The Philippine–American War, known alternatively as the Filipino–American War, Philippine Insurrection, or Tagalog Insurgency, was a conflict from 1898 to 1902 between the United States and Philippine nationalists after the Spanish–American War. The United States ultimately prevailed, and maintained control of the Philippines until independence in 1946, other than a period of Japanese occupation between 1941 and 1945.
In 1898, the United States annexed the Philippines from Spain after the Spanish American War, under the terms of the December 1898 Treaty of Paris. The Spanish Empire had controlled the Philippine Islands since 1565 as the Captaincy General of the Philippines. After the defeat of the Spanish Empire, Filipino nationalists had proclaimed independence in June 1898 and constituted the First Philippine Republic in January 1899. The United States did not recognize either event as legitimate, and tensions escalated until fighting commenced on February 4, 1899, in the Battle of Manila.
Shortly after being denied a request for an armistice, the Philippine government issued a proclamation on June 2, 1899, urging the people to continue the war. Philippine forces initially attempted to engage U.S. forces conventionally but transitioned to guerrilla tactics by November 1899. Philippine president Emilio Aguinaldo was captured on March 23, 1901, and the war was officially declared over by the US on July 4, 1902. However, some Philippine groups continued to fight for several more years. Other groups, such as the Muslim Moro peoples of the southern Philippines and quasi-Catholic Pulahan religious movements, continued hostilities in remote areas. The quasi-Catholic Pulahan Movement disbanded in 1907 due to both Philippine and U.S. military pressure, and the Moro Rebellion ended with their final defeat at the Battle of Bud Bagsak on June 15, 1913.
The war resulted in up to 250,000 Filipino civilian deaths, mostly from famine and diseases, including at least 150,000 deaths in a cholera epidemic towards the end of the war. War crimes were committed during the conflict by both sides. In retaliation for Filipino guerrilla warfare tactics, the U.S. carried out reprisals and scorched earth campaigns and forcibly relocated many Filipino civilians to concentration camps, where thousands of them died. The war and subsequent occupation by the U.S. changed the culture of the islands, leading to the rise of Protestantism, disestablishment of the Catholic Church, and the adoption of English by the islands as the primary language of government, education, business, and industry. The U.S. annexation and war sparked a political backlash from anti-imperialists in the U.S. Senate, who argued the war was a definite example of U.S. imperialism, and was also an inherent contradiction of the founding principles of the United States contained in the Declaration of Independence.
In 1902, the United States Congress passed the Philippine Organic Act, which created the Philippine Assembly. This act was superseded by the 1916 Jones Act (Philippine Autonomy Act), which contained the first official declaration of the United States government's commitment to eventually grant independence to the Philippines. The 1934 Tydings–McDuffie Act created the Commonwealth of the Philippines, increased self-governance and established a process towards full independence. This would however be delayed by World War II and the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. The United States eventually withdrew and granted independence in 1946 through the Treaty of Manila.
Background
Philippine Revolution
Andrés Bonifacio was a warehouseman and clerk from Manila. On July 7, 1892, he established the Katipunan, a revolutionary organization formed to gain independence from Spanish colonial rule by armed revolt. In August 1896, the Katipunan was discovered by the Spanish authorities and thus launched its revolution. Fighters in Cavite province won early victories. One of the most influential and popular leaders from Cavite was Emilio Aguinaldo, mayor of Cavite El Viejo (modern-day Kawit), who gained control of much of the eastern portion of Cavite province. Eventually, Aguinaldo and his faction gained control of the revolution. After Aguinaldo was elected president of a revolutionary government superseding the Katipunan at the Tejeros Convention on March 22, 1897, his government had Bonifacio executed for treason after a show trial on May 10, 1897.
Aguinaldo's exile and return
By late 1897, after a succession of defeats for the revolutionary forces, the Spanish had regained control over most of rebel territory. Aguinaldo and Spanish Governor-General Fernando Primo de Rivera entered into armistice negotiations while Spanish forces surrounded Aguinaldo's hideout and base in Biak-na-Bato in Bulacan province. On December 14, 1897, an agreement was reached in which the Spanish colonial government would pay Aguinaldo $MXN800,000 in three installments if Aguinaldo went into exile outside the Philippines.
