Philippine-American War

Admiral George Dewey allowed Aguinaldo to return to the islands on May 19. In a matter of months, Aguinaldo and his resistance fighters conquered nearly all of the Spanish-held ground within the Philippines. With the exception of Manila, which was completely surrounded by Aguinaldo and his rebel army of 12,000, the Filipinos controlled the Philippines. Aguinaldo and his guerillas also turned over 15,000 Spanish prisoners to the Americans, offering them valuable intelligence. By the summer of 1898, the Spanish were completely defeated in the Philippines, as the Americans went on to occupy the city of Manila after a battle with the Spanish.^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}

On January 1, 1899, Aguinaldo was declared the first President of the Philippines. He later organized a Congress at Malolos, Bulacan to draft a constitution.^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}

Admiral Dewey later argued that he had promised nothing regarding the future:

"From my observation of Aguinaldo and his advisers I decided that it would be unwise to co-operate with him or his adherents in an official manner.... In short, my policy was to avoid any entangling alliance with the insurgents, while I appreciated that, pending the arrival of our troops, they might be of service."

US soldiers of the First Nebraska volunteers, company B, near Manila, 1899

The conventional war phase

The start of the war

Tensions between the Filipinos and the American soldiers on the islands existed because of the conflicting movements for independence and colonization, aggravated by the feelings of betrayal on the part of Aguinaldo, who had been brought to the islands by the American navy. Hostilities started on February 4, 1899 when an American soldier shot a Filipino soldier who was crossing a bridge into American-occupied territory in San Juan del Monte, an incident historians now consider to be the start of the war. U.S. President William McKinley later told reporters "that the insurgents had attacked Manila" in justifying war on the Philippines. The Battle of Manila (1899) that followed caused thousands of casualties for Filipinos and Americans alike.

The administration of U.S. President McKinley subsequently declared Aguinaldo to be an "outlaw bandit", and no formal declaration of war was ever issued. Two reasons have been given for this:

• One is that calling the war the Philippine Insurrection made it appear to be a rebellion against a lawful government. ^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}
• The other was to enable the American government to avoid liability to claims by veterans of the action.^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}

American escalation

US troops in the Philippines, 1899

A large American military force (126,000 soldiers) was needed to occupy the country, and would be regularly engaged in war against Filipino forces for another decade. Also, Macabebe Filipinos were recruited by the United States Army. Twenty-six of the 30 American generals who served in the Philippines from 1898 to 1902 had fought in the Indian Wars. p. 127

By the end of February, 1899, the Americans had prevailed in the struggle for Manila, and the Philippine Army of Liberation was forced to retreat north. Hard-fought American victories followed at Quingua (April), Zapote Bridge (June), and Tirad Pass (December). With the June assassination of General Antonio Luna by rivals in the Philippine leadership, conventional military leadership was weakened. Brigadier General Gregorio del Pilar, fought a heroic Filipino delaying action at Battle of Tirad Pass to buy time for Aguinaldo to escape, escape he did, but del Pilar was killed in the final attack. For the Filipinos, this battle remains their Thermopylae. After this battle and with the loss of two of their best generals, the Filipinos' ability to fight a conventional war rapidly diminished.

Aguinaldo's strategy

The goal, or end-state, sought by the Filipino insurgency was a sovereign, independent, socially stable Philippines led by the illustrado oligarchy. Local chieftains, landowners, and businessmen were the principales who controlled local politics. The insurgency was strongest when illustrados, principales, and peasants were unified in opposition to annexation. The peasants, who provided the bulk of guerilla manpower, had interests different from their illustrado leaders and the principales of their villages. Coupled with the ethnic and geographic fragmentation, unity was a daunting task. The challenge for Aguinaldo and his generals was to sustain unified Filipino public opposition; this was the revolutionaries strategic center of gravity.

