: have that kind of faith in the goodness of our leaders.
10:05
Speaker 1: It would be somewhat anomalous and it was not going
10:10
Speaker 1: to be a fair fight because Spain was not prepared
10:14
Speaker 1: in naval or military terms to have a war in
10:18
Speaker 1: a foreign part of the planet with the US who
10:21
Speaker 1: is not you know, uh, nothing to sneeze at militarily,
10:25
Speaker 1: even back then. And I mean we're talking Spain in general,
10:28
Speaker 1: not to mention our little whipper snapper buddies they're in Guam. Yes,
10:34
Speaker 1: So we've set this stage and the Spanish American War
10:37
Speaker 1: quickly expands beyond the bounds of Cuba and the surrounding waters.
10:41
Speaker 1: One of the huge theaters for the Spanish American War
10:45
Speaker 1: was going to be the Pacific Ocean, specifically the Philippines.
10:50
Speaker 1: The Philippines at the time were under Spanish control and
10:53
Speaker 1: habit for hundreds of years. The US again was going
10:58
Speaker 1: to clean up this this massive injustice for everyone who
11:02
Speaker 1: can't see you can't see us in the studios. I
11:05
Speaker 1: just did a heart arm shake kind of awe shucks,
11:09
Speaker 1: you know, hey, like you might have done an opery
11:12
Speaker 1: land when you were a boy. Oh man, you're never
11:14
Speaker 1: gonna let me live that. But uh, speaking of delights,
11:22
Speaker 1: when we consider the Pacific theater at the time, or
11:26
Speaker 1: just when considered the geography of the Pacific, we have
11:29
Speaker 1: to realize these folks did not have very fast means
11:33
Speaker 1: of communication and a lot of these islands and archipelagos
11:36
Speaker 1: were so isolated that they could learn about events in
11:41
Speaker 1: the rest of the world months after, maybe even more
11:45
Speaker 1: than a year. And so this is when, uh, we
11:50
Speaker 1: this is when we come to a captain, captain named Glass,
11:55
Speaker 1: Captain Glass, which is a cool name, very cool name.
11:58
Speaker 1: And uh and no, what is what is Captain Glass
12:01
Speaker 1: doing on his way to the Philippines. Well, Captain Glass
12:05
Speaker 1: actually received sealed orders, um and and they went a
12:10
Speaker 1: little bit like this, in fact, exactly like this, dear sir.
12:14
Speaker 1: Actually they didn't say dear. They wouldn't have been that
12:16
Speaker 1: polite in the military, just says sir, changes the whole tone. Didn't.
12:20
Speaker 1: Upon receipt of this order, which is forwarded by the
12:22
Speaker 1: steamship City of Peking, which was the name of the ship,
12:26
Speaker 1: to you at Honolulu a place, you will proceed with
12:29
Speaker 1: the Charleston and the City of Peking in company to Manila,
12:33
Speaker 1: Philippine Islands on your way. And here's the important part.
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Speaker 1: You are hereby directed to stop at the Spanish island
12:40
Speaker 1: of Guam. You will use such force as may be
12:43
Speaker 1: necessary to capture the port of Guam, making prisoners of
12:46
Speaker 1: the governor and other officials and any armed force that
12:49
Speaker 1: maybe there. You will destroy any fortification onset island and
12:53
Speaker 1: any Spanish naval vessels that may be there or in
12:56
Speaker 1: the immediate vicinity um And then it goes on to say,
12:59
Speaker 1: this will probably only take you two days because they
13:01
Speaker 1: definitely didn't know where we're coming. Yes, yeah, that's we
13:05
Speaker 1: cannot emphasize that enough, but we will attempt to through repetition.
13:10
Speaker 1: They were definitely not prepared on the island i Guam
13:13
Speaker 1: the Spanish governing structure. So Guam had their first contact
13:16
Speaker 1: with the Spanish Empire when a fellow named Ferdinand Magellan,
13:20
Speaker 1: the famous Portuguese explorer, landed uh there on March sixth
13:25
Speaker 1: fifty one. And in the intervening centuries, Spain also controlled
13:32
Speaker 1: Guam as well as you know, as well as the Philippines.
