AMERICAN COLONIAL DEMOCRACY

1898-1946

Dr. James Loreto C. Piscos

 Main References
• Agoncillo, Teodoro. History of the Filipino
People 8th Edition. Quezon City: Garotech
Publishing, 2007, pp. 213-383.
• Tan, Samuel. A History of the Philippines.
Quezon City: UP Press, 2008, pp. 65-79.
 American Apostasy

• In what way, there was apostasy?

 Dewey and Aguinaldo
• Americans persuade
Aguinaldo to cooperate with
Commodore Dewey in
wrestling power with the
Spaniards
• Informal alliance
• Treated Aguinaldo as if an
escaped convict
• Americans did not share their
moment of glory in winning
the battle in Manila
• Enemy masking as a friend
 American Interests In the Philippines

What were those interests?

 American interests in the Philippines
• 1. expanding American
business in the Orient
• 2. naval and military
interests where the
Philippines as the first
line of American defense
• 3. religious interests as a
base of operations for
American Protestant
missionaries
 Americans bought the Philippines from
Spaniards

• Treaty of Paris –
December 10, 1898
• Spaniards agreed to
turn over the islands to
United States for 20
million dollars
David Wagner's painting of the Signing of the
• Ceding of the Treaty of Paris

Philippines to the
United States
 Colonialism and Imperialism

• What’s the difference?

 Colonial Policies

“Benevolent Assimilation”?
 Benevolent Assimilation
• President William
McKinley issued the
Benevolent Assimilation
on December 21, 1898
• US to stay in the
Philippines by exercising
he right of sovereignty
over the Filipinos
• Assume control and
disposition of the
government of the country
 Filipino Reaction
• Proclamation subjected
to severe attacks
• Antonio Luna -editor of
La Independencia
• Aguinaldo issued a
counter-proclamation
on January 5, 1899
 Attempts to Relax the Tension
• General Elwell Otis
• Series of conferences between the two parties
Aguinaldo and Otis group
 San Juan Bridge Incident

• What happened?
• Why it was the
outbreak of the
Filipino-American
war?
 American Military Campaign
• Gen. Otis ordered Gen.
Henry Lawton to go to
the South conquering
Laguna and nearby
places
• Gen. Arthur McArthur Major-General Henry
Ware Lawton
to proceed to North via
Manila-Dagupan railway
to pursue Aguinaldo General Elwell Stephen Otis
 Fall of Mabini

• In what circumstances?
• Filipino Collaborators
 Assassination of Antonio Luna

• How he was
assassinated, and Why?
Aguinaldo Flees to the Mountains

• Marched from Tierra

Virgen, Cagayan
• September 6, 1900
reached Palanan,
Isabela

1899 - Emilio Aguinaldo, President of the

fledgling Philippine Republic
 Battle of Pasong Tirad

• Role of Gen. Gregorio

del Pilar
• Why Pasong Tirad?
• How they were
defeated by the
Americans?

Gregorio del Pilar was one of the youngest

generals to serve the Philippines
 Capture of Aguinaldo
• March 23, 1901
• Role of the
Macabebes
• April 19, 1901
asked all Filipinos
to accept the
sovereignty of
the United States
 Ideological Apparatus
• Education
• Propaganda through middle and upper class
for peaceful existence with the Americans
 The Balangiga Massacre
• Balangiga,
Samar in
1901-1902
• Southern
part of
Samar
• Describe the
guerilla
attack?
Bell of Balangiga

The 1863 bell of Balangiga in Wyoming.

 American Brutality in War

• Compare the Operation

Orange in Vietnam in
the 1970s and the Fil-
Am War from 1898-
1913?
• What were other forms
of brutalities?
Vietnam Operation Orange Victims
Vietnam…
Operation Orange
Brutality in war
Brutality…
Brutality…
 Freedom in Blood and Tears
• Gen. Vicente Lukban
(captured Feb 27, 1902)
• Gen. Miguel Malvar
(surrendered April 16,
1902
• Macario Sakay
continued up until
approximately 1913
United States Military Government (1898–1901)

• The American military government was

established following the defeat of Spain in
the Spanish American War. During the
transition period, executive authority in all
civil affairs in the Philippine government was
exercised by the military governor.
• Wesley Merrit – August
13, 1898 – august 29,
1898
• Elwell Otis – August 29,
1898- May 5, 1900
• Arthur MacArthur Jr.-
May 5, 1900- July 4,
1901
• Adna Chaffe – July 4,
1901 – July 4, 1902
Adna Chaffe
 Insular Government (1901–1935)

