“Empire on the Rocks” investigates the decade-long legal, moral, and political battle over the Eighteenth Amendment in the Philippines, a topic underexplored in scholarship on both the Prohibition Era and U.S. empire. Placing American and Filipino sources in conversation, this presentation shows how Filipino jurists, politicians, and businessmen defied the will of reformers and the U.S. colonial administration on the question of Prohibition. During this period, Filipino alcohol companies and distillers’ associations gained legitimacy as political actors and scientific experts, impeding the “civilizing mission” of American reformers along the way. Brewed into both “wet” and “dry” arguments were competing visions of the present and future status of U.S. sovereignty in the archipelago. And as these debates played out in the popular press, U.S. Congress, and the Philippine Legislature, alcohol took on a new cultural significance in the islands: local companies made alcohol attractive to Filipino consumers by portraying it as healthy and modern, taking cues from their American counterparts. Among U.S. audiences, Prohibition heightened American fantasies of the Philippines as an exotic leisure zone. “Empire on the Rocks” concludes by looking ahead, showing how the Prohibition debates merely marked the start of alcohol’s place in U.S.–Philippine relations.
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