13:35
Speaker 1: But Guam was on the edge of the Empire. For
13:40
Speaker 1: lack of a better phrase, it wasn't and it still
13:42
Speaker 1: is not a very large place geographically speaking, and it
13:47
Speaker 1: also wasn't at the heart of a lot of conflict
13:51
Speaker 1: or a ton of trade exactly. In fact of the time,
13:55
Speaker 1: the Guam infantry consisted of only fifty five soldiers and
14:00
Speaker 1: two that's two lieutenants. So Glass has these orders to
14:05
Speaker 1: capture Guam. He is assured that it is going to
14:08
Speaker 1: be super easy because they're so unprepared. Oh yeah, I
14:12
Speaker 1: mean they the way, the matter of fact nature of
14:15
Speaker 1: that order, the way it's written, it's just like this
14:18
Speaker 1: is gonna be cake. It's it's on the same level
14:22
Speaker 1: totally as hey, will you pick up some milk on
14:25
Speaker 1: your way? And so the Charleston enters a Gana Bay
14:31
Speaker 1: on the twentie of June, and they were prepared for
14:38
Speaker 1: a cannonade from Fort Santiago, the Spanish fourth there. And
14:42
Speaker 1: so Captain Glass got further into the harbor and he
14:46
Speaker 1: began bombarding Fort Santa Cruz, but received no response because
14:52
Speaker 1: you see, folks, the fort had long been abandoned. No
14:57
Speaker 1: one cared, no one, no one knew, no one was
15:00
Speaker 1: looking except people were looking. And this is where I
15:03
Speaker 1: kind of want to shift the perspective here too. I
15:05
Speaker 1: think our mutual favorite character in this story a guy
15:08
Speaker 1: by the name of Francisco Porta sash or you could,
15:13
Speaker 1: you could call him Frank if you want to be
15:14
Speaker 1: familiar exactly. He has uh we have an original source
15:20
Speaker 1: from a letter that he writes, recounting his experience. He
15:26
Speaker 1: was a naturalist citizen in the US and on the
15:29
Speaker 1: morning of the twenty two of June in his brother
15:32
Speaker 1: Don Jose woke him up and said, you gotta come
15:36
Speaker 1: see this. You gotta come check this out. And just
15:38
Speaker 1: a little backstory, I'm like, why was this guy on Guam?
15:41
Speaker 1: What was he doing? It looks like he had had
15:43
Speaker 1: a career as kind of like as a whaler. He
15:46
Speaker 1: seemed like a real man about town, had done some
15:48
Speaker 1: interesting stuff and like I just wanted to see the world.
15:51
Speaker 1: But he was from Chicago. Yeah, he uh, he was
15:55
Speaker 1: a US citizen. He did have whaling background and Guam
16:00
Speaker 1: he was pretty influential because he ran a general store,
16:04
Speaker 1: a general store, and he was apparently the only American
16:09
Speaker 1: on the island, which probably earned him some some street cred.
16:12
Speaker 1: I guess. He seems like he was beloved and had
16:15
Speaker 1: support from the community. He wasn't like some kind of outcasts.
16:24
Speaker 1: So in his letter, the way he recounts it, he
16:30
Speaker 1: had maybe heard of something about a conflict between Spain
16:36
Speaker 1: and the US. In fact is his brother is the
16:38
Speaker 1: one who hipped him to it. But his brother was
16:40
Speaker 1: a little wishy washy about it too. His brother also,
16:43
Speaker 1: by the way, it was just visiting from Europe. He
16:45
Speaker 1: had come there by way of the Philippines and was
16:47
Speaker 1: just hanging out. So I think it's probably pretty accurate
16:50
Speaker 1: when you see um, this guy Francisco being described as
16:53
Speaker 1: the only American naturalized American citizen on the island who
16:56
Speaker 1: lived there. So his brother says, come to the beach
16:59
Speaker 1: and see the ships there and where they come from.
17:02
Speaker 1: And Frank, as I'm gonna call him, started with him.
