The Philippine-American War: Here We Go Again....

I bet not a lot of people learned about this event in their history classes here in the United States (and I’m one of those people).  The Philippine-American War was provoked by the U.S. after they purchased the Philippines from Spain in 1898. The Philippines, Puerto Rico, and other islands (all used to be owned by the Spanish) were only bought by the U.S. as a result of the Spanish-American War.  In addition, President McKinley was reluctant to buy the Philippines, but he felt obligated because the people were “unfit for self-government and they would soon have anarchy and misrule over there...there was nothing left for us to do but take them all, and educate the Filipinos and uplift and Christianize them.”   The imperialist U.S. used this to justify the colonization of the Philippines by denying their independence after the Spanish-American War.  The Filipinos, who endured guerilla warfare for two and a half years, used to view the Americans as their allies.  They were not okay with enduring more colonization (since they went through a lot of that with the Spanish), so there was a lot of tension between the Filipinos and Americans.

Eventually, this tension soon turned to the offensive. On February 4, 1899, an American soldier shot a Filipino soldier at a bridge in San Juan, Manila.  This event was believed to have sparked the beginning of the Philippine-American War, even though it took place just two days before the Treaty of Paris would be ratified (which would officially cede the Philippines to the U.S. for $20 million).  Emilio Aguinaldo, who led the Filipinos against Spanish rule, came back from exile, and came back as a leading figure during the war.  American troops, who were supported by more high tech military machinery, quickly overwhelmed Filipino forces with thousands of casualties.  In just days, American forces spread outward from Manila, pushing Aguinaldo and his men towards central Luzon.  Aguinaldo eventually resorted to guerilla warfare, which consisted of ambushes and massacres. He knew that his army was no match for the Americans’ military technology; it’s like fighting guns with sticks, so can you really blame the guy?

The Philippine-American War lasted for three years.  It represented the efforts of the Filipinos for independence since they were not interested in colonization.  They had the courage to stand up to a developed country like the U.S., who had more technically developed weapons.  It’s also understandable that the Filipinos must’ve felt angry and frustrated when they thought that they would finally gain their independence from Spain after the Spanish-American War.  Instead, they were colonized once again by America, and they were faced with more battles once again.

Posted by Natasha Rivero