The Philippine Revolution was a war of independence waged by the revolutionary organization Katipunan against the Spanish Empire from 1896 to 1898. It was the culmination of the 333-year colonial rule of Spain in the archipelago. The Philippines was one of the last major colonies of the Spanish Empire, which had already suffered a massive decline in the 1820s. Cuba rebelled in 1895, and in 1898, the United States intervened and the Spanish soon capitulated. In June 1898, Philippine revolutionaries declared independence. However, it was not recognized by Spain, which later sold the islands to the United States in the Treaty of Paris of 1898.
Led by Andrés Bonifacio, the Katipunan was formed in secrecy in 1892 in the wake of the nascent La Liga Filipina, an organization created by Filipino nationalist José Rizal and others in Spain with the goal of Philippine representation to the Spanish Parliament. Katipunan soon gained influence across the islands, and sought an eventual armed revolution. However, the revolution started prematurely in August 1896 upon its discovery by Spanish authorities in Manila. The organization quickly declared war against Spain in Caloocan. Early battles and skirmishes were centered around sieging the capital city of Manila led by Bonifacio himself, which ultimately failed. However, revolutionaries in the neighboring provinces fared better, particularly in Cavite, where rebels led by Mariano Álvarez and cousins Baldomero and Emilio Aguinaldo won early major victories. This disparity in success, along with multiple factors, contributed to the eventual power struggle from within Katipunan's leadership. Two factions formed: Bonifacio's Magdiwang and Aguinaldo's Magdalo. This struggle culminated in the 1897 elections in Tejeros, which saw Emilio Aguinaldo elected as president in absentia. Bonifacio nullified the results after a Magdalo member questioned his election as the Secretary of the Interior. This resulted in a schism, with Bonifacio's supporters alleging that the elections were fraudulent, and Bonifacio himself refusing to recognize the results. In April 1897, Aguinaldo ordered the arrest of Bonifacio. A trial was set in Maragondon, where the Magdalo-led jury found Bonifacio and his brother Procopio guilty of treason and sentenced both of them to death. Despite calls for commuting the sentence for the sake of national unity, the brothers were executed in May 1897. Later that year, Aguinaldo's government and Spanish authorities signed the Pact of Biak-na-Bato, which temporarily reduced hostilities. Filipino revolutionary officers exiled themselves to Hong Kong. However, the hostilities never completely ceased.
On April 21, 1898, after the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor, the United States declared war against Spain, starting the Spanish-American War. On May 1, the United States Asiatic Squadron, under George Dewey, decisively defeated the Spanish Navy in the Battle of Manila Bay, effectively seizing control of the area surrounding Manila. On May 19, Aguinaldo, unofficially allied with the United States, returned to the Philippines and resumed attacks against the Spaniards. By June, the rebels had gained control of nearly the entirety of the countryside, while the cities remained under Spanish control. On June 12, Aguinaldo issued the Philippine Declaration of Independence in Kawit. Although this signified the end date of the revolution, neither Spain nor the United States recognized Philippine independence. The Treaty of Paris was signed between Spain and the United States, formally ending the war and the Spanish rule to the islands. Despite attempts by the Filipino government, there were no Filipinos in the treaty.
On February 4, 1899, fighting broke out between the Filipino and American forces, beginning the Philippine–American War. Aguinaldo immediately declared war, ordering "that peace and friendly relations with the Americans be broken and that the latter be treated as enemies". In June 1899, the First Philippine Republic formally declared war against the United States, which ended with the Philippine Organic Act in July 1902. As a result, the islands become an unincorporated territory of the United States. A commonwealth government was formed in 1935, with Manuel L. Quezon, Aguinaldo's aide-de-camp during the revolution, assuming the presidency. The Philippines was intended to become independent after a ten-year commonwealth period but was cut short by the advent of the Second World War in the Pacific. The country finally became fully independent on July 4, 1946, 50 years after the start of the revolution.
Summary
While there are uprisings in the Philippines against Spanish authorities before the 19th century, these were sporadic, unorganized nationally, and were quickly suppressed. The colony was governed from Mexico since 1565, with administrative costs sustained by subsidies via the galleon trade between Manila and Acapulco. However, the galleon trade ended in 1815 due to increased competition with foreign traders. After Mexico became independent in 1821, the Philippines was governed directly from Madrid for the first time. The authorities began looking for new sources of revenue to sustain its colony, which only saw limited trade with foreign traders by the start of the 19th century. In 1809, the first British firms were established in Manila, and by 1834, a royal decree opened the city to world trade. At this point, revolutionary ideas from the French Revolution entered the colony through literature, which resulted in the rise of an enlightened principalía class in society.