17:06
Speaker 1: Around daylight. They went to uh they went to the
17:09
Speaker 1: shore close enough to look through a pair of glasses
17:12
Speaker 1: which probably binoculars, and he recognized two of the steamships,
17:17
Speaker 1: China and Australia, and he wasn't sure what the other
17:22
Speaker 1: one was. But at this point his brother said, he said,
17:25
Speaker 1: do not say anything, as I think war is declared
17:28
Speaker 1: between the United States and Spain. If so, I will
17:30
Speaker 1: go on board and take with me the Spanish officers
17:33
Speaker 1: and one of your boats, and you can go on
17:35
Speaker 1: your whale boat afterwards. That's another thing that's important about
17:38
Speaker 1: the story. Frank. You see had like a like a
17:40
Speaker 1: many fleet of ships, and they call them lighters, which
17:43
Speaker 1: were these specialized boats that you would use to transport
17:46
Speaker 1: goods um to bigger ships, right that couldn't get close
17:50
Speaker 1: enough to shore, maybe didn't have a port they could
17:52
Speaker 1: pull in. Yes, So how do you think the brother
17:54
Speaker 1: knew the war? Thing? Though? It seems like they were
17:56
Speaker 1: not hip to this on that was he just kind
17:58
Speaker 1: of conjecturing because he had traveled from he didn't think
18:01
Speaker 1: to mention this earlier. You know, it's a laid back,
18:06
Speaker 1: laid back guy they're painting here. But as they arrive,
18:10
Speaker 1: they see the Charleston begin to shell this fort, as
18:13
Speaker 1: we had mentioned, and there's no response because as Frank
18:18
Speaker 1: and everybody else on the island knows, that Ford has
18:20
Speaker 1: been abandoned for years, and they believe the ship the
18:26
Speaker 1: Man of War is saluting the fort of Santa Cruz,
18:31
Speaker 1: and so on the island side they say, okay, well,
18:35
Speaker 1: let's get somebody together, let's get the artillery together, and
18:38
Speaker 1: we'll send a salute too. And this this sounds weird
18:41
Speaker 1: for a lot of people. The idea of a salute,
18:43
Speaker 1: What is that? Why are you are you just firing
18:46
Speaker 1: a gun to say hello to people? I mean, there's
18:49
Speaker 1: the whole twenty one gun so it always strikes me
18:51
Speaker 1: as queer. I mean, anytime people shoot guns in a
18:54
Speaker 1: celebratory manner, that always is a little strange to me. Right,
18:58
Speaker 1: So we can give you a little bit of background
19:01
Speaker 1: on what a salute actually is and why it exists.
19:06
Speaker 1: This comes to us through the official blog of the U. S.
19:09
Speaker 1: Navy named Navy Live, and Tim Comerford is writing about
19:15
Speaker 1: the history of the salute in salutations with a Bang,
19:19
Speaker 1: the military Salute. The idea here, according to him, is
19:24
Speaker 1: that the the origins of this practice run clear, but
19:28
Speaker 1: we have some good estimates about this, and they date
19:31
Speaker 1: back to some ancient warfare. It's intended to show deference
19:35
Speaker 1: on the part of the person saluting to the person
19:38
Speaker 1: being saluted. And it's also supposed to indicate that the
19:43
Speaker 1: person or the people who are saluting are unarmed or
19:48
Speaker 1: somehow defenseless, because in the old days of raising your
19:51
Speaker 1: hands to salute, you were showing that you didn't have
19:54
Speaker 1: a sword, didn't have like a they're saluting with live ammunition,
19:59
Speaker 1: they hand. Yeah, how does this? How does this work?
20:01
Speaker 1: Great question? The cannons, once you fire them in a salute,
20:05
Speaker 1: they take a while to reload, and so the idea
20:08
Speaker 1: is in a salute, the idea is they're shooting not
20:11
Speaker 1: to not to hit anyone, but to say like okay, boom,
20:15
Speaker 1: there you go. Now you know we're not carrying loaded cannons.
20:18
Speaker 1: But this was clearly a mistake on the Islanders side
20:23
Speaker 1: because they were trying to shell the fort I mean
20:26
Speaker 1: that would have interpreted it as a piss poor salute.
20:29
Speaker 1: I'm like, come on, you're supposed to like aim away
20:32
Speaker 1: from us or up in the air something, But no,
20:34
Speaker 1: they were definitely trying to shell that fort Um. But
20:38
Speaker 1: that misunderstanding did happen, and so uh, a sort of
20:42
Speaker 1: onovoy was gathered to row out to the ship the
20:48
Speaker 1: man O War yeah, this floating murder machine and say hello. Yeah,
20:57
Speaker 1: I almost I kept picturing, you know, the scenes where
20:59
Speaker 1: they send a landing party and star Trek or something.
