Philippine–American War

Philippine-American War
Harper's Weekly depiction of a Filipino attack on the barracks of Co. C, 13th Minnesota Volunteers, in Tondo, Manila
Date 1899-1902 (unofficial hostilities continued until 1913) Location Philippines Result United States victory. The Philippines becomes a U.S. territory.
Belligerents
United States	First Philippine Republic several groups post-1902
Commanders and leaders
William McKinley Theodore Roosevelt Wesley Merritt Elwell Stephen Otis J. Franklin Bell Henry Ware Lawton† John J. Pershing Joseph Wheeler	Emilio Aguinaldo Miguel Malvar Pio del Pilar Manuel Tinio Gregorio del Pilar† Licerio Geronimo Vicente Lukban Juan Cailles Maximino Hizon Antonio Luna† several unofficial leaders post-1902
Strength
126,000 American soldiers	First Philippine Republic: 80,000 soldiers
Casualties and losses
4,324 U.S. soldiers dead, 3,000 wounded 2,000 killed, dead, or wounded suffered by the Philippine Constabulary	16,000 soldiers killed est. 250,000 to 1,000,000 civilians died of war (through combatants of both sides), famine, or disease.

The Philippine-American War was an armed military conflict between the United States of America and the First Philippine Republic, fought between 1899 to at least 1902, which occurred from a Filipino political struggle against U.S. occupation of the Philippines. The U.S. conquest of the Philippines has been described as a genocide, and resulted in the death of 1.4 million Filipinos (out of a total population of seven million).

While the conflict was officially declared over in 1902, American colonial troops continued hostilities against remnants of the Philippine Army and other resistance groups until 1913.

Background

Philippine Revolution

On July 7, 1892, Andrés Bonifacio, a warehouseman and clerk from Manila, founded the Katipunan, a secret organization which aimed to gain independence from Spanish colonial rule by armed revolt. The Katipunan spread throughout the provinces, and the Philippine Revolution of 1896 was led by its members.

While a charismatic and decisive figure, Bonifacio suffered defeats at the hands of the Spaniards in battles he personally led, including the very first major battle at San Juan del Monte, Manila (now Pinaglabanan). Some historians have thus considered him an ineffectual military leader, but others have argued the opposite by virtue of chain of command as other lower-ranking commanders whom he directed were successful.

File:800px-Katipuneros.jpg

A late 19th century photograph of Filipino rebels, known as the Katipuneros.

Fighters in Cavite province won early victories. One of the most influential and popular Caviteño leaders was Emilio Aguinaldo, mayor of Cavite El Viejo (modern-day Kawit), who now controlled much of eastern Cavite. Eventually, Aguinaldo and his faction gained control of the movement. The Katipunan was superseded by a revolutionary government, of which Aguinaldo was elected president, and the “outmaneuvered” Bonifacio was executed for treason.

The conflict between Bonifacio and Aguinaldo has subsequently become a controversial matter among Filipino historians. At least one, Nick Joaquin, has opined that the Revolution of 1896 as led by the Caviteños is to be distinguished from Bonifacio's failed uprising in Manila. Others such as Teodoro Agoncillo and Milagros C. Guerrero have noted that Bonifacio organized the Katipunan into a government prior to the outbreak of hostilities, with him as president. This government was called Republika ng Katagalugan, after "Tagalog", the name of an ethnic group, used to refer to all natives. Regardless, Aguindalo's national government and presidency are usually considered the first in Philippine history.

Aguinaldo's exile and return

A photograph of Emilio Aguinaldo.

By December 1897, the futility of the struggle was becoming apparent on both sides and came to a stalemate. In August 1897, armistice negotiations were opened between Aguinaldo and the current Spanish governor-general, Fernando Primo de Rivera. By mid-December, an agreement was reached in which the governor would pay Aguinaldo 800,000 pesos in three installments if Aguinaldo would go into exile. Aguinaldo then established himself in Hong Kong. Before leaving, Aguinaldo denounced the Revolution, exhorted Filipino combatants to disarm and declared those who continued hostilities to be bandits. However, some Filipino revolutionaries did continue armed struggle against the Spanish colonial government.