The Filipino operational center of gravity was the ability to sustain its force of 100,000 irregulars in the field. The Filipino General Francisco Macabulos described the insurrection's aim as, "not to vanquish the US Army but to inflict on them constant losses." They sought to initially use conventional (later guerilla) tactics and an increasing toll of US casualties to contribute to McKinley's defeat in the 1900 presidential election. Their hope was that as President the avowedly anti-imperialist William Jennings Bryan would withdraw from the Philippines. They pursued this short-term goal with guerilla tactics better suited to a protracted struggle. While targeting McKinley motivated the insurgents in the short term, his victory demoralized them and convinced many undecided Filipinos that the United States would not depart precipitately.Deady, 2005

The guerrilla war phase

As of 1900, Aguinaldo ordered his army to engage in guerrilla warfare, a means of operation which better suited them and made American occupation of the Philippine archipelago all the more difficult over the next few years. In fact, during just the first four months of the guerrilla war, the Americans lost nearly 500 men who were either killed or wounded. The Filipino resistance fighters began staging bloody ambushes and raids. Most infamous were the guerrilla victories at Pulang Lupa and Balangiga. At first, it even seemed as if the Filipinos would fight the Americans to a stalemate and force them to withdraw. This was even considered by President McKinley at the beginning of the phase.

The shift to guerrilla warfare, however, only angered the Americans into acting more ruthlessly than before. They began taking no prisoners, burning whole villages, and routinely shooting surrendering Filipinos. Much worse were the concentration camps that civilians were forced into, after being suspected of being guerrilla sympathizers. Thousands of civilians died in these camps. In nearly all cases, the civilians suffered much worse than the actual Filipino guerrillas.

The subsequent American repression towards the population tremendously reduced the materials, men, and morale of many Filipino resistance fighters, compelling them in one way or another to surrender.

Aguinaldo Captured; downfall of the Philippine Army

The Philippine Army continued suffering defeats time and time again by the better armed Americans when fighting conventional warfare, forcing Aguinaldo to continuously change his base of operations, which he did off and on for nearly the length of the entire war.

General Frederick Funston was able to use Aguinaldo's poor security against him, when Funston on March 23, 1901 in northern Luzon, faked capture with the help of some Filipinos who had joined the Americans' side. Once Funston and his "captors" entered Aguinaldo's camp, they immediately fell upon the guards and quickly overwhelmed them and the weary Aguinaldo. On April 1, 1901, at the Malacañang palace in Manila Aguinaldo swore an oath accepting the authority of the United States over the Philippines and pledging his allegiance to the American government. Three weeks later he publicly called on his followers to lay down arms. "Let the stream of blood cease to flow; let there be an end to tears and desolation," Aguinaldo said. "The lesson which the war holds out and the significance of which I realized only recently, leads me to the firm conviction that the complete termination of hostilities and a lasting peace are not only desirable but also absolutely essential for the well-being of the Philippines." Brands p. 59

The capture of Aguinaldo dealt a severe blow to the Filipino cause, but not as much as the Americans had hoped. The less competent General Mariano Trias succeeded him, but surrendered shortly after.

Command then fell to highly regarded General Miguel Malvar, who originally had taken a defensive stance against the Americans, now launched all out offensives against the American-held towns in the Batangas region. Though his victories were small, they were a testament that the war was not yet over.

In response, General J. Franklin Bell performed tactics that countered Malvar's guerilla strategy perfectly. Forcing civilians to live in hamlets, interrogating suspected guerillas (and regular civilian alike), and his execution of scorched earth campaigns took a heavy toll on the Filipino revolutionaries.

Bell also relentlessly pursued Malvar and his men, breaking ranks, dropping morale, and forcing the surrender of many of the Filipino fighters. Finally, in April of 1902, after barely escaping capture, Malvar with his sick wife and children along with some of his most trusted officers who stood with him until the end, surrendered. By the end of the month, nearly 3,000 of Malvar's men also gave into the inevitable and surrendered.

With the surrender of Malvar, the last truly capable general of the Philippine Army, the Filipino fight began to dwindle even further. Command changed hands frequently, as each general, one after another, was killed, captured, or just surrendered.

The United States declared the insurgency officially over in 1902. The Filipino leaders for the most part, accepted that the Americans had won.

However, some Filipino nationalist historians consider the war to have continued for nearly a decade, since bands of guerillas, quasi-religious armed groups and other resistance groups continued to roam the countryside, still clashing with American Army or Philippine Constabulary patrols. These groups, which included Macario Sakay, a senior Katipunan member and general who attempted to form a new Tagalog Republic, and the pulajanes, colorum or Dios-Dios groups of assorted provinces, were dismissed as bandits, fanatics or cattle rustlers.

