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After its defeat in the Spanish-American War of 1898, Spain ceded its longstanding colony of the Philippines to the United States in the Treaty of Paris. On February 4, 1899, just two days before the U.S. Senate ratified the treaty, fighting broke out between American forces and Filipino nationalists led by Emilio Aguinaldo who sought ...
- Overview
- The end of Spanish rule and the First Philippine Republic
Philippine-American War, war between the United States and Filipino revolutionaries from 1899 to 1902, an insurrection that may be seen as a continuation of the Philippine Revolution against Spanish rule. It began after the United States assumed sovereignty of the Philippines following the defeat of Spain in the Spanish-American War. Although an en...
There had been numerous quasi-religious uprisings in the Philippines during the more than 300 years of colonial rule, but the late 19th-century writings of José Rizal and others helped stimulate a more broad-based movement for Philippine independence. Spain was unwilling to reform its colonial government, and armed rebellion broke out in 1896. Rizal, who had advocated reform but not revolution, was shot for sedition on December 30, 1896; his martyrdom fueled the revolution, led by the young general Emilio Aguinaldo.
Another movement for independence from Spanish rule was underway in Cuba, meanwhile. In March 1898, following the destruction of the USS Maine in Havana a month earlier, the United States sent an ultimatum to Spain demanding it accept U.S. arbitration and eventually relinquish its control of Cuba. In preparation for the likelihood of war against Spain, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt placed the U.S. Asiatic squadron in Hong Kong on alert. When war was declared in April, Commodore George Dewey sailed from Hong Kong and defeated the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay on the morning of May 1, but he could not occupy Manila until ground troops arrived three months later.
In the meantime, on June 12, the Filipinos declared independence and proclaimed a provisional republic with Aguinaldo as president. Within days, on the other side of the Pacific, the American Anti-Imperialist League had begun to take shape. This organization, which opposed American involvement in the Philippines, grew into a mass movement that drew support from across the political spectrum. Its members included luminaries such as social reformer Jane Addams, industrialist Andrew Carnegie, philosopher William James, and author Mark Twain.
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A History of War
On August 13 Manila fell after a bloodless “battle.” Spanish Gov. Fermín Jáudenes had secretly arranged a surrender after a mock show of resistance to salvage his honour. American troops were in possession of the city, but Filipino insurgents controlled the rest of the country. The Treaty of Paris(1898), signed by representatives of Spain and the United States in December, transferred Philippine sovereignty from Spain to the United States. But the leaders of the nascent Philippine Republic, who were in actual control of the entire archipelago except Manila, did not recognize U.S. sovereignty over the islands. The United States, meanwhile, rejected Filipino claims of independence. Conflict was inevitable.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
The fighting with Filipino rebels began as a result of the U.S. refusal to include the Filipino nationalists in negotiations over the future of the Philippines. The Philippines were ceded to the United States by Spain for $20 million by the Treaty of Paris, signed on December 10, 1898.
2 Three colonial treaties define the Philippine territorial boundaries: (1) Treaty of Paris, U.S.-Spain, Dec. 10, 1898, T.S. No. 343; (2) Cession of Outlying Islands of Philippines, U.S.-Spain, Nov. 7, 1900, T.S. No. 345; (3) Boundaries, Philippines and North Borneo, U.S.-U.K., Jan. 2, 1930, T.S. No. 856.
Two days before the US Senate voted to ratify the treaty, fighting broke out between American troops and the Filipino revolutionaries who sought complete independence. The Treaty of Paris marked not only the end of the Spanish-American War but also the beginning of the Philippine-American War.
May 10, 2017 · But by the terms of the Treaty of Paris, which ended the war, America took possession of the over 7,600 islands that make up the Philippines by paying Spain $20 million for them. The war featured guerrilla warfare by the Filipinos and, on the American side, “concentration zones,” scorched earth tactics, retaliation, and torture.
Filipinos did not recognize the treaty, however, because it called for Spain to cede the Philippines to the United States (for a sum of twenty million dollars) rather than allow them their promised independence. Critics in America and abroad accused President William McKinley of imperialism.