• On July 4, 1901, executive authority over the

islands was transferred to the president of the
Philippine Commission who had the title of
"civil governor", a position appointed by the
President of the US and approved by the US
Senate.
American Civil Governor-Generals

• William Howard Taft

(1901-1904)
• Luke Edward Wright
(1904-1905)
• Henry Clay Ide (9105-
1906) William Howard Taft:
First American Civil
• James Francis Smith Governor of the
Philippines
(1906-1909)
• William Cameron
Forbes (1909-1913)
• Francis Burton Harrison
(1913-1920) first
democratic governor-
general of the
Philippines

Francis Burton Harrison

• Leonard Wood (1921-
1927)
• Henry Stimson (March
1928-1929) Cooperation
Restored
• Eugene Allen Gilmore
(Acting Gov. Gen from Feb
23, 1929-July 8, 1929)
• Dwight F. Davis (1929-1932)
• Theodore Roosevelt Jr.
(1932-33)
• Frank Murphy (1933-1935)

Theodore Roosevelt Jr.

 Collaboration with the Elite

• First Philippine
Commission 1899 Jacob
Schurman Commission
• Second Philippine
Commission
• Taft commission
• ORGANIC ACT OF
1902
• Philippine Bill of 1902
• US President
Theodore Roosevelt
• Philippine Legislature,
Philippine Assembly
 Organic Act
• popularly known as the Philippine Bill of 1902
and sometimes known as the Cooper Act after
its author Henry A. Cooper, was the first
organic act for the Philippines enacted by the
US Congress during the American Colonial
Rule in the country.
 Philippine Bill of 1902
• It provided for the creation of an elected
Philippine Assembly after the following
conditions were met: (1) the cessation of the
existing insurrection in the Philippine Islands;
(2) completion and publication of a census;
and (3) two years of continued peace and
recognition of the authority of the US after the
publication of the census.
LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION, ST.
LOUIS, 1904
• The epitome of this view was the
Philippines exhibit which included
a group of Igorot Tribesmen living
in a small reservation on the
fairgrounds. They were displayed
as savages in need of the civilizing
presence of the white man. The
"civilizing" force was the
American government who had
taken over the Philippines,
officially at the end of the
Spanish-American War in 1899,
and in fact after the Philippine-
American War of 1899 to 1902.
(Univ. of Delaware. Library)
 Rise of the Filipino Politicos

• Nacionalista Party
• Liberal Party
• Dominant party on the
First Philippine Assembly
of 1907
• Nacionalista Party
• Opening on October 16,
1907
• Sergio Osmena –
Speaker
• Manuel L. Quezon-
Sergio Osmena
majority floor leader
• Philippine Constabulary
in 1901 under Rafael
Crame as First Filipino
PC leader
• Philippine Scouts since
1899
• JONES LAW 1916:
 Jones Act, the Philippine Autonomy Act or the Act of
Congress of August 29, 1916

• contained the first • acted like a constitution

formal and official for the Philippines until
declaration of the 1934 when the Tydings-
United States McDuffie Act creating of
commitment to grant the Commonwealth of
independence to the the Philippines. It
established for the first
Philippines.
time an elected upper
house, which would
eventually become the
Philippine Senate.
• The law provides that the
grant of independence
would come only "as
soon as a stable
government can be
established", which gave
the United States
Government the power
to determine when this
"stable government" has
been achieved.
• It aimed at providing the Filipinos broader
domestic autonomy, though it reserved
certain privileges to the United States to
protect its sovereign rights and interests.
• PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENT MISSIONS
1919-1934
 US Depression in the 1930’s

• Was this the cause of Philippine

independence?
• OS-ROX MISSION
• HARE-HAWES CUTTING
ACT
• TYDINGS MCDUFFIE
ACT AND LAW
• COMMONWEALTH
GOVERNMENT:
transition to
independence
 Framing the Constitution
• Independent act
• July 10, 1934
• 202 elected delegates
to the constitutional
convention
• Claro M. Recto as
president of the
constitutional
commission
• February 8, 1935 convention
approved the constitution
• President Roosevelt did the
same on March 23
• May 14, 1935 plebiscite
ratified it
• Manuel L. Quezon won
overwhelmingly as President
over Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo
and Bishop Gregorio Aglipay
• Sergio Osmena as Vice
President