Considering your edit, I also want to point out that the Philippines did not become a colony of the US as a result of the Spanish-American War. The various groups in the Philippines had actually already defeated the Spanish in a war of independence. The US arrived in time to “help” (block the escape route out of Manila Bay; everywhere else in the archipelago the Spanish had already fallen). Filipino revolutionaries declared a constitutional republic, the first in Asia.

However, the Spanish were basically so racist that they refused to surrender to Filipinos and instead sold the islands to the US. Obviously this was just to save face and the contract meant little since Spain was trying to sell land that did not belong to them. The US then invaded the Philippines and started the Filipino-American War, which lasted around another 15 years.