21:02
Speaker 1: So Frank arrives, he gets on the ship, and uh
21:07
Speaker 1: they find out that he is an American citizen and
21:12
Speaker 1: how's he ended up going along? Like he he's already
21:14
Speaker 1: there watching and he has like because I know there
21:16
Speaker 1: was some actual officials that went as well, because there
21:19
Speaker 1: was the commander of the Guam Navy, who is a
21:23
Speaker 1: guy named Don Pedro Duerte, and he is the one
21:26
Speaker 1: who said, oh, they're saluting us, we should go to
21:30
Speaker 1: dang it, we don't have we're all we're fresh out
21:32
Speaker 1: of gunpowder, so we better go. You know, be polite. Everybody,
21:36
Speaker 1: get your own guns if you have them, and we'll
21:38
Speaker 1: try to organize this. Yeah, they were. They were trying
21:42
Speaker 1: to be cool. They thought they were showing customary um
21:46
Speaker 1: deference or the rules of engagement. And to paint the
21:50
Speaker 1: picture here, imagine a really small town where not a
21:54
Speaker 1: lot of big stuff happens. Everybody in town is who
21:59
Speaker 1: has heard about this is coming out to check out
22:01
Speaker 1: the scene. They want to see what happens. So this
22:03
Speaker 1: is not like a situation where there would be a
22:06
Speaker 1: group of battle hardened veterans preparing to die. This is
22:11
Speaker 1: someone saying like, ah, hey, Tim, did you hear there's
22:15
Speaker 1: a big ships out there, and the other guy going
22:17
Speaker 1: oh no way, Like yeah, they said we gotta um
22:20
Speaker 1: bring our guns to salute him, and he's like, oh yeah, alright.
22:23
Speaker 1: I gotta say, though, this brother, this Don Jose, seems
22:27
Speaker 1: like a real piece of work. I mean, he is,
22:30
Speaker 1: you know, hasn't included anyone into the fact that there
22:33
Speaker 1: maybe war going on. I think he's trying to play
22:36
Speaker 1: it like he's trying to, you know, save his own butt,
22:40
Speaker 1: because he is the one who assembles this group of officials,
22:43
Speaker 1: military officials, which so the party that went out there
22:46
Speaker 1: to meet the boat were Frank, his brother, Lieutenant commander
22:51
Speaker 1: of the Navy and captain of the port, Don Francisco Guccierrez,
22:55
Speaker 1: a naval surgeon, Don Jose Romero, Captain Pedro du To
23:00
Speaker 1: day uh and Ukar who was part of the Marine Corps,
23:03
Speaker 1: and also Don Jose six To, who was the civil paymaster. Um.
23:08
Speaker 1: And they all are kind of roped into doing this
23:10
Speaker 1: by the brother who still doesn't clue them into the
23:14
Speaker 1: fact that this could be a problem. Well, he told
23:17
Speaker 1: his brother. He was like, Frank, be cool, but I
23:20
Speaker 1: think there's a war going on. So what does strike
23:23
Speaker 1: me as he's looking out for him and his brother's
23:25
Speaker 1: best interests and not the native people, true of the land,
23:28
Speaker 1: true important point. Here's where it becomes, for a moment
23:31
Speaker 1: as casual as a sitcom. So Frank and the rest
23:35
Speaker 1: of the party are there and then they get on
23:38
Speaker 1: board to Charleston and he's sell you know, across the
23:41
Speaker 1: bow in his own boat, and then he hears someone
23:44
Speaker 1: yell at him, Frank, come on board, hey buddy. Yeah,
23:50
Speaker 1: And he looks up and it's a guy named Captain
23:53
Speaker 1: Hellett who he knew a number of years before as
23:56
Speaker 1: a whaling captain whaling days. And he's actually on whaling
24:00
Speaker 1: ship that was the one that he was flying the
24:01
Speaker 1: flag with. Yeah, and so he gets on board and
24:07
Speaker 1: he recognizes somebody else. He sees a guy who used
24:10
Speaker 1: to be a reporter for the Chronicle in San Francisco.