Aguinaldo and 25 of his closest associates left their headquarters at Biak-na-Bato and made their way to Hong Kong, in accord with the agreement. Before his departure, Aguinaldo publicly denounced the revolution and exhorted rebel combatants to disarm, and declared those who continued hostilities to be bandits. In private, however, Aguinaldo had planned to use the truce money to fund a re-initiation of the revolution, and some revolutionaries continued armed resistance against the Spanish colonial government.
On April 22, 1898, the exiled Aguinaldo privately met in Singapore with United States Consul E. Spencer Pratt. Pratt was later severely rebuked for having met with Aguinaldo and told, "Your action was unauthorized and can not be approved", but the meeting convinced Aguinaldo to return to the Philippines and reclaim leadership of the revolution. Aguinaldo and Pratt each offered contradictory accounts of the meeting.
Aguinaldo returned to Hong Kong and was transported by the Americans to Cavite, arriving on May 19, marking the resumption of the Revolution and commencing a succession of victories that prompted him to order the Philippine Declaration of Independence. The revolution was governed by a Dictatorial Government, but about a month later, this temporary dictatorship was replaced with a Revolutionary Government that appointed Aguinaldo as president. Less than three months after his return, the Philippine Revolutionary Army liberated and established civil government over nearly all the Philippines Islands with the exception of Manila, which was surrounded by revolutionary forces some 12,000 strong.
Conflicting powers in the Philippines
Towards the end of 1898, the partially elected and partially appointed Malolos Congress, established by the organic statute of the Revolutionary Government, drafted a constitution whose promulgation led to the formal establishment of the Philippine Republic by late January 1899. This state would retroactively be known as the First Philippine Republic, and also the Malolos Republic after its capital. Aguinaldo, who had been elected president in accordance with the constitution, officially considered by the Philippine government as the first President of the Philippines.
The Philippine Declaration of Independence was not recognized by either the United States or Spain. In spite of the losses to revolutionary forces, Spain presumed sovereignty over the Philippines and ceded the Philippines to the United States in consideration for an indemnity for Spanish expenses and assets lost via the 1898 Treaty of Paris, signed on December 10, 1898, which concluded the Spanish–American War. The Revolutionary Government sought representation but any Philippine representation was excluded from the talks.
Origins of the conflict
Mock Battle of Manila
In July 1898, three months into the Spanish–American War, U.S. command began suspecting Aguinaldo was secretly negotiating with Spanish authorities to gain control of Manila without U.S. assistance, reporting that the rebel leader was restricting delivery of supplies to U.S. forces. General Thomas M. Anderson assessed that a rebel controlled Manila would be able to resist any U.S. attempt to establish a provisional government. General Wesley Merritt disregarded Aguinaldo's warning not to disembark American troops in places liberated by Filipinos without first informing him in writing about the places and purposes of the actions. U.S. commanders came to suspect that Philippine rebel forces were informing Spanish forces of U.S. troop movements.
U.S. and Spanish commanders negotiated a secret agreement to stage a mock battle in Manila, after which Spanish forces would surrender to U.S. forces. Philippine forces would not be allowed to enter the city. Fighting between U.S. and Philippine troops almost broke out as the former moved to dislodge the latter from strategic positions around Manila. On the eve of the staged battle, Anderson telegraphed Aguinaldo, "Do not let your troops enter Manila without the permission of the American commander. On this side of the Pasig River you will be under fire." On August 13, U.S. forces captured Manila. Relations between the U.S. and Philippine rebels continued to deteriorate.
End of the Spanish–American War
On August 12, 1898, The New York Times reported that a peace protocol had been signed in Washington that afternoon between the U.S. and Spain, suspending hostilities. The full text of the protocol was not made public until November 5, but Article III read: "The United States will occupy and hold the City, Bay, and Harbor of Manila, pending the conclusion of a treaty of peace, which shall determine the control, disposition, and government of the Philippines." After conclusion of this agreement, U.S. President William McKinley proclaimed a suspension of hostilities with Spain.
