FILIPINO-AMERICAN RELATIONS 1898-1969

• Theodore Roosevelt Sr.


  one of the influential Americans wished that war between Spain and the U.S. should break out in order to expand the navy in Asia
• • The coming of the Americans was not a mere accident of the Spanish-American War but a planned action.
• Led by Commodore George Dewey, Manila was attacked on May 1, 1898. The Spaniards, in the face of absolute defeat, hoisted the white flag in Cavite in token of surrender.
• • While Aguinaldo was in Singapore, he met Spencer Pratt, American consul in Singapore. Pratt invited Aguinaldo to return in the Philippines
• American interests to the Philippines

  • economic
  • religious
  • naval and military
• Governor-General Fermin Jaudenes

  • believed that the Spanish position was hopeless in the face of a superior enemy and in the face of Filipino revolutionaries.
• • To satisfy the Spanish code of honor, Jaudenes insisted that the surrender of Spain should be done in a ‘mock battle’.
• • Aguinaldo returned to the Philippines from Hong Kong with a plan to form a Filipino government. He established the Dictatorial Government in May 1898 but a month later changed into the Revolutionary Government.
• • The Congress was summoned at Malolos in September and a constitution prepared to guide the government in its progress toward republicanism.
• The United States, however, had decided to take over control of the Philippines and in December 1898 the Treaty of Paris between Spain and the United States was concluded.
• THE TREATY OF PARIS

  • It provided that Spain would cede the Philippines to the United states in return to which Spain would receive $20,000,000 from the United States as payment for improvements made in the colony. Further, the United States agreed to give the Spaniards the right to ship commodities to the Philippines for a period of ten years on the same terms as those of the United States.
• President McKinley

  • he instructed military commanders in the Philippines to extend American sovereignty over the entire country by force.
• Antonio Luna


  pointed out that it was “merely a subterfuge to quiet the people temporarily until measures could be inaugurated and applied to put in practice all the offensive features of government which Spain had employed in the Philippines.
• Filipino-American relations progressively deteriorated:

  • American insistence on the evacuation of Aguinaldo’s army of the strategic points along the Manila Bay area
  • The refusal of the American military authorities to allow the Filipino soldiers to enter the city after its surrender
  • American limitation of the areas to be occupied by the Filipino troops after the mock battle of Manila
  • On February 4, 1899, an American sentry shot a Filipino soldier resulting in the outbreak of the Filipino-American hostilities
• • Unresolved February 4 incident, Aguinaldo prepared local chiefs of the possible start of the Filipino-American hostilities 
  • American military authorities ordered an all-out against Filipinos army
  • American military won majority of the battles led by Gen. MacArthur while Filipino troops led by Gen. Antonio Luna and Gen. Gregorio del Pilar
• THE AMERICAN CONQUESTS

  • Ilo-ilo and Cebu surrendered to the Americans
  • The Negrense sympathize with the Americans 
  • Bates Treaty was introduced and signed in Jolo, Sulu of August 20, 1899
• • Bates Treaty. The sovereignty of the U.S over the whole archipelago of Jolo and its dependencies is declared and acknowledged, that the rights and dignities of His Highness the Sultan and his datos shall be fully respected
  • Aguinaldo fled to the mountains
  • The Battle of Pasong Tirad, Gen. Gregorio del Pilar was killed 
  • Aguinaldo was captured on Mar 23, 1901 On April 1, 1899, Aguinaldo took his oath of allegiance to the U.S. and appealed to all Filipinos to accept the sovereignty of the U.S
• THE CONTINUING RESISTANCE (1901-1913)

  • After the capture of Ge. Aguinaldo at Palanan, Isabela in 1901, the Filipino-American war ended as far as the United States and Filipino elites were concerned. But to the Filipino masses, who looked upon their war against the Americans as a continuing struggle for independence, the resistance lasted longer.
• The resistance can be seen in three sectoral perspectives

  • Christian
  • Muslim
  • Tribal
• COMPROMISE WITH COLONIALISM

  • American colonial authorities repeatedly offered opportunities for Filipino cooperation and participation in the colonial government.
  • Filipinization (1913) by Francis Burton
  • Jones Law was passed, legislative power was given to the Filipinos
• Cabinet Crisis

  • resignation of all Filipino members of the Congress of Gov. Wood
• Schurman Commission


  non-military approach of American colonialism
• OsRox Mission 1931-33

  • to secure what in their judgment would be the best out of any situation that might arise in (American) Congress concerning the Philippine issue. 
• Hare-Hawes-Cutting Act

  • act provided for the establishment of a 10-year Commonwealth to serve as a transition government before the proclamation of independence on July 4, 1946
• Tydings-McDuffie Act

  •  eliminated military reservations
• THE COMMONWEALTH

  • The 1935 Constitution was born, followed by the American model
  • National Security and National defense
  • Social Justice program
  • Education
  • National language 
  • Trade relations with the U.S 
  • Alien control of the economy
• RESULTS OF THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION

  • Progress in education 
  • Public health and welfare
  • Trade, commerce and industry
  • Transportation and communication
  • Individual freedom
  • Political consciousness
  • Language and literature
• • The 10-year preparatory period was rudely interrupted when the Japanese looking for territories to accommodate not only their excess population but their manufactured goods, started the war in the Pacific.
  • Japanese naval bomber attacked the Pearl Harbor in Hawaii in December 1941.
  • The U.S. declared war against Japan and the war in the Pacific was formally on.
  • The Philippines was occupied by the Japanese.
  • Civil liberties were suppressed.
• • The economy was geared to the demands of the Japanese war efforts
  • Education was revamped to re-orient the Filipino thinking along Japanese lines
  • Political life was limited to the Japanese-sponsored Republic
  • The 3 years of Japanese occupation were also years of resistance movement.
  • A number of Filipino and American officers and soldiers during captivation succeeded in escaping to the mountains and there directed the underground movement.
• • Reports of Japanese movements, losses, strengths and disposition of troops were sent to MacArthur’s headquarters in Australia. 
  • American forces hit the beach of Leyte in October 1944
  • On August 15, Japan surrendered
• • There are actuations of the American Government and personnel which do not conform to the Filipino idea of friendship. 
  • The Filipinos have come to realize that American intentions in the Philippines have not been exactly altruistic and benevolent.
  • Some actuations of the American military in the Philippines have contributed to the tension in Filipino-American relations.
• • Filipinos come to the conclusion that the so-called special relations with the United States was a myth.
  • The nationalists began to criticize American policy toward the Philippines and demanded in unmistakable terms the abolition of the parity right of the Americans in the Philippines