PH-American war - Americas first Asian war

[Cossack25A1]

While America lend support to the British empire and Second French empire during the 1850s' Second Opium War and the US Navy bombard Japan to open the latter to the world, the Philippine-American war, also known as the Philippine Insurrection, is the first war in Asia that USA fought that ended with the Philippines being a US colony, then an unincorporated territory and later commonwealth. It is also the first war America fought against Muslim insurgency that they would again experience 100 years later.

The war broke out from 1898, the moment the Philippine revolt against the Spanish Empire ended and it lasted four years although after the First PH republic fell in 1902, insurgency by the PH as well as the Moro rebellion continued with the latter ending in 1913. During the war, both sides committed atrocities against each other, with the worst being the Balangiga massacre, which according to the Americans, is about 48 US service men killed by townspeople with guerrilla fighters augmenting them but in the Filipino perspective, the massacre refers to the American retaliatory acts after the said incident and took the Balangiga town church's three bells (the Balangiga bells) as war booty; two are in CONUS (specifically the Francis E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming) and the other one is in a US camp (Camp Red Cloud) near the Korean DMZ. A prominent American officer, General Jacob H. Smith is known to have acts of genocide, going as far as "kill everyone over the age of ten" and make the island "a howling wilderness," earning him the monicker "The Monster."

As World War 2 is for Japan to the Philippines, the PH-American war is the sore point of relations between the Filipinos and American even though both countries have seemingly good relations. Wikipedia's thread should provide some information about the PH-American War, Philippine–American War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that also would have links to other websites that provides more detailed information.

Other PH members here are free to add more details about this war.

Just like the Korean War, the PH-American war is one of those "forgotten wars" of America which is in contrast to the Vietnam War which was also fought in South East Asia and involves Americans.

 

[Aepsilons]

Awesome thread ! I'd love discourse with you on more specific details of the Philippine Revolution, and the Philippine-American War.

If one looks at the Revolutionary Wars in Spain's colonial possessions in the Americas, they mostly erupted in the early 19th century. The Philippines didn't officially start a war of independence till the late 19th century. Do you know why it was so late ?

 

[Cossack25A1]

Awesome thread ! I'd love discourse with you on more specific details of the Philippine Revolution, and the Philippine-American War.

If one looks at the Revolutionary Wars in Spain's colonial possessions in the Americas, they mostly erupted in the early 19th century. The Philippines didn't officially start a war of independence till the late 19th century. Do you know why it was so late ?

While the revolt against Spain started in 1896, the catalyst of the uprising was was the execution of three Filipino priests (Mariano Gomez, José Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora) who were charged with subversion arising from the Cavite munity of 1872. The execution had an effect on Filipinos, one which is Jose Rizal that prompted him to write his second novel El Filibusterismo. Rizals two novels also helped in fueling the nationalist sentiment in the country, one of the results is the establishment of the La Liga Filipina whose aims is social reform whose prominent members are Jose Rizal who founded the said organization and Andres Bonifacio who later went on to establish the Katipunan which aims for the independence of the Philippines from Spain.

Jose Rizal's execution was the final nail and eventually the Philippine revolt against Spain began which coincided with the Spanish-American War although unknown to many Filipinos at that time, Spain had already sold us to America in 1899 for a price of $20 million (about $571,428,571.43 in 2014 US Dollar rate) and while we declared the First Philippine Republic (which is a dictatorship under Aguinaldo), the US didn't recognize it due to their true objective which is "Benevolent Assimilation" of the Philippines. Do note that Aguinaldo approached the Americans in helping overthrowing the Spanish authority in the Philippines whereas Bonifacio and the Katipunan sent delegation to the Empire of Japan for assistance.

The "Spain selling the Philippine islands to USA" can be summarized by this picture
http://i.imgur.com/PFpMkKF.png

 

[Pinoy]

The Philippine-American war aka Philippine insurrection from 1899 to 1902.

These were fought by a group of Filipino revolutionaries and the US in which the First Philippine Republic sought to gain independence following annexation by the US. The war was preceded by the Spanish American war in 1898. The Philippines, prior to the Spanish-American War, was a colony of Spain.

Filipino population in 1898 was about 9 million.

Well it appears as if after Americans helped Filipinos win the war over Spain, Americans took over in conquering the Philippines, which was in conflict with the Filipinos' idea of complete independence. I think this is what it looks like at least in the eyes of some people like General Gregorio Del Pilar, who was shot in the back by an American sniper.

On the other hand, General Emilio Aguinaldo's understanding was that U.S. recognizes the independence of the Philippines but remains under the protection of the U.S.

It was quite a conflict.

July 19, 1898 more landings of American troops near Manila and positions of US and foreign ships.

The Feb. 4, 1899 incident was caused by over zealous sentries over a bridge. There were attempts to reach a reconciliation to avoid open warfare but it appeared that the Americans were girding for a fight.