In Spain, the deeply unpopular Queen Isabella II was deposed in 1868 and was replaced by a democratic government led by General Francisco Serrano. In 1869, Serrano appointed Carlos María de la Torre as the governor-general of the colony. The democratic ideas of the revolution in Spain were extended to the Philippines, where liberalism was introduced by the de la Torre government to the colony. However, it did not last long, as the election of Amadeo of Savoy to the throne of Spain led to the replacement of de la Torre in 1871. In 1872, the government of the succeeding governor-general, Rafael de Izquierdo, experienced a mutiny of soldiers at Fort San Felipe in Cavite el Viejo. The mutiny was quickly suppressed, with numerous arrests made over the next seven days. Among those who were implicated with the mutiny were the secular priests José Burgos, Mariano Gomez and friar Jacinto Zamora, who were executed by garrote in Bagumbayan. Their execution had a profound effect on many Filipinos; nationalist and writer José Rizal would later dedicate his novel El filibusterismo to their memory.
Many Filipinos who were arrested for possible rebellion were deported to Spain, where they were distributed to different locations, mainly to their African colony of Bioko, as well as to Chafarinas Islands and Ceuta in the Mediterranean, and the Spanish colonies of the Marianas and the Carolines in the Pacific. Some of them, however, managed to escape to Hong Kong, Yokohama, Singapore, Paris, London, Vienna, Berlin, and even in some parts of Spain. These people met fellow Filipino students and other exiles who had escaped from penal colonies. Bound together by a common fate, they established an organization known as the Propaganda Movement. These émigrés used their writings primarily to condemn Spanish abuses and seek reforms to the colonial government.
José Rizal's novels, Noli Me Tángere (Touch Me Not, 1887) and El Filibusterismo (The Filibuster, 1891), exposed Spanish abuses in socio-political and religious aspects. The publication of his first novel brought the infamous agrarian conflict in his hometown of Calamba, La Laguna, in 1888, when Dominican haciendas fell into trouble of submitting government taxes. In 1892, after his return from the Americas, Rizal established La Liga Filipina (The Filipino League), a Filipino association organized to seek reforms in the colonial government. When the Spaniards learned that Rizal was in the Philippines, they arrested and deported him a few days after the Liga was established.
Upon hearing that Rizal had been deported to Dapitan, Liga member Andrés Bonifacio and his fellows established a secret organization named Katipunan in a house located in Tondo, Manila, while more conservative members led by Domingo Franco and Numeriano Adriano would later establish the Cuerpo de Compromisarios. The Katipunan obtained an overwhelming number of members and attracted the lowly classes. In June 1896, Bonifacio sent an emissary to Dapitan to obtain Rizal's support, but Rizal refused to participate in an armed revolution. On August 19, 1896, Katipunan was discovered by a Spanish friar, which resulted in the start of the Philippine Revolution.
The revolution initially flared up in Central Luzon. The armed resistance eventually spread throughout the Southern Tagalog region, particularly in Cavite province, where towns were gradually liberated during the early months of the uprising. In 1896 and 1897, successive conventions at Imus and Tejeros decided the new republic's fate. In November 1897, the Republic of Biak-na-Bato was established, and the insurgent government promulgated a constitution. On May 1, 1898, the Battle of Manila Bay took place as part of the Spanish–American War. On May 24, Emilio Aguinaldo, who had returned from voluntary exile on May 19, announced in Cavite, "...I return to assume command of all the forces for the attainment of our lofty aspirations, establishing a dictatorial government which will set forth decrees under my sole responsibility, ...". On June 12, Aguinaldo proclaimed Philippine independence. On June 18, Aguinaldo issued a decree proclaiming a Dictatorial Government led by himself. On June 23, Aguinaldo issued another decree, which replaced the Dictatorial Government with a Revolutionary Government. In 1898, between June and September 10, the Malolos Congress elections were held by the Revolutionary Government, resulting in Emilio Aguinaldo being elected as President of the Philippines. On February 2, 1899, hostilities broke out between U.S. and Filipino forces. The Malolos Constitution was adopted in a session convened on September 15, 1898. It was promulgated on January 21, 1899, creating the First Philippine Republic with Aguinaldo as President. On June 12, 1899, Aguinaldo promulgated a declaration of war against the U.S., beginning the Philippine–American War. U.S. forces captured Aguinaldo on March 23, 1901, and he swore allegiance to the U.S. on April 1. On July 4, 1902, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed a complete pardon and amnesty for all Filipinos who had participated in the conflict, effectively ending the war.