In a clash at Cavite between US soldiers and insurgents on August 25, 1898, George Hudson of the Utah regiment was killed, Corporal William Anderson was mortally wounded, and four troopers of the Fourth Cavalry were slightly wounded. This provoked General Anderson to send Aguinaldo a letter saying, "In order to avoid the very serious misfortune of an encounter between our troops, I demand your immediate withdrawal with your guard from Cavite. One of my men has been killed and three wounded by your people. This is positive and does not admit of explanation or delay." Philippine communications reported that the Americans were drunk at the time. Aguinaldo expressed his regret and promised to punish the offenders. Apolinario Mabini initially proposed to investigate and punish any offenders identified. Aguinaldo modified this, ordering, "... say that he was not killed by your soldiers, but by them themselves [the Americans] since they were drunk according to your telegram". A Philippine officer in Cavite at the time reported on his record of services that he: "took part in the movement against the Americans on the afternoon of the 24th of August, under the orders of the commander of the troops and the adjutant of the post".
Elections were held by the Revolutionary Government between June and September 10, seating a legislature known as the Malolos Congress. In a session between September 15 and November 13, 1898, the Malolos Constitution was adopted. It was promulgated on January 21, 1899, creating the First Philippine Republic with Emilio Aguinaldo as president.
Article V of the peace protocol signed on August 12 had mandated negotiations to conclude a treaty of peace to begin in Paris not later than October 1, 1898. President McKinley sent a five-man commission, initially instructed to demand no more than Luzon, Guam, and Puerto Rico; which would have provided a limited U.S. empire. In Paris, the commission was besieged with advice, particularly from American generals and European diplomats, to demand the entire Philippine archipelago. The unanimous recommendation was that "it would certainly be cheaper and more humane to take the entire Philippines than to keep only part of it." McKinley claimed that returning the Philippines to Spain would have been "cowardly and dishonorable," that turning them over to "commercial rivals" of the United States would have been "bad business and discreditable," and that the Filipinos "were unfit for self-government."
On October 28, 1898, McKinley wired the commission that "cessation of Luzon alone, leaving the rest of the islands subject to Spanish rule, or to be the subject of future contention, cannot be justified on political, commercial, or humanitarian grounds. The cessation must be the whole archipelago or none. The latter is wholly inadmissible, and the former must therefore be required." The Spanish negotiators were furious over the "immodist demands of a conqueror", but their wounded pride was assuaged by an offer of twenty million dollars for "Spanish improvements" to the islands.
All the while, the Philippine government had sought representation in the talks through accredited diplomat Felipe Agoncillo, who had made efforts to ensure the inclusion of the new Philippine power. Agoncillo and his government were shut out completely from the negotiations.
The Spaniards capitulated to the Americans' demands, and on December 10, 1898, the U.S. and Spain signed the Treaty of Paris, formally ending the Spanish–American War. In Article III, Spain ceded the Philippine archipelago to the United States, as follows: "Spain cedes to the United States the archipelago known as the Philippine Islands, and comprehending the islands lying within the following line: [... geographic description elided ...]. The United States will pay to Spain the sum of twenty million dollars ($20,000,000) within three months after the exchange of the ratifications of the present treaty."
A movement to recognize Philippine independence surged in the U.S.; some said that the U.S. had no right to a land where many of the people wanted self-government. In 1898, industrialist Andrew Carnegie offered to pay the U.S. government $20 million to give the Philippines its independence.
Benevolent assimilation
On December 21, 1898, McKinley issued a proclamation of "benevolent assimilation, substituting the mild sway of justice and right for arbitrary rule" for "the greatest good of the governed". Referring to the Treaty of Paris, asserting that "as a result of the victories of American arms, the future control, disposition, and government of the Philippine Islands are ceded to the United States." It enjoined military commander Major General Elwell Stephen Otis to inform Filipinos that "in succeeding to the sovereignty of Spain" the authority of the United States "is to be exerted for the securing of the persons and property of the people of the islands and for the confirmation of all their private rights and relations". The proclamation specified that "it will be the duty of the commander of the forces of occupation to announce and proclaim in the most public manner that we come, not as invaders or conquerors, but as friends, to protect the natives in their homes, in their employments, and in their personal and religious rights".