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Philippine-American
War (1899-1902) U.S.
Marines in Combat During the
Philippine-American War
(1899-1902) "I
am not afraid, and am always ready to do
my duty, but I would like some one to tell
me what we are fighting
for."--Arthur
H. Vickers, Sergeant in the First Nebraska
Regiment "Talk
about war being 'hell,' this war beats the
hottest estimate ever made of that
locality. Caloocan was supposed to contain
seventeen thousand inhabitants. The
Twentieth Kansas swept through it, and now
Caloocan contains not one living native.
Of the buildings, the battered walls of
the great church and dismal prison alone
remain. The village of Maypaja, where our
first fight occurred on the night of the
fourth, had five thousand people on that
day, -- now not one stone remains upon top
of another. You can only faintly imagine
this terrible scene of desolation. War is
worse than hell."--Captain
Elliott, of the Kansas Regiment, February
27th *Quotes
are from
"Soldier's
Letters...",
part of an anti-imperialism website
formerly operated and edited by the late
Jim Zwick. NAME OF
CONFLICT: The Philippine-American
War BELLIGERENTS: vs. The
Philippines DATES
OF CONFLICT: ENDED:
July 4, 1902 (This is the
"official" end of the war, as
proclaimed by U.S. President Theodore
Roosevelt. Fighting continued on
several islands for years to come.)
TYPE(S)
OF CONFLICT: Inter-State
(From the Philippine perspective) and
Colonial (From the American
perspective). RELATED
CONFLICTS: CONCURRENT:
The Boxer Rebellion
(1900) SUCCESSOR:
The Moro Wars
(1902-1913?) CAUSES
OF CONFLICT: After
centuries as a Spanish colony, a
revolution led in part by Emilio
Aguinaldo broke out in 1896 in the
Philippine Islands. After fighting a
savage guerilla war for two and a half
years, the Filipinos suddenly found
themselves in a seemingly advantageous
position as allies of the United
States. In 1898, Spain fought a losing
war with the United States in which her
colonies of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Guam
were overrun with relative ease by the
U.S. Army and her Atlantic Fleet
devastated outside of Santiago, Cuba.
Similarly, Spain's Pacific Fleet was
wiped out in the Battle of Manila Bay,
and American troops landed on the
outskirts of the capitol
city. Following
the surrender of the Spanish colonial
government in the Philippines to
American military forces in
August,1898, tensions developed between
U.S. and Filipino forces near Manila.
The American government decided to keep
the Philippines as a colony, thereby
denying independence to the Filipino
people. Aguinaldo and his army of
nearly 80,000 veteran troops realized
that their "allies" in the Spanish War
would soon become foes. DESCRIPTION
OF CONFLICT: By
November of 1899, Aguinaldo and his
forces had been pushed further and
further into central Luzon (the main
Philippine island) and he realized he
could not fight the Americans with
conventional military units. At this
point, he ordered his followers to turn
to guerilla tactics to combat the
American army. From this point on, the
war became a savage, no-holds-barred
guerilla conflict made up of ambushes,
massacres and retribution. Both sides
engaged in wanton violence and
slaughter. Villages were destroyed,
civilians murdered, prisoners tortured
and mutilated along with a host of
other atrocities. Many American
officers and non-coms had served in the
Indian Wars, and thus applied the old
belief that "the only good Indian was a
dead Indian" to their relations with
the Filipinos. This attitude of course
was reciprocated by the native
forces. Emilio
Aguinaldo was captured in March, 1902,
and organized opposition from his
followers soon faded. Despite the
official end to hostilities proclaimed
on July 4, 1902, individual tribes in
Luzon and the Muslim Moros of the
southern islands launched further
uprisings for another decade or
so. CONSEQUENCES
OF THE PHILIPPINE-AMERICAN
WAR: 2.
The United States acquired an overseas
colony which served as a base for U.S.
business and military interests in the
Asia/Pacific region. 3.
Following the conclusion of major
hostilities, the U.S. did it's best to
"Americanize" the Philippines. Through
successful civilian administration, the
Islands were modernized and the nation
prepared for eventual independence. The
Philippines became an independent
nation on July 4, 1946. CASUALTY
FIGURES: Philippines--
20,000 military dead and 200,000
civilian dead. (approximate numbers).
Some historians place the numbers of
civilian dead at 500,000 or
higher. UNIQUE
FACTS OR TRENDS: 2. The
Philippine-American War can be
considered America's first
"Imperialistic" conflict. SOURCES: 2.
The Wars of America. 1981,
by Robert Leckie. pp.
563-574. To
other sites on this
conflict: Philippine-American
War--Summary of the
Philippine-American War (1899-1902), from
Veltisezar Bautista's book, The Filipino
American. US
Counterinsurgency in Iraq: Lessons from
the Philippine War-- Philippine
Scouts Heritage
Society--The site is
intended to help support the mission of
preserving the history, heritage and
legacy of the Philippine Scouts for
present and future generations. Small
Wars Manual's Strategical and
Psychological Principles in Philippine
Counterinsurgency--consideration
of Small Wars psychological principles
looking at the Philippine War
experience. NARA
- Prologue - Prologue: Selected
ArticlesResearching Service in the US Army
During the Philippine
Insurrection --Resources
from the U.S. National Archives on the
Philippine-American War. American-Philippine
Relations: A Guide to the Resources in the
Bentley Historical
Library Philippine-American
War - Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia Filipino
Lessons For America Strategy In
Iraq----An analysis comparing
warfare in the Philippines to the war in
Iraq. The
Saga of David Fagen: Black Rebel in the
Philippine
Insurrection--The story of
an African-American soldier who joined the
Filipino forces opposing the United
States. The
Philippine History Page: The Filipino
Perspective--A Brief History of
the Philippines from a Filipino
Perspective. The
Spanish-American War Centennial
Site--
A very ambitious site delving into all
aspects of the Spanish American War,
including the issues of Cuba, Philippines,
Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. home
front. Definitely worth looking
at! Medal
of Honor Recipients for the Philippine
Insurrection--
From the U.S. Army website. A listing of
American military personnel who won the
Medal of Honor in the Philippine
War. Named
Campaigns of the Philippine
Insurrection--A
listing of U.S. Army campaigns in the
Philippine War. From the U.S. Army
website. Soldier's
Letters: Materials for the History of a
War of Criminal
Aggression--Part
of a very good website dealing with
the issue of Anti-Imperialism. The
Swish of the
Kris--
This site offers the text of a history
book written long ago detailing the Moros
of the Southern Philippine islands. The
Moros fought both the Spanish and the
Americans as well as the modern Manila
government.
Please
cite this source when appropriate: Lee,
R. "The History Guy: Philippine-American
War 1899-1902" http://www.historyguy.com/PhilipineAmericanwar.html
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