Admiral George Dewey, having engaged and defeated the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay on May 1 1898, ferried Aguinaldo back to the Philippines on May 19. In a matter of months, the Philippine Army conquered nearly all of Spanish-held ground within the Philippines. With the exception of Manila, which was completely surrounded by the Philippine Army of 12,000, the Filipinos now controlled the Philippines. Aguinaldo also turned over 15,000 Spanish prisoners to the Americans, offering them valuable intelligence. On June 12, Aguinaldo declared independence at his house in Cavite El Viejo.

By August, the Spaniards had surrendered Manila, and the Americans had occupied it. Governor-General Fermin Jaudenes had made a secret agreement with Dewey and General Wesley Merritt. Jaudenes specifically requested to surrender only to the Americans. In order to save face, he proposed a mock battle with the Americans preceding the Spanish surrender; the Filipinos would not be allowed to enter the city. Dewey and Merritt agreed to this, and no one else in either camp knew about the agreement. On the eve of the mock battle, General Thomas M. Anderson telegraphed Aguinaldo, “Do not let your troops enter Manila without the permission of the American commander. On this side of the Pasig River you will be under fire”.

The June 12 declaration of Philippine independence was not recognized by the United States or Spain, since the Spanish government ceded the Philippines to the United States in the 1898 Treaty of Paris, which was signed on December 10 1898, in consideration for an indemnity for Spanish expenses and assets lost.

On January 1, 1899, Aguinaldo was declared President of the Philippines — the first and only president of what would be later called the First Philippine Republic. He later organized a Congress at Malolos, Bulacan to draft a constitution.

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.”

War against the United States

Conflict origins

Filipino soldiers outside Manila in 1899.

In December 1898, the U.S. and Spain signed the Treaty of Paris, ending the Spanish-American war. In this treaty,

• Spain relinquished all claim of sovereignty over and title to Cuba, agreeing that Spain would evacuate the island. The U.S. agreed to occupy the island and, so long as such occupation shall last, assume and discharge the obligations for the protection of life and property.
• Spain ceded to the United States the island of Porto Rico (Sic) and other islands under Spanish sovereignty in the West Indies, and the island of Guam in the Marianas or Ladrones.
• Spain ceded to the United States the archipelago known as the Philippine Islands, and the U.S. agreed to pay to Spain the sum of twenty million dollars ($20,000,000).

The U.S. government made plans to make the Philippines an American territory. However, the Filipinos, fighting for independence from Spain since 1896, had already declared independence on June 12, 1898, having considered the Americans allies.

Tensions between the Philippine and the American governments existed because of the conflicting movements for independence not movements for colonization, aggravated by the feelings of betrayal on the part of Aguinaldo, who had been returned to the islands from exile in Hong Kong by the United States Navy.

First shots

On February 4, 1899, an "almost certainly drunk" Filipino soldier was shot by an American soldier, William W. Grayson, at now Silencio Street, Manila. Shots were exchanged, and the incident sparked the full-blown war. Grayson's own account states:

In a moment, something rose up slowly in front of us. It was a Filipino. I yelled “Halt!” and made it pretty loud, for I was accustomed to challenging the officer of the guard in approved military style. I challenged him with another loud “halt!” Then he shouted “halto!” to me. Well, I thought the best thing to do was to shoot him.

Fighting soon erupted in Manila. It caused 2,000 Filipino and 250 American casualties. One Lt. Alfred C. Alford of the Kansas 20th may well be among the first Americans to perish in the conflict; he was killed in action in an advance on February 6.

Aguinaldo subsequently tried to stop the hostilities and sent emissaries to the Americans, but General Elwell Otis replied: "Fighting having begun, must go on to the grim end." U.S. President William McKinley later told reporters “that the insurgents had attacked Manila” in justifying war on the Philippines.

The McKinley administration subsequently declared Aguinaldo to be a bandit, and no formal declaration of war was ever issued. The lack of a formal declaration enabled the American government to avoid having to pay veterans benefits. According to Stanley Karnow, the term "Philippine Insurrection" emphazised the American view of the conflict as a rebellion against their lawful government.

American escalation

Pasig. Oregon Volunteer Infantry on firing line, March 14, 1899

A large American military force (126,000 soldiers) was needed to conquer the country, and the force was 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.