24:13
Speaker 1: And the guy walks up and he shakes his hands
24:15
Speaker 1: and he's like, man, I'm glad to see you here
24:17
Speaker 1: in Guam. And then someone comes up and says, why
24:20
Speaker 1: are you flying that American flag? Dude? Frank clearly got around. Man,
24:24
Speaker 1: what are the chances? This is very strange? Yeah, this
24:27
Speaker 1: is really weird. Yeah. So this this tough customer walks
24:31
Speaker 1: up in his officer's dress, military dress and says, what
24:35
Speaker 1: right have you to fly this American flag from thou ship?
24:42
Speaker 1: Thy ship? So that's how they spoke. Any like grins
24:45
Speaker 1: Frank grins and you know, shrugs a little and yeah,
24:49
Speaker 1: and says, well, I guess I have the right to
24:51
Speaker 1: have that flag up for if I did not have
24:53
Speaker 1: the right, I would not have it there. Oh snack, whoa, Okay,
24:59
Speaker 1: you be in smart with me boy, right, it's pretty
25:01
Speaker 1: much he say, I do what I want. And the
25:03
Speaker 1: guy says, can you prove your right? Yeah, he sounds
25:06
Speaker 1: like a character from like Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, right,
25:09
Speaker 1: And he says, yes, sir, and he pulls out his
25:11
Speaker 1: naturalization papers as a citizen of the US, and the
25:16
Speaker 1: guy looks him over and his tone completely changes. Yeah.
25:19
Speaker 1: At that point, they're they're just buzzom buddies. He says, Okay, Chicago,
25:23
Speaker 1: you're from Chicago, Illinois. Um, United States, twenty two of October.
25:30
Speaker 1: This is birthday, Cook County, State of Illinois, is what
25:32
Speaker 1: he says. Um. And at that point he says, follow me, chum. Yeah,
25:36
Speaker 1: let's go meet the captain. And so they go to
25:40
Speaker 1: meet the captain, who is thrilled to meet Franks Captain
25:43
Speaker 1: Glass and the officer hands Glass Frank's papers and then
25:48
Speaker 1: Glass looks him over and says, I'm glad to meet you.
25:51
Speaker 1: And then he says, look, your brother Joe told me
25:55
Speaker 1: that you had some lighters and some boats and could
25:59
Speaker 1: you let me have some of those just to get
26:02
Speaker 1: some coal on the steamer. I'll pay you, and I'll
26:05
Speaker 1: pay you. I'll pay you. And this guy Frank says,
26:09
Speaker 1: you know what, you don't have to pay me. I'm
26:13
Speaker 1: the only US citizen on the island and it's my
26:16
Speaker 1: duty to give all aid i can, because apparently we're
26:21
Speaker 1: at a war. It's true, it's true, and you know,
26:25
Speaker 1: so that happens. He gives him. He says he can
26:27
Speaker 1: use his boats. Frank goes back to his family. They
26:30
Speaker 1: have a nice meal. Um and at that point the
26:33
Speaker 1: letter is delivered to Frank's home from the governor, a
26:36
Speaker 1: man by the name of Juan marina Um signed L
26:41
Speaker 1: Gobnador this letter and it says, translation is, if you
26:45
Speaker 1: offer any assistance to the American men of war, you
26:48
Speaker 1: will be executed tomorrow morning at the beach. And you know,
26:53
Speaker 1: Frank's like, yeah, right, big words. So he reads the
26:59
Speaker 1: note and he's pretty much giggling at it. It's like,
27:03
Speaker 1: but his wife, you know, she she she thinks it's
27:05
Speaker 1: a serious business. But Frank knows something that she does
27:08
Speaker 1: not know. Right, So he he said to his wife,
27:12
Speaker 1: who is beside herself with fear and sorrow. He says,
27:17
Speaker 1: don't worry, cheer up. If anything comes the worst, I'll
27:21
Speaker 1: have ships to take care of you and the kids.
27:24
Speaker 1: And he shows the note to his brother and he said, look,
27:26
Speaker 1: I already promised Captain Glass the lighters. I'm gonna send
27:29
Speaker 1: him anyway, and uh Jose said, hey, watch out man.
