Lesson 18

• Caraga state university is located at Ampayon, Butuan City 8600, Philippines and the URL is www.carsu.edu.ph
• American Designs on the Philippines

  • Theodore Roosevelt, Sr wished for war between Spain and the U.S. to expand the navy in Asia
  • The coming of the Americans was a planned action, not an accident of the Spanish-American War
  • Manila was attacked on May 1, 1898 by Commodore George Dewey, leading to the surrender of the Spaniards
  • Aguinaldo met with American consul Spencer Pratt in Singapore and was invited to return to the Philippines
  • American interests in the Philippines: economic, religious, naval and military
• The Spanish-American Secret Agreement

  Governor-General Fermin Jaudenes believed the Spanish position was hopeless and insisted on a 'mock battle' surrender, excluding Filipino revolutionaries, which the Americans accepted
• In the Malolos Republic, 1898

  1. Aguinaldo returned to the Philippines and established a Dictatorial Government, then a Revolutionary Government

  2. A congress was convoked at Malolos to prepare a constitution

  3. Diplomatic agents were sent abroad to work for recognition of Philippine independence

  4. The U.S. decided to take over the Philippines and the Treaty of Paris was concluded
• The Treaty of Paris


  Spain ceded the Philippines to the U.S. in return for $20 million, and the U.S. agreed to allow Spain to ship commodities to the Philippines for 10 years
• President McKinley's Benevolent Assimilation Proclamation


  It indicated the U.S. intention to exercise sovereignty over the Philippines and instructed military commanders to extend American sovereignty by force
• Filipino reaction to President McKinley's Benevolent Assimilation Proclamation was that it was a subterfuge to quietly take control, and Aguinaldo said his government could not remain indifferent to such a violent and aggressive seizure of its territory
• The Filipino-American Hostilities


  1. American insistence on evacuation of Aguinaldo's army, refusal to allow Filipino soldiers to enter Manila, and limitation of areas for Filipino troops led to the outbreak of hostilities on February 4, 1899

  2. Aguinaldo prepared local chiefs for the possible start of hostilities, and the American military launched an all-out attack on Filipino troops
• The American Conquests


  • Iloilo and Cebu surrendered to the Americans
  • The Negrense sympathized with the Americans
  • The Bates Treaty was signed in Jolo, Sulu, declaring U.S. sovereignty over the Sulu archipelago
  • Aguinaldo fled to the mountains and was eventually captured on March 23, 1901, taking an oath of allegiance to the U.S.
• The Continuing Resistance (1901-1913)

  After Aguinaldo's capture, the Filipino-American war ended for the U.S. and Filipino elites, but the resistance continued among the Filipino masses in Christian, Muslim and Tribal sectors
• Compromise with Colonialism


  1. American colonial authorities offered opportunities for Filipino cooperation and participation in the colonial government

  2. The Schurman Commission, Filipinization, and the Jones Law gave legislative power to Filipinos
• Colonial Politics and the Campaign for Independence

  The Cabinet Crisis, the Schurman Commission, the OsRox Mission, the Hare-Hawes-Cutting Act, and the Tydings-McDuffie Act were all part of the campaign for independence
• The Commonwealth


  • The 1935 Constitution was based on the American model, covering national security, national defense, social justice, education, national language, and trade relations with the U.S.
• Results of the American Occupation included progress in education, public health and welfare, trade, commerce and industry, transportation and communication, individual freedom, political consciousness, and language and literature
• The Commonwealth was Interrupted by the Japanese Occupation

  The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, occupied the Philippines, suppressed civil liberties, geared the economy to their war efforts, and revamped education to re-orient Filipino thinking
• The Liberation


  1. Filipino and American officers and soldiers in captivity escaped to the mountains and directed the underground resistance movement

  2. American forces landed in Leyte in October 1944, and Japan surrendered on August 15
• Problems of Filipino-American Relations included the Filipinos' realization that American intentions were not exactly altruistic and benevolent, and some actuations of the American military contributed to tension
• Filipinos came to the conclusion that the so-called special relations with the United States was a myth, and nationalists began to criticize American policy and demand the abolition of the parity right
• The references for this study material are Agoncillo's History of the Filipino People, pages 187-410 and 527-532