By the end of February 1899, the Americans had prevailed in the struggle for Manila, and the Philippine Army 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 delaying action at Battle of Tirad Pass to allow Aguinaldo to escape, but del Pilar was killed in the final attack. After this battle and the loss of two of their best generals, the Filipinos' ability to fight a conventional war rapidly diminished.

Philippine war strategy

Estimates of the Filipino forces vary between 80,000 and 100,000, with tens of thousands of auxiliaries. Lack of weapons and ammunitions was a significant impediment to the Filipinos. U.S. troop strength was 40,000 at the start of hostilities and peaked at 126,000 two years later.

The goal, or end-state, sought by the First Philippine Republic was a sovereign, independent, socially stable Philippines led by the ilustrado (intellectual) oligarchy. Local chieftains, landowners, and businessmen were the principales who controlled local politics. The war was strongest when illustrados, principales, and peasants were unified in opposition to annexation. The peasants, who provided the bulk of guerrilla 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 Makabulos described the Filipinos' war aim as, “not to vanquish the U.S. Army but to inflict on them constant losses.” They sought to initially use conventional tactics and an increasing toll of U.S. 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 revolutionaries in the short term, his victory demoralized them and convinced many undecided Filipinos that the United States would not depart precipitately.

Guerrilla war phase

In 1900, Aguinaldo shifted from conventional to guerrilla warfare, a means of operation which better suited their disadvantaged situation and made American occupation of the Philippine archipelago all the more difficult over the next few years. During the first four months of the guerrilla war, the Americans sustained nearly 500 casualties. The Philippine Army began staging bloody ambushes and raids, such as the guerrilla victories at Paye, Catubig, Makahambus, Pulang Lupa, Balangiga and Mabitac. 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 resulted in the Americans acting more ruthlessly than before. They began taking no prisoners, burning whole villages, and routinely shooting surrendering Filipino soldiers. 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 more than the guerrillas.

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

Decline and fall of the First Philippine Republic

The Philippine Army continued suffering defeats from the better armed American Army during the conventional warfare phase, forcing Aguinaldo to continuously change his base of operations, which he did for nearly the length of the entire war.

Aguinaldo boarding the USS Vicksburg following his capture in 1901.

On March 23, 1901, General Frederick Funston and his troops captured Aguinaldo in Palanan, Isabela, with the help of some Filipinos (called the Macabebe Scouts after their home locale) who had joined the Americans' side. The Americans pretended to be captives of the Macabebes, who were dressed in Philippine Army uniforms. Once Funston and his “captors” entered Aguinaldo's camp, they quickly fell upon the guards and 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.”

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 the highly regarded General Miguel Malvar, who originally had taken a defensive stance against the Americans, but 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 guerrilla strategy. Forcing civilians to live in hamlets, interrogating suspected guerrillas (and regular civilians alike), and his execution of scorched earth campaigns took a heavy toll on the Filipino revolutionaries.

A group of Filipino combatants are photographed just as they lay down their weapons prior to their surrender.

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

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

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

Post-1902 hostilities

Some Filipino nationalist historians like Renato Constantino have suggested that the war unofficially continued for nearly a decade, since bands of guerrillas, quasi-religious armed groups and other resistance groups continued to roam the countryside, still clashing with American Army or Philippine Constabulary patrols.

Simeon Ola of Guinobatan, Albay in the Bicol region has been suggested as the last Filipino general to surrender (on September 25, 1903) in place of Malvar.

In 1902, a veteran Katipunan member and self-proclaimed generalisimo named Macario Sakay attempted to form his own Republic, called Katagalugan after Bonifacio's, in southern Luzon. After years of resistance, he was captured and executed in 1907 after accepting an amnesty offer.

Quasi-religious armed groups included the pulajanes (so called because of their red garments), colorum (from a corruption of the Latin in saecula saeculorum, part of the Glory Be to the Father prayer), and Dios-Dios (literally "God-God") groups of assorted provinces . These groups were mostly composed of farmers and other poor people led by messianic leaders, and they subscribed to a blend of Roman Catholicism and folk beliefs. For example, they used amulets (called agimat or anting-anting), believing they would become bulletproof. One of these leaders was Dionisio Seguela, better known as Papa Isio (Pope Isio). The last of these groups were wiped out or had surrendered by 1913, though other groups claiming lineage from these would resurface in the Commonwealth period.