27:35
Speaker 1: Uh So, then he went to the Charleston again after lunch,
27:40
Speaker 1: he showed the letter to Captain Glass, and Captain Glass said,
27:44
Speaker 1: I got you, I got you. Yeah, he said, look,
27:46
Speaker 1: I'm going to have the island delivered before daylight. What
27:49
Speaker 1: they mean when they say island delivered is it's going
27:51
Speaker 1: to officially become something under the control of the United States.
27:57
Speaker 1: And the way that all went down, um, let's give
27:59
Speaker 1: you the quick and dirty. Um. He sent an envoy
28:03
Speaker 1: up to meet with the governor, the man who very
28:06
Speaker 1: sinisterly threatened the life of our of our buddy Frank.
28:10
Speaker 1: So as promised, Glass decides that he's he's ready to
28:13
Speaker 1: set this in motion. Um. So the next day, June one,
28:16
Speaker 1: he sends an envoy a guy by the name of
28:18
Speaker 1: Lieutenant William brown Strewn Brown Browner, Browner's writer. He also
28:24
Speaker 1: says that he's not sure if he's spelling the name
28:26
Speaker 1: in the letter. That's right, Yeah, very true, And I'm
28:28
Speaker 1: not sure I'm I'm saying it right. But that's I'm gonna.
28:30
Speaker 1: I'm gonna commit to that. And they send a letter
28:33
Speaker 1: by way of the Governor's people to deliver to him saying,
28:36
Speaker 1: come come on the ship, Come hang with us, let's
28:39
Speaker 1: chat on our turf on the ship, to which the
28:41
Speaker 1: governor very civilly, at least the language in his response
28:44
Speaker 1: declines because he says it is against Spanish law to
28:48
Speaker 1: board a foreign vessel. And at the at the same time, uh,
28:53
Speaker 1: this is still the twenty three of June. At the
28:55
Speaker 1: same time, Uh, Frank has probably my favorite conversation in
28:59
Speaker 1: this store. He goes back on board the Charleston and
29:02
Speaker 1: he's talking to Captain Glass, and Glass says, hey, Frank,
29:08
Speaker 1: you're the only US citizen on the island. We gotta go,
29:12
Speaker 1: so could you take care of the island. Yeah, because
29:14
Speaker 1: we're gonna have this stitched up real quick like, because
29:18
Speaker 1: after the governor refused, he said, come hang with me
29:21
Speaker 1: on the shore. Right. That's that's that's that's the best
29:23
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do. So, um, Brown's right there. No, it's Browner.
29:29
Speaker 1: Browner's right there. I'm gonna say it like that. He
29:31
Speaker 1: goes with it with a few buddies, and he meets
29:34
Speaker 1: up with the governor and he lets him know that, hey,
29:37
Speaker 1: we've got a pretty formidable gun ship, you know, trained
29:40
Speaker 1: on your island, and we're gonna give you thirty minutes
29:43
Speaker 1: to deliberate with your people, and if you, uh, you know,
29:47
Speaker 1: do not surrender, we're going to shell you and take
29:50
Speaker 1: all you prisoner anyway, to which the governor replies, all right,
29:57
Speaker 1: give me a minute, Give me a minute. He goes
29:59
Speaker 1: and confers, returns with a sealed envelope. And what's in
30:03
Speaker 1: the sealed envelope. Well, the thing that's funny is he
30:05
Speaker 1: hands it to Brown's right. Browner's right. I'm never gonna
30:09
Speaker 1: get it right. It's fine, um, and it's addressed to glass.