American opposition to the war

Some Americans, notably William Jennings Bryan, Mark Twain, Andrew Carnegie, and other members of the American Anti-Imperialist League, strongly objected to the annexation of the Philippines. Other Americans mistakenly thought that the Philippines wanted to become part of the United States. Anti-imperialist movements claimed that the United States had betrayed its lofty goals of the Spanish-American War by becoming a colonial power, merely replacing Spain in the Philippines. Other anti-imperialists opposed annexation on racist grounds. Among those who opposed annexation were individuals such as Senator Benjamin Tillman of South Carolina, who feared that annexation of the Philippines would lead to an influx of non-white immigrants, thus undermining white racial purity in America. As news of atrocities committed in subduing the Philippines arrived in the United States, support for the war flagged.

Mark Twain famously opposed the war by using his influence in the press. He felt it betrayed the ideals of American Democracy by not allowing the Filipino people to choose their own destiny.

"There is the case of the Philippines. I have tried hard, and yet I cannot for the life of me comprehend how we got into that mess. Perhaps we could not have avoided it -- perhaps it was inevitable that we should come to be fighting the natives of those islands -- but I cannot understand it, and have never been able to get at the bottom of the origin of our antagonism to the natives. I thought we should act as their protector -- not try to get them under our heel. We were to relieve them from Spanish tyranny to enable them to set up a government of their own, and we were to stand by and see that it got a fair trial. It was not to be a government according to our ideas, but a government that represented the feeling of the majority of the Filipinos, a government according to Filipino ideas. That would have been a worthy mission for the United States. But now -- why, we have got into a mess, a quagmire from which each fresh step renders the difficulty of extrication immensely greater. I'm sure I wish I could see what we were getting out of it, and all it means to us as a nation."

Some later historians, such as Howard Zinn, cite the Philippine-American War as an example of American imperialism.

Casualties

During the war, 4,324 American soldiers died --only 1000-1500 of which were due to actual combat, the rest died of disease. 2,818 were wounded. There were also 2,000 casualties that the Philippine Constabulary suffered during the war, over a thousand of which were fatalities. Philippine military deaths are estimated at 20,000 with 16,000 actually counted, while civilian deaths numbered at 250,000 to 1,000,000 Filipinos, including those killed by war, malnutrition[link] and a cholera epidemic that raged during (and after) the war. The American military and Philippine Constabulary still suffered periodic losses combating small bands of Moro guerillas in the far south until 1913.

The high casualty figures are due mostly to the combination of superior arms and even more superior numbers of the Americans. They had the most modern and up-to-date weapons in the world with the most superb bolt action rifles and machine guns and were also well led. Furthermore there were the U.S. warships at the ready to destroy Philippine positions when needed. In contrast, the Filipinos were armed with a motley collection of rifles, a number of which were taken from dead Spanish or American soldiers, or smuggled into the country by their fellow Filipinos. Their artillery was not much better, mostly worn out artillery pieces captured from the Spanish. Although they did have a few Maxim and Gatling machine guns, along with a few modern Krupp artillery pieces, these were highly prized and taken to the rear for fear of capture before they could play any decisive role. Ammunition along with rifles also became scarce as the war dragged on, and they had to manufacture their own, like the homemade paltik. Still most did not even have firearms. Many used bolo, spears, and lances in fighting, which also contributed to high casualty figures when such obsolete weapons were used against the Americans' superior arms. The Filipinos knew their own country and rough terrain well however, in contrast to the Americans fighting on foreign terrain.

In recognition of United States military service, during the Philippine-American War, the United States military created two service decorations which were known as the Philippine Campaign Medal and the Philippine Congressional Medal.

In 1916 the United States granted the Philippines self-government and promised eventual independence, which came in 1946.

War Crimes

American torture and scorched-earth campaigns

General Jacob H. Smith's infamous order, "Kill everyone over ten," was the caption in the New York Journal cartoon on May 5, 1902. The Old Glory draped an American shield on which a vulture replaced the bald eagle. Caption is: "Criminals because they were born ten years before we took the Philippines."