According to Constantino, these movements were all dismissed by the American government as banditry, fanaticism or cattle rustling.

American opposition to the war

Some Americans, notably William Jennings Bryan, Mark Twain, Andrew Carnegie, Ernest Crosby, 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 these was 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.”

In 1904 or 1905, Twain dictated the War Prayer in protest against the Philippine-American war. It was submitted to Harper's Bazaar for publication, but on March 22, 1905, the magazine rejected the story as "not quite suited to a woman's magazine." Because he had an exclusive contract with Harper & Brothers, Mark Twain could not publish The War Prayer elsewhere; it remained unpublished until 1923. According to one account, his illustrator Dan Beard asked him if he would publish it regardless, and Twain replied that "Only dead men can tell the truth in this world. It can be published after I am dead." Mindful of public reaction, Twain considered that he had a family to support, and did not want to be seen as a lunatic or fanatic. In a letter to his confidant Joseph Twichell, he wrote that he had "suppressed" the book for seven years, even though his conscience told him to publish it, because he was not "equal" to the task. The story was found in his manuscripts and published posthumously in 1923.

Some later historians, such as Howard Zinn and Daniel Boone Schirmer, cite the Philippine–American War as an example of American imperialism.

Filipino collaboration with America

Some of Aguinaldo's associates supported America, even before hostilities began. Pedro Paterno, Aguinaldo's prime minister and the author of the 1897 armistice treaty with Spain, advocated the incorporation of the Philippines into the United States in 1898. Other associates sympathetic to America were Trinidad Pardo de Tavera and Benito Legarda, prominent members of Congress; Gregorio Araneta, Aguinaldo's Secretary of Justice; and Felipe Buencamino, Aguinaldo's Secretary of Foreign Affairs. Buencamino is recorded to have said in 1902: "I am an American and all the money in the Philippines, the air, the light, and the sun I consider American."

The American government organized the Philippine Scouts and Philippine Constabulary, which saw action against resistance groups.

Casualties

Some Filipinos wounded by the fighting in 1899

During the war 4,324 American soldiers died, 1,000–1,500 of which were from actual combat; the remainder died of disease. 2,818 were wounded. There were also 2,000 casualties that the Philippine Constabulary suffered during the war, over one thousand of which were fatalities. Philippine military deaths are estimated at 20,000 with 16,000 actually counted, while civilian deaths numbered between 250,000 and 1,000,000 Filipinos. These numbers take into account those killed by war, malnutrition, and a cholera epidemic that raged during the war. The Philippine-American War Centennial Initiative gives an estimate of 510,000 civilian deaths, and 20,000 military deaths, excluding 100,000 deaths from the Moro Rebellion. The American military and Philippine Constabulary still suffered periodic losses combating small bands of Moro guerillas in the far south until 1913.

Filipino casualties on the first day of the war. Original caption is 'Insurgent dead just as they fell in the trench near Santa Ana, February 5th. The trench was circular, and the picture shows but a small portion.'

The high Filipino casualty figures were a combination of the superior arms and even more superior numbers of the Americans, who were equipped with the most modern, up-to-date weapons in the world, including superb Krag-Jørgensen bolt-action rifles and machine guns, and who were also well-led. Furthermore, U.S. warships stood ready to destroy Philippine positions when needed. In contrast, the Filipinos were armed with a motley collection of rifles such as Mausers, many which had been taken from dead enemy soldiers or smuggled into the country by their fellow Filipinos. Their artillery was not much better, consisting mostly of 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 and rifles became more scarce as the war dragged on, and Filipinos were forced to manufacture their own, like the homemade paltik. Still most did not even have firearms. Many used bolos, spears, and lances in fighting, which also contributed to high casualty figures when such obsolete weapons were used against the Americans' superior arms. However the Filipinos did have the advantage of knowing their own country and rough terrain well, in contrast to the Americans who were 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 atrocities

General Jacob H. Smith's infamous order "KILL EVERY ONE 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. The bottom caption exclaimed, "Criminals Because They Were Born Ten Years Before We Took the Philippines". Published in the New York Journal-American, May 5, 1902.