History books, especially those written by Americans, do not mention the extent of the atrocities committed by American forces on the civilian population - towns were destroyed including churches. At one point explicit orders were given by an American Army General to kill all male inhabitants ten and up.

This print, titled "The Battle of Paceo, February 4-5, 1899, Philippine Islands", is a depiction of initial hostilities between Philippine and American forces.

These are Filipino combatants photographed just as they lay down their weapons prior to their surrender.

 

[somsak]

That's what u get from colonization.
That's why you have to think always how not to be a colony.

 

[Cossack25A1]

That's what u get from colonization.
That's why you have to think always how not to be a colony.

Unfortunately, what most Filipinos didn't know at that time is that Americans had an ulterior move and even made a deal with Spain as most Filipinos thought at that time that America would help them ousting Spain, nothing more, nothing less.

 

[somsak]

Unfortunately, what most Filipinos didn't know at that time is that Americans had an ulterior move and even made a deal with Spain as most Filipinos thought at that time that America would help them ousting Spain, nothing more, nothing less.

That's why history books must be read. European powers acts like this since Spanish vs Protogal. They always come up with some kind of partition sharing if they cannot win each other in warfare.

 

[Cossack25A1]

That's why history books must be read. European powers acts like this since Spanish vs Protogal. They always come up with some kind of partition sharing if they cannot win each other in warfare.

While today we have access to the books, during the time being under Spain, they seemed to have done everything to prevent the majority of the Filipino from learning - before Spain came, the people across the archipelago could read and write native languages but by the time the revolt occurred, not everyone can do so. The Illustrados - people who can afford to study in Europe - basically your middle class people, end up espousing ideas of having the Philippines as "a province of Spain" instead of a colony after years of learning in Spanish universities while a few prefer independence, particularly the Katipunan group.

There were revolts during the time Spanish era, from the time they colonized up to the years before the 1896 revolt but all of those were failures due to their small size and local allegiances - before Spain came, there was no "unified" Philippines, rather, what we had during those times are several communities similar to either Ancient Greek city-states or Renaissance Italy city-states.

 

[Edison Chen]

To be honest, I think PH people are not Asians, they are Pacific islanders.

 

[Cossack25A1]

To be honest, I think PH people are not Asians, they are Pacific islanders.

We have an identity crisis that may never be solved as by geography, we are Asians but our genetic disposition corresponds with those of the people of the Pacific but our culture is mostly Western and almost comparable to Latin American culture. This doesn't include the mixed heritage and cultures we have which include Indian, Chinese and possibly Arabic as we were mostly Muslim at the time Spanish explorers first arrived here.

 

[somsak]

To be honest, I think PH people are not Asians, they are Pacific islanders.

Ph is now ASEAN. She must be Asia. Think about future. PH has healthy young man power, thanx to religious! I foresee new immigrants to Thailand ftom Pinoy to keep Thai economy growing. Currently Burmese Lao Csmbodia do.the job.

 

[Zero_wing]

To be honest, I think PH people are not Asians, they are Pacific islanders.

Ya same thing we think of maoist its not even communist get off our thread no propaganda

Ph is now ASEAN. She must be Asia. Think about future. PH has healthy young man power, thanx to religious! I foresee new immigrants to Thailand ftom Pinoy to keep Thai economy growing. Currently Burmese Lao Csmbodia do.the job.

We dont care about the question of we are Asian or pacific Islanders or mestizos or whatever we are here people. And sir we do care the real filipinos the people who want to help the country i cant even believe they still exist i myself care less the rest saidly only live here.

 

[Bob Ong]

While America lend support to the British empire and Second French empire during the 1850s' Second Opium War and the US Navy bombard Japan to open the latter to the world, the Philippine-American war, also known as the Philippine Insurrection, is the first war in Asia that USA fought that ended with the Philippines being a US colony, then an unincorporated territory and later commonwealth. It is also the first war America fought against Muslim insurgency that they would again experience 100 years later.

The war broke out from 1898, the moment the Philippine revolt against the Spanish Empire ended and it lasted four years although after the First PH republic fell in 1902, insurgency by the PH as well as the Moro rebellion continued with the latter ending in 1913. During the war, both sides committed atrocities against each other, with the worst being the Balangiga massacre, which according to the Americans, is about 48 US service men killed by townspeople with guerrilla fighters augmenting them but in the Filipino perspective, the massacre refers to the American retaliatory acts after the said incident and took the Balangiga town church's three bells (the Balangiga bells) as war booty; two are in CONUS (specifically the Francis E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming) and the other one is in a US camp (Camp Red Cloud) near the Korean DMZ. A prominent American officer, General Jacob H. Smith is known to have acts of genocide, going as far as "kill everyone over the age of ten" and make the island "a howling wilderness," earning him the monicker "The Monster."

As World War 2 is for Japan to the Philippines, the PH-American war is the sore point of relations between the Filipinos and American even though both countries have seemingly good relations. Wikipedia's thread should provide some information about the PH-American War