In 1908, Manuel Arellano Remondo, in a book entitled General Geography of the Philippine Islands, wrote: "The population decreased due to the wars, in the five-year period from 1895 to 1900, since, at the start of the first insurrection, the population was estimated at 9,000,000, and at present (1908), the inhabitants of the Archipelago do not exceed 8,000,000 in number." p. 125.

U.S. attacks into the countryside often included scorched earth campaigns where entire villages were burned and destroyed, torture (water cure) and the concentration of civilians into "protected zones" (concentration camps). Many of the civilian casualties resulted from disease and famine. Reports of the execution of U.S. soldiers taken prisoner by the Filipinos led to savage reprisals by American forces. Many American officers and soldiers called war a "nigger killing business".

American soldiers letters and response

Once these accounts were widely reproduced, the War Department was forced to demand that General Otis investigate their authenticity. For each press clipping, he forwarded it to the writer’s commanding officer, who would then convince the soldier to write a retraction.

Private Charles Brenner of the Kansas regiment resisted such pressure. He insisted that Colonel FunstonNew York Sun March 10, 1902; p. 234-235 In 1902 Funston toured the United States speaking to increase public support for the war in the Philippines. He said: "I personally strung up thirty-five Filipinos without trial, so what was all the fuss over Waller's "dispatching" a few "treacherous savages"? If there had been more Smiths and Wallers, the war would have been over long ago. Impromptu domestic hanging might also hasten the end of the war. For starters, all Americans who had recently petitioned Congress to sue for peace in the Philippines should be dragged out of their homes and lynched.--Colonel Frederick Funston at a banquet in Chicago. had ordered that all prisoners be shot and that Major Metcalf and Captain Bishop enforced these orders. Otis was obliged to order the Northern Luzon sector commander, General MacArthur, to look into the charge. Brenner confronted MacArthur’s aide with a corroborating witness, Private Putman, who confessed to shooting two prisoners after Bishop or Metcalf ordered, “Kill them! Damn it, Kill them!” MacArthur sent his aide’s report on to Otis with no comment. Otis ordered Brenner court-martialed “for writing and conniving at the publication of an article which... contains willful falsehoods concerning himself and a false charge against Captain Bishop." The judge advocate in Manila convinced Otis that such a trial could open a Pandora’s box, as “facts would develop implicating many others.”

General Otis sent the Brenner case to Washington writing: “After mature deliberation, I doubt the wisdom of court-martial in this case, as it would give the insurgent authorities a knowledge of what was taking place and they would assert positively that our troops had practiced inhumanities, whether the charge should be proven or not, as they would use it as an excuse to defend their own barbarities;” and Otis went on, justifying the war crimes, “and it is not thought that his charge is very grievous under the circumstances then existing, as it was very early in the war, and the patience of our men was under great strain.” Miller, p. 89;
*

Towards the end of 1899, General Otis attempted to repair his battered image. He began to work to win new friends among the journalists in Manila and bestowed favors on any journalist who gave him favourable press. Miller, p. 91

Concentration camps

Filipino atrocities

Other atrocities included those by General Vicente Lukban, the Filipino commander who masterminded the surprise attack in the Balangiga Massacre, that killed over fifty American soldiers. Media reports stated that many of the bodies were mutilated.Boot, p. 102

Sergeant Hallock testified in the Lodge committee said natives were given the water cure, “…in order to secure information of the murder of Private O'Herne of Company I, who had been not only killed, but roasted and otherwise tortured before death ensued.”[The Water Cure Described. Discharged Soldier Tells Senate Committee How and Why the Torture Was Inflicted.] New York Times May 4, 1902. p. 13

Reporters and Red Cross accounts contradict Otis

Emilio Aguinaldo also released some American prisoners so they could tell their own stories. In a Boston Globe article entitled “With the Goo Goo’s” Paul Spillane described his fair treatment as a prisoner. Emilio Aguinaldo had even invited American captives to the christening of his baby and had given each a present of four dollars, Spillane recounted.

