Philippine-American War, 1899-1902


Political Cartoon, 1899

Political Cartoon, 1899

 

Topics on the Page

 

Event Summary

 

American Tactics

 

Personal Accounts from Both Sides

 

Filipino Movements for Independence

 

Anti-War Sentiment and the Anti-Imperialist League

 

African American Troops

 

Other U.S. Involvements: Cuba, Puerto Rico and Guam

 

  Cross-Links:  

Annexation of Hawaii

 

America's Role in World Affairs 

 

The Great White Fleet

 

The Building of the Panama Canal


  

Event Summary


Here is an interactive timeline of the relationship between the US and Philippines

When the U.S. declared war on Spain, rebel armies were already fighting for independence from Spanish rule in both Cuba and the Philippines.

 

 

 

 

 

Summary video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scho0YzzPu8

- also covers the diplomatic debate annexation v. liberation of Philippines after the war. (also really important)

 


 

  " The Philippines are ours forever.... and just beyond the Philippines are China's illimitable markets. The Pacific Ocean is our Ocean."

 Senator Albert Beveridge of Indiana, 1990

 

 

American Tactics 

 

 

- The American troops used brutality to suppress the Filippino rebellion, such as concentration camps.

 

- An article by Professor Welch Jr. of Lafayette College addressing American atrocities in the conflict.

 

- An article about the use of concentration camps in the war.

 

 - Some American citizens bought into the Imperialist idea that the U.S. was bringing culture and civility to a previously violent people. Of course, the Philippines was full of culture prior to the arrival of United States troops--but to those American citizens who would like to think themselves superior, the idea of "helping" a dark-skinned populace through brutal acquisition was too alluring of an idea.

 

This was a fundamentally racist perspective, as demonstrated by the 1899 publication below.

 

[This racist publication / political cartoon was published in the Boston Sunday Globe on March 5, 1899

and echoed sentiments that were popular among those who supported the war.]

 

 

 The Brutality of US Tactics: shows the brutality of American tactics while also demonstrating how American film clips were used as propaganda by the United States during the war effort.

 

American Soldiers in the Philippines Write Home about the War

 

U.S. Army soldiers during a lull, October 2, 1899


Personal accounts and photos of Philippine insurgents.

 

 

 

 

Classroom activity: Students are tasked in producing political cartoons that will further their understandings of U.S. imperialism, anti-imperialist resistance, cultural/national superiority, and commercialism.

 


For a critical perspective on American foreign policy toward the Philippines, see an online review of the book Vestiges of War: The Philippine-American War and the Aftermath of an Imperial Dream, 1899-1999.

 

 


 

 

Filipino Movements for Independence

 

external image Emilio_Aguinaldo_%28ca._1898%29.jpg

"Emilio Aguinaldo was born from a local elite family in Cavite. His father was mayor of Kawit, Cavite, a post he himself held.

 

 

  • Aguinaldo declared Philippine independence from Spain on June 12, 1898, and a year later was proclaimed president of the Philippine Republic. The United States did not recognize his authority, having earlier won the Philippine Islands as a war trophy in the US-Spanish War of 1898.

 

  • In February 1899, Aguinaldo declared war on the US and led what was to become the Philippine-American War that lasted until Aguinaldo's capture in March 1901. Filipino resistance, however, continued until 1902." 

-- Notes from the Center for Philippine Studies at the University of Hawaii-Manoa

 

The Filipino perspective - a digital archive dedicated to providing the Filipino history of the conflict

 

 


 

For background on American involvement in the Philippines, see Honor in the Dust: Theodore Roosevelt, War in the Philippines, and the Rise and Fall of America's Imperial Dream. Gregg Jones, New American Library, 2012.

 


Crash Course History - Imperialism - a video series dedicated to the US history curriculum detailing US imperialism in the early 20th century

 

 A video on Resistance to American Imperialism in the Philippine Islands. 

Race and US involvement - a review of Paul Kramer's The Blood of Government, which argues that the US involvement in the Philippines was part of a larger issue of race and American society

Connecting to our modern society - sensational media and its role in the war

 

Arguments for US action - Albert Beveridge, Indiana senator at the time, arguing for American imperialism to secure economic power in the Pacific - "In Support of an American Empire"

Click here for a learning plan on the Philippine-American War called The Matter of the Philippines.

 

 


 

Politics

 

Treaty of Paris 1898: this peace treaty ended the Spanish-American War, where Spain ceded many territories including Cuba and the Philippines to the United States

 

Another great resource about the debate and treaty: https://www.britannica.com/event/Treaty-of-Paris-1898

 

Tydings-McDuffie Act 1946: The Philippines finally gained independence as President Harry Truman acknowledged their independence.

 

 


 

 

ANTI-War Sentiment and the Anti-Imperialist League

 


 Women and the Anti-Imperialist movement - Erin Murphy's article analyzing how women participated in the anti-imperialist movement of the war and how they were purposefully excluded

 

 

Source: Includes WOMEN and MEN ANTI-IMPERIALISM

 https://apjjf.org/-Erin-Murphy/3182/article.html

 

 

The Anti-Imperialist League, 1898-1902 from American Peace Movements

 

 

African American Troops

 

 

The U.S. Black community was split by the war effort, like many others. Some African American troops felt as though they had to put on a good showing in the Philippines to gain favor for their community and cause in the United States. Others saw the explicit non-white subjugation as a continuation of the treatment that the Black community had lived through, and thus supported the Filipino cause for independence. Explore more in the resource above.

 

 


 

 

Other U.S. Involvements: Cuba, Puerto Rico and Guam

 

Material Submitted by Kate Milliken (October 2020)