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.”

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.

American soldiers' letters and response

From almost the beginning of the war, soldiers wrote home describing, and usually bragging about, atrocities committed against Filipinos, soldiers and civilians alike. Increasingly, such personal letters, or portions of them, reached a national audience as anti-imperialist editors across the nation reproduced them.

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 Funston 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 because “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.”

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 favorable press.

Concentration camps

As one historian wrote about Marinduque, the first island with concentration camps:

“The triple press of concentration (camps), devastation, and harassment led Abad (the Marinduque commander) …to request a truce to negotiate surrender terms… The Army pacified Marinduque not by winning the allegiance of the people, but by imposing coercive measures to control their behavior and separate them from the insurgents in the field. Ultimately, military and security measures proved to be the (essential element) of Philippine pacification.”

This assessment could probably be applied to all of the Philippines.

Filipino atrocities

To counter the bad press back in America, General Otis stated that insurgents tortured American prisoners in “fiendish fashion”, some of whom were buried alive, or worse, up to their necks in anthills to be slowly devoured. Others were castrated, had the removed parts stuffed into their mouths, and were then left to suffocate or bleed to death. It was also stated that some prisoners were deliberately infected with leprosy before being released to spread the disease among their comrades. Spanish priests were horribly mutilated before their congregations, and natives who refused to support Emilio Aguinaldo were slaughtered by the thousands. American newspaper headlines announced the “Murder and Rapine” by the “Fiendish Filipinos.” General “Fighting Joe” Wheeler insisted that it was the Filipinos who had mutilated their own dead, murdered women and children, and burned down villages, solely to discredit American soldiers.

Other events dubbed atrocities included those by General Vicente Lukban, the Filipino commander who masterminded the Balangiga Massacre in Samar province, a surprise attack that killed over fifty American soldiers. Media reports stated that many of the bodies were mutilated. The attack itself triggered American reprisals in Samar, ordered by General Jacob Hurd Smith, who said, "I want no prisoners. I wish you to kill and burn, the more you kill and burn the better it will please me. I want all persons killed who are capable of bearing arms in actual hostilities against the United States", and defined this as everyone over ten years old. To his credit, Major Littleton Waller countermanded it to his own men. Nevertheless, some of his men "undoubtedly" carried out atrocities.

Sergeant Hallock testified in the Lodge Committee that 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.”

On the Filipino side, information regarding atrocities comes from the eyewitnesses and the participants themselves. In his History of the Filipino People Teodoro Agoncillo writes that the Filipino troops could match and even exceed the Americans' penchant for brutality. Kicking, slapping, and spitting at faces were common. In some cases, ears and noses were cut off and salt applied to the wounds. In other cases, captives were buried alive. These atrocities occurred regardless of Aguinaldo's orders and circulars concerning the good treatment of prisoners.

Reporters and Red Cross accounts contradict Otis

During the closing months of 1899, Emilio Aguinaldo attempted to counter General Otis’s account by suggesting that neutral parties — foreign journalists or representatives of the International Red Cross — inspect his military operations. Otis refused, but Emilio Aguinaldo managed to smuggle in four reporters — two English, one Canadian, and a Japanese — into the Philippines. The correspondents returned to Manila to report that American captives were “treated more like guests than prisoners,” were “fed the best that the country affords, and everything is done to gain their favor.” The story went on to say that American prisoners were offered commissions in the Filipino army and that three had accepted. The four reporters were expelled from the Philippines as soon as their stories were printed.

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.

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.”

Ratio of Filipinos wounded

The most conclusive evidence that the enemy wounded were being killed, came from the official reports of Otis and his successor, General Arthur MacArthur, Jr., which claimed fifteen Filipinos killed for every one wounded. In the American Civil War, the ratio had been five wounded for every soldier killed, which is close to historical norm. Otis attempted to explain this anomaly by the superior marksmanship of rural southerners and westerners in the U.S. military, who had hunted all their lives. MacArthur added a racial twist, asserting that Anglo-Saxons do not succumb to wounds as easily as do men of “inferior races.”