Naval Lieutenant J.C. Gilmore, whose release was forced by American cavalry pursuing Aguinaldo into the mountains, insisted that he had received “considerable treatment” and that he was no more starved than were his captors. Otis responded to these two articles by ordering the “capture” of the two authors, and that they be “investigated”, therefore questioning their loyalty. Miller, p. 93;
*Literary Digest Volume 18 (1899), p. 499

When F.A. Blake of the International Red Cross arrived at Emilio Aguinaldo’s request, Otis kept him confined to Manila, where Otis’s staff explained all of the Filipinos' violations of civilized warfare. Blake managed to slip away from an escort and venture into the field. Blake never made it past American lines, but even within American lines he saw burned out villages and “horribly mutilated bodies, with stomachs slit open and occasionally decapitated.” Blake waited to return to San Francisco, where he told one reporter that “American soldiers are determined to kill every Filipino in sight.” Miller, p. 94;
*Boston Globe June 27, 1900;
*Literary Digest Volume 20 (1900), p. 25;
*San Francisco Call December 8, 1899, February 16, 1900

Ratio of Filipinos wounded

MacArthur added a racial twist, asserting that Anglo-Saxons do not succumb to wounds as easily as do men of "inferior races."Miller p. 189
*[Philippine History Group of Los Angeles The Balangiga Massacre: Getting Even]; Senate Document S. Doc. 331, 57th Congress, 1st Session, p. 637-639, 894-898

Consequences

Filipino casualties on the first day of war. National Archives Photo No. 111-RB-1037.

Muslims

English education and the Catholic Church

During the U.S. occupation, English was declared the official language, although the languages of the Philippine people were Spanish, Visayan, Tagalog, Ilokano, Pangasinan and other native languages. Also, six hundred American teachers were imported aboard the USS Thomas. The first task of the Thomasites was to reform the education system to one that maintained an anti-Spanish curriculum but glossed over existing American atrocities.^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}

The English requirement barred many from political office and ensured a dependency on American administrators.

Quotes

In the fall of 1899, MacArthur, who was still loyal to General Otis, said to reporter H. Irving Hannock:

Further reading

• Kenton J. Clymer States "The book provides the best account to date of the inner dynamics of the Filipino side of the war." — Review: Not so Benevolent Assimilation: The Philippine-American War, Reviews in American History Vol. 11, No. 4 (Dec., 1983), pp. 547–552
• Deady, Timothy K.; "Lessons from a Successful Counterinsurgency: The Philippines, 1899-1902" Parameters, Vol. 35, 2005
• Gates, John. "War-Related Deaths in the Philippines, 1898-1902", Pacific Historical Review 53:367+ (1983)
• Gates, John M., [The US Army and Irregular Warfare, Chapter 3: The Pacification of the Philippines]
• Kenton J. Clymer States "The War Miller describes is a more believable one than the one Gates pictures."
• Smallman-Raynor, Matthew, and Andrew D Cliff. "The Philippines Insurrection and the 1902-4 cholera epidemic: Part I-Epidemiological diffusion processes in war" Journal of Historical Geography, v 24, n 1, January, 1998, p. 69-89
• T.A. Agoncillo / M.C. Guerrero, History of the Filipino People, Quezon City,1987, pp. 159
• Zwick, Jim. Friends of the Filipino People Bulletin
• Zwick, Jim. Militarism and Repression in the Philippines
• Zwick, Jim. "Prodigally Endowed with Sympathy for the Cause:" Mark Twain's Involvement with the Anti-Imperialist League" (Ephemera Society of America (January 1, 1992) ASIN B0006R8RJ8
• Young, Kenneth Ray; The General's General: The Life and Times of Arthur Macarthur Westview Press, 1994

Government and contemporary sources

• The Philippine "Lodge committee" hearings (A.K.A. Philippine Investigating Committee) and a great deal of documentation were published in three volumes (3000 pages) as S. Doc. 331, 57th Cong., 1st Session An abridged version of the oral testimony can be found in: American Imperialism and the Philippine Insurrection: Testimony Taken from Hearings on Affairs in the Philippine Islands before the Senate Committee on the Philippines--1902; edited by Henry F Graff; Publisher: Little, Brown; 1969. ASIN: B0006BYNI8
• [See the extensive Anti-imperialist summary of the findings of the Lodge Committee/Philippine Investigating Committee on wikisource]. Listing many of the attrocities and the military and government reaction.

See also

• Battles of the Philippine-American War
• Black Legend
• History of the Philippines
• Lodge Committee
• Philippine Scouts
• Vietnam War
• George Dewey
• Katagalugan
• Timeline of Philippine-American War
• Vicente Lukban

Footnotes

External links