What belief did the united states use to justify its takeover of the philippines?

Imperialists around the world used ideas of racial, national, and cultural superiority to justify imperialism. One of these ideas was Social Darwinism which was the belief that life consists of competitive struggles in which only the fittest survive. Social Darwinists felt that certain nations and races were superior to others and therefore destined to rule over inferior peoples and cultures. In an 1899 interview president McKinley explained "We could not give (the Philippines) back to Spain - that would be cowardly and dishonorable." instead he argued that the United States had no choice but to "take them all, and educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize ... them.".