30:14
Speaker 1: But our boy Mr B opens it himself, to which
30:18
Speaker 1: the Governor responds, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's not for you, man,
30:21
Speaker 1: that's not diplomacy. Slow your role, to which Mr B responds,
30:25
Speaker 1: I represent him here. Back off. Yeah, And so long
30:35
Speaker 1: story short, maybe a little too late, but this far
30:38
Speaker 1: story short the Spanish officials are taken into custody and
30:45
Speaker 1: they go aboard the boat and they're bound for the Philippines. Yeah,
30:49
Speaker 1: it's all very civil too, because they're like, whoa man,
30:52
Speaker 1: I don't have him a toothbrush. I all got out
30:54
Speaker 1: of the clothes on my back. And the Americans are like, yo,
30:57
Speaker 1: it's cool. We'll let you write to your family, will
30:59
Speaker 1: let them bring you a knapsack, you know, an overnight bag,
31:03
Speaker 1: and you'll you'll be comfortable, You'll be taken care of
31:05
Speaker 1: and uh, and all we need you to do is
31:08
Speaker 1: get all of your troops to line up and come
31:11
Speaker 1: aboard our ship to be our prisoners. And you know what,
31:14
Speaker 1: That's exactly how it went down. Yeah. Not a not
31:17
Speaker 1: a violent death at all, nary a drop of blood
31:20
Speaker 1: was spilt, right, just an awkward uh salute that left
31:25
Speaker 1: both both sides of the conflict feeling as lame as
31:30
Speaker 1: you know, someone who had a high five that wasn't returned,
31:34
Speaker 1: if that's ever happened to you, and you just hold
31:35
Speaker 1: your hand up. But the story isn't over. It does
31:38
Speaker 1: get a little bit fuzzy here because the Charleston and
31:42
Speaker 1: cost set off for the Philippines, and General Glass says, hey, Frank,
31:47
Speaker 1: you're in charge because you're literally the only U. S.
31:50
Speaker 1: Citizen here, to which Frank says, tight, yeah, I'll make
31:55
Speaker 1: it happen. And the problem is that he has not
31:58
Speaker 1: given any written appointment from Commander Glass, and they're just
32:03
Speaker 1: meant to be temporary, right, Like it's just sort of
32:05
Speaker 1: like in the interim, it's like hold the spot. So
32:08
Speaker 1: this makes him the first American governor of the island.
32:12
Speaker 1: But there's another character here, and it's not a it's
32:16
Speaker 1: not in a cut and dried story. The man we
32:18
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, Jose six Though, the paymaster, the paymaster, it's
32:23
Speaker 1: always I knew there was a twist. Yeah, the Paymaster
32:26
Speaker 1: still has a lot of control, and he is with
32:29
Speaker 1: the former Spanish government. And now these two men are
32:35
Speaker 1: in kind of an informal fight for power, and I
32:39
Speaker 1: missed this part entirely. Go on. Well, So after Glass
32:43
Speaker 1: leaves and after Frank becomes the governor, six Though refuses
32:49
Speaker 1: to surrender the island's treasury to Frank, and there are
32:52
Speaker 1: no American sailors or marines. There's nothing supporting his claim
32:56
Speaker 1: to power. Why wasn't he arrested along with all the
32:58
Speaker 1: other officials. I guess he's just a just a nimble
33:03
Speaker 1: guy easily. But he he just said, I'm going to
33:07
Speaker 1: keep paying any Spanish bureaucrats, I'm gonna pay members of
33:10
Speaker 1: the militia. And this consolidates his influence over the island.
33:13
Speaker 1: Sounds sticky, and he was bad with money. Because he
33:16
Speaker 1: bankrupts the treasury, law and order starts to break down.
33:20
Speaker 1: The native residents of Guam and Filipinos that are living
33:26
Speaker 1: on the island begin fighting their riots. And for his part,
33:30
Speaker 1: Frank is doing his best because he says, look, we
33:33
Speaker 1: need to make some improvements on the island, specifically this
33:36
Speaker 1: road that was just in piss poor shape. And six
33:41
Speaker 1: though was like, wait, I control the money and do
33:44
Speaker 1: shan't have a penny? Was he like the troll and
33:46
Speaker 1: guarded the bridge a little less? Yeah? Yeah, um, yes,
33:51
Speaker 1: this does. This sounds like a real a real ship show.
33:54
Speaker 1: There we go. Hey, that's that's son of a Fish
33:57
Speaker 1: and the ship show. We are building this vocabulary pretty
34:00
Speaker 1: well and the mythology. Um, but so like you know,
34:03
Speaker 1: things happen, it gets it's it's obviously any time you
34:07
Speaker 1: occupy a territory, it's gonna be a little rough for
34:09
Speaker 1: a little while. But ultimately after UM the war ended
34:14
Speaker 1: with the Treaty of Paris that was signed UM. Guam
34:19
Speaker 1: and the Philippines were purchased from Spain for a relatively
34:26
Speaker 1: paltry twenty million dollars UM, and these lands were finalized
34:30
Speaker 1: as US territories when the U. S. Senate ratified the
34:34
Speaker 1: treaty in UM eighteen ninety nine February six to be precise.