Consequences

Muslims

In the south, Muslim Filipinos resisted until 1913— the so-called Moro rebellion. They were never part of Aguinaldo's movement but independently fought the Americans.

During this conflict, the Americans realized a need to be able to stop a charging tribesman with a single shot. To fill this need, the M1911 pistol was later developed using larger caliber ammunition (.45 ACP). In the interim the older Colt Single Action Army in .45 Colt was re-issued.

English education and the Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church was disestablished, and a considerable amount of church land was purchased and redistributed. However, the bulk of the land was quickly bought up by American companies with little going to Filipino peasants.

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

Also, five hundred and forty 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. It also ensured that Filipino nationalism would rise no more as an important force..

Quotes

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

When I first started in against these rebels, I believed that Aguinaldo’s troops represented only a faction. I did not like to believe that the whole population of Luzon — the native population that is — was opposed to us and our offers of aid and good government. But after having come this far, after having occupied several towns and cities in succession, and having been brought much into contact with both insurrectos and amigos, I have been reluctantly compelled to believe that the Filipino masses are loyal to Aguinaldo and the government which he heads.

See also

• Battles of the Philippine-American War
• Black Legend
• George Dewey
• Genocide
• History of the Philippines
• Katagalugan
• Lodge Committee
• Philippine Scouts
• Timeline of Philippine-American War
• Vicente Lukban
• The White Man's Burden, written in regard to the U.S. conquest of the Philippines and other former Spanish colonies