Background
Origins and causes
The Philippine Revolution was an accumulation of ideas and exposition to the international community, which led to the start of nationalistic endeavours. The rise of Filipino nationalism was slow, but inevitable. Abuses by the Spanish government, military and clergy prevalent during three centuries of colonial rule, and the exposure of these abuses by the "ilustrados" in the late 19th century, paved the way for a united Filipino people. However, the growth of nationalism was slow because of the difficulty in social and economic intercourse among the Filipinos. In a dated letter written by the Filipino writer José P. Rizal to Father Vicente García of Ateneo Municipal de Manila, Rizal states that:
There is, then, in the Philippines, a progress or improvement which is individual, but there is no national progress.
— January 17, 1891
Opening of Manila to world trade
Before the opening of Manila to foreign trade, the Spanish authorities discouraged foreign merchants from residing in the colony and engaging in business. The royal decree of February 2, 1800, prohibited foreigners from living in the Philippines. as did the royal decrees of 1807 and 1816. In 1823, Governor-General Mariano Ricafort promulgated an edict prohibiting foreign merchants from engaging in retail trade and visiting the provinces for the purpose of trading. It was reissued by Governor-General Luis Lardizábal in 1840. A royal decree issued in 1844 prohibited foreigners from traveling to the provinces under any pretext whatsoever, and in 1857, several anti-foreigner laws were renewed.
With the wide acceptance of laissez-faire doctrines in the later part of the 18th century, Spain relaxed its mercantilist policies. The British capture and occupation of Manila in 1762–1764 made Spain realize the impossibility of isolating the colony from world intercourse and commerce. In 1789, foreign vessels were given permission to transport Asian goods to the port of Manila. Even before the 1780s, many foreign ships, including Yankee clipper ships, had visited Manila regardless of anti-foreigner regulations. In 1790, Governor-General Félix Berenguer de Marquina recommended that the King of Spain open Manila to world commerce. Furthermore, the bankruptcy of the Royal Company of the Philippines (Real Compaña de Filipinas) catapulted the Spanish king to open Manila to world trade. In a royal decree issued on September 6, 1834, the privileges of the company were revoked and the port of Manila was opened to trade.
Shortly after the opening of Manila to world trade, the Spanish merchants began to lose their commercial supremacy in the Philippines. In 1834, restrictions against foreign traders were relaxed when Manila became an open port. By the end of 1859, there were 15 foreign firms in Manila. Seven of these were British, three were American, two were French, two were Swiss and one was German.
In 1834, some American merchants settled in Manila and invested heavily in business. Two American business firms were established—the Russell, Sturgis & Company and the Peele, Hubbell & Company. These became two of the leading business firms. At first, Americans had an edge over their British competitors, because they offered high prices for Philippine exports such as hemp, sugar, and tobacco.
American trade supremacy did not last long. In the face of stiff British competition, they gradually lost control over the Philippine business market. This decline was due to lack of support from the U.S. government and lack of U.S. trade bases in the Orient. In 1875, Russell, Sturgis & Company went into bankruptcy, followed by Peele, Hubbell & Company in 1887. Soon after, British merchants, including James Adam Smith, Lawrence H. Bell and Robert P. Wood, dominated the financial sector in Manila.
In 1842, alarmed by the domination of foreign merchants in the economy of Manila, the Spanish government sent Sinibaldo de Mas, a Spanish diplomat, to the Philippines in order to conduct an economic survey of the Philippines and submit recommendations. After an intensive investigation of colonial affairs in the Philippines, Mas submitted his official report to the Crown. The report, Informe sobre el estado de las Islas Filipinas en 1842, was published at Madrid in 1843. Mas recommended the following: opening of more ports to promote foreign trade, encouragement of Chinese immigration to stimulate agricultural development, and abolition of the tobacco monopoly.
In response to Sinibaldo de Mas's recommendations, more ports were opened by Spain. The ports of Sual, Pangasinan, Iloilo and Zamboanga were opened in 1855, Cebu was opened in 1860, and both Legazpi and Tacloban were opened in 1873.
Before the start of the Philippine Revolution, Filipino society was subdivided into social classifications that were based on the economic status of a person. Background, ancestry, and economic status played a huge role in determining standing in the social hierarchy.