34:39
Speaker 1: So this goes, This goes pretty quickly, right. It seems
34:43
Speaker 1: like from eighteen the Guam landing to the Treaty of Paris,
34:50
Speaker 1: we're only looking at a few years. But this had
34:54
Speaker 1: a massive effect on the US is Geoe political position
34:59
Speaker 1: and a pretty nasty effect on Spain because Spain began
35:03
Speaker 1: to focus inward and the US emerged from this war
35:07
Speaker 1: as a maybe not a superpower, but a legitimate world
35:11
Speaker 1: power with possessions half a world away and a new
35:16
Speaker 1: steak in international politics, like kind of like an empire
35:21
Speaker 1: or something, yes, exactly, kind of like an empire. But
35:27
Speaker 1: luckily no one in Guam was injured in that takeover.
35:31
Speaker 1: That is cool because there is actually a conspiracy theory.
35:33
Speaker 1: Let's just drop this here at the end, that in fact,
35:36
Speaker 1: the US did not get involved in the Spanish American
35:39
Speaker 1: War for these humanitarian reasons we discussed earlier. Um, yeah,
35:43
Speaker 1: it was reasons of pure greed and to extend their
35:47
Speaker 1: world domination outward. And you know they ultimately succeeded in that,
35:52
Speaker 1: at least in in a couple of small ways. Say
35:55
Speaker 1: it ain't so you know it's a theory. Yes, that
35:58
Speaker 1: is one of several ariies. But you know what's not
36:01
Speaker 1: a theory, the idea that we hope you enjoyed this show.
36:05
Speaker 1: That's a that's a clunky segue. No, no, man, you
36:08
Speaker 1: got from A to B and then's all a segue
36:10
Speaker 1: needs to accomplish. And here we are at B being
36:13
Speaker 1: the end of the show. Yeah, but I feel like
36:15
Speaker 1: we would circuitously through G for guam. You are that's fire,
36:21
Speaker 1: my friend. So thank you, as always so much for
36:26
Speaker 1: checking out today's episode. We want to think, of course,
36:29
Speaker 1: super producer Casey Pegram, who is not to our knowledge,
36:32
Speaker 1: ever invaded a Pacific nation. It's true now Casey is
36:37
Speaker 1: is a is a peaceful man and uh he's got
36:40
Speaker 1: a peaceful plan. Yes, uh. And we'd also like to think,
36:44
Speaker 1: of course, Christopher Haciotis, Alex Williams, the Ridiculous History crew
36:49
Speaker 1: and you everybody, friends, neighbors, all of you countrymen. Let
36:54
Speaker 1: me you've already lent them to us, and we for
36:57
Speaker 1: that we will be forever grateful. Yes, And if you
37:00
Speaker 1: would like to continue adventuring with us throughout some of
37:04
Speaker 1: the strangest silius and most ridiculous stories in human history,
37:08
Speaker 1: then join us on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. You can
37:12
Speaker 1: also find our community page, Ridiculous Historians if you if
37:17
Speaker 1: you're wondering why sometimes Nolan I have mentioned karaoke r
37:22
Speaker 1: opru lands. The answers you seek can be found there.
37:25
Speaker 1: And guess what, we finally made that Pinterest page we've
37:27
Speaker 1: been talking about all these years. That's not true, kidding, Okay,
37:32
Speaker 1: We're never never gonna do That's not gonna happen. I'm
37:34
Speaker 1: not gonna never gonna do that ever. Um, But man,
37:37
Speaker 1: you guys, thanks for joining us, and we hope you'll
37:39
Speaker 1: join us for the next episode, wherein we talk about
37:44
Speaker 1: how Vermont it was in fact a pretty radical place
37:48
Speaker 1: back in the day. I don't mean radical like in
37:49
Speaker 1: the skater parlance. I mean radicalism. They had some pretty
37:53
Speaker 1: big ideas about liberty and uh, they in fact were
37:57
Speaker 1: their own independent republic, knew and the story doesn't end there.
38:03
Speaker 1: What the heck are we talking about? Tune in and
38:04
Speaker 1: find out See him