References

• Agoncillo, Teodoro (1960), History of the Filipino People, ISBN 971-1024-15-2 (Eighth edition 1990)
• Agoncillo, Teodoro A. (1997), Malolos: The crisis of the republic, University of the Philippines Press, ISBN 971-542-096-6 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
• Agoncillo, T.A. (1987), History of the Filipino People, Quezon City, p. 159{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) (Coauthor M.C. Guerrero)
• Bayor, Ronald H. (June 23, 2004), The Columbia Documentary History of Race and Ethnicity in America, Columbia University Press, ISBN 0-231-11994-1
• Boot, Max (April 1, 2002), The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power, Basic Books, ISBN 0-465-00720-1
• Brands, H. W. (1992), Bound to Empire: The United States and the Philippines, Oxford University Press
• Birtle, Andrew J. (1997), "The U.S. Army's Pacification of Marinduque, Philippine Islands, April 1900 – April 1901", The Journal of Military History, 61: 255–282 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Brooks, Van Wyck (1920), Ordeal of Mark Twain, E.P. Dutton & Company
• Deady, Timothy K. (2005), Lessons from a Successful Counterinsurgency: The Philippines, 1899–1902 Parameters, vol. 35
• Gates, John M. (1973), Schoolbooks and Krags: The United States Army in the Philippines, 1898–1902, Greenwood Press, ISBN 0-8371-5818-4
• 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
• Smallman-Raynor, Matthew (1998), "The Philippines Insurrection and the 1902–4 cholera epidemic: Part I — Epidemiological diffusion processes in war", Journal of Historical Geography, 24 (1): 69–89 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help) (Co-author Andrew D Cliff)
• Guillermo, Emil (February 8, 2004), A first taste of empire, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
• Guerrero, Milagros C. (1996), "Andres Bonifacio and the 1896 Revolution", Sulyap Kultura, retrieved 2007-09-13
• Joaquin, Nicomedes (1977), A Question of Heroes, ISBN 971-27-1545-0
• Kalaw, Maximo M. (1926), The Development of Philippine Politics, 1872–1920, Manila{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Karnow, Stanley (1990), In Our Image: America's Empire in the Philippines, Ballantine Books, ISBN 0345328167
• Kumar, Amitava (October 29, 1999), Poetics/Politics: Radical Aesthetics for the Classroom, Palgrave, ISBN 0-312-21866-4
• Linn, Brian McAllister (2000), The U.S. Army and Counterinsurgency in the Philippine War, 1899–1902, University of North Carolina Press, ISBN 0-8078-4948-0
• May, Glenn Anthony (1991), Battle for Batangas: A Philippine Province at War, Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-04850-5
• Miller, Stuart Creighton (1982), “Benevolent Assimilation”: The American Conquest of the Philippines, 1899–1903, Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-02697-8 Kenton J. Clymer States “The War Miller describes is a more believable one than the one Gates pictures.”
• Ocampo, Ambeth R. (2005), "The First Filipino Novel", Philippine Daily Inquirer {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Paine, Albert Bigelow (1912), Mark Twain: A Biography : the Personal and Literary Life of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, Harper & Brothers
• Painter, Nell Irvin (May 1, 1989), Standing at Armageddon: The United States, 1877–1919, W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN 0-393-30588-0
• San Juan, Jr., E. (2007), U.S. Imperialism and Revolution in the Philippines, Palgrave MacMillan, ISBN 1-4039-8376-3
• Schirmer, Daniel B. (1972), Republic or Empire: American Resistance to the Philippine War, Schenkman, ISBN 0-87073-105-X
• Schirmer, Daniel B. (1987), The Philippines Reader: A History of Colonialism, Neocolonialism, Dictatorship, and Resistance, South End Press, ISBN 0-89608-275-X
• Shaw, Angel Velasco (2002), Vestiges of War: The Philippine-American War and the Aftermath of an Imperial Dream, 1899–1999, New York University Press {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |iisbn= ignored (help)
• Silbey, David J. (2007), A War of Frontier and Empire: The Philippine-American War, 1899-1902
• Smallman-Raynor, Matthew (January, 1998), "The Philippines Insurrection and the 1902–4 cholera epidemic: Part I — Epidemiological diffusion processes in war", Journal of Historical Geography, 24 (1) {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |pagesa= ignored (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link) (Coauthor Andrew D Cliff)
• Constantino, Renato (1975), The Philippines: A Past Revisited, ISBN 971-8958-00-2
• Steinberg, David Joel (1972), "An Ambiguous Legacy: Years at War in the Philippines", Pacific Affairs, 45 (2): 167 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Wildman, E. (1901), Aguinaldo: A Narrative of Filipino Ambitions, Norwood, Massachusetts: Norwood Press
• Twain, Mark (October 6, 1900), "Mark Twain, The Greatest American Humorist, Returning Home", New York World{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
• Twain, Mark (1904 - 1905), "Mark Twain, The War Prayer", alibris {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)
• Twain (October 15, 2001), "The War Prayer", The Progressive Popululist, 7 (18) (published 1923), retrieved 2007-08-20 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |year= / |date= mismatch (help); Text "first-Mark" ignored (help)
• Wolff, Leon (1960), Little Brown Brother: How the United States Purchased and Pacified the Philippine Islands at the Century's Turn, Doubleday & Company, Inc, Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 61-6528
• Young, Kenneth Ray (1994), The General's General: The Life and Times of Arthur Macarthur, Westview Press
• Zinn, Howard (1999), A People’s History of the United States, Harper Collins Publishers
• Zwick, Jim (1992), Mark Twain's Weapons of Satire: Anti-Imperialist Writings on the Philippine-American War, Syracuse University Press, ISBN 0-8156-0268-5
• Zwick, Jim, Friends of the Filipino People Bulletin
• Zwick, Jim (1982), Militarism and Repression in the Philippines, Centre for Developing-Area Studies, McGill University, ISBN 0888190549
• Zwick, Jim (January 1, 1992), Prodigally Endowed with Sympathy for the Cause: Mark Twain's Involvement with the Anti-Imperialist League, Ephemera Society of America, ASIN B0006R8RJ8

Further reading

• The "Lodge Committee" (a.k.a. Philippine Investigating Committee) hearings 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
• Wilcox, Marrion. Harper's History of the War. Harper, New York and London 1900, reprinted 1979. [Alternate title: Harper's History of the War in the Philippines]. Also reprinted in the Philippines by Vera-Reyes.
• See the extensive Anti-imperialist summary of the findings of the Lodge Committee/Philippine Investigating Committee on wikisource. Listing many of the atrocities and the military and government reaction.

External links

• "Images from the Philippine-United States War". historicaltextarchive.com. Retrieved 2006-05-20.

• "The Philippine Centennial Celebration". MSC Computer Training Center. Retrieved 2006-05-20.

• A brief description of the war between the United States and the Philippines which began in 1899.

• A brief balance about the rate of casualties among Filipino rows.

• Philippine-American War on Everything2.