Progressive Plantations: American Visions of Development on Philippine Friar Lands

In 1903, the U.S. Philippine Commission purchased 410,000 acres of church owned lands in the archipelago. Commissioners believed the purchase would solve agrarian unrest on the commercial plantations. The move instead transformed the US colonial state into the archipelago’s largest landlord, one uncertain of how to determine tenancy and rents, and, above all, desperate to sell in an effort to fund road and rail building projects. This paper looks at how the ensuing controversy over the distribution of former church lands shaped the development rhetoric of Philippine Commissioners. In its focus on the response of the Commission to criticism in both the Philippines and the U.S., the paper suggests that “development” is best understood as a shifting set of practices that, while sometimes sensitive to local politics, are often more geared to the home audience of its practitioners.