The Philippine-American War

100 years ago, the United States was ceded the Philippine Islands after a "Splendid Little War" with Spain. The United States saw the economic and military importance of the islands, but they had trouble convincing their "Little Brown Brothers" of the benefits of annexation. On February 4, 1899, the first shots of the Philippine-American War were fired. It was a war that would drag on for over three years and cost unknown thousands of lives. It was one of the bloodiest conflicts in American history, and the country has tried hard to forget it. Our mission was to create a webpage which provides a clear explanation of the war.

The Philippine conflict was a new kind of war for Americans. It has been called the first Vietnam, a guerrilla war fought on distant soil against a foreign people, over the right to self government. Against these "savages", frustrated American troops often abandoned civilized warfare, and brutality rose to the level of the contemporary conflicts in Cuba and South Africa.

All you say about the Philippines, the conflict there between the Americans, military and civil, and the pig headedness of the military and their habits of setting "bulldogs to catch rabbits" is immensely cheering to me, because it is precisely what we are doing in South Africa.--Rudyard Kipling

In the 1890's, America was a country looking to test its might against the imperial powers of Europe. The spirit of Manifest Destiny lived on, and many were looking to expand the nation's influence overseas. Many Americans saw it as their duty to carry the "White Man's Burden" to the far shores of less civilized nations. In 1898, the United States annexed Hawaii after several years of occupation. Unfortunately, annexing the Philippines guaranteed the occupants no part in United States government -- America had no wish to acquire another state, but a colony.

Not all Americans supported the war in the Philippines. While the Anti-Imperialists were a small group, they were both vocal and distinguished. Their reasons for opposing the annexation ranged everywhere from belief in the higher ideals of liberty and democracy, to fear that "lesser races" would further pollute their country. Unfortunately, the voices against imperialist policies went largely unheard, lost amidst cries of expansion and war.

Take up the White Man's burden
Send forth the best ye breed
Go, bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need:
To wait, in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild
Your new-caught sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child.
--Rudyard Kipling

The war marked a major turning point in American foreign policy. While the country still claimed to be isolationist, its sphere of influence expanded to include all of Asia. The Philippines opened the door to China and the enormous economic opportunities therein. It brought the United States into direct competition with the imperialistic Japanese, who were also looking to expand their empire into China. Decades later, the islands played a key role in the Pacific theater during WWII. The island of Luzon was the site of the infamous Bataan death march of 1942, in which as many as 10,000 Americans and Filipinos died. After the war, the Philippines were finally granted their independence, and remain America's allies and trading partners today.

America had no right to occupy the Philippines in the first place, and its actions there were beyond inexcusable. Americans slaughtered Filipino soldiers and civilians for seeking liberty, supposedly the basis of their own nation. The United States would not even negotiate with the Filipinos, but demanded immediate and unconditional surrender. Once their arrogant demands had been met, they turned around and gave the Filipinos exactly what Aguinaldo had been asking for all along; limited autonomy and self-rule as a U.S. possession. While we, the creators of this page, are flaming liberals and anti-imperialists, we have tried to present a factual and accurate account of the war, restricting our editorialization to this page alone. We hope that this site can bring an understanding of the war to a broad audience, and that this era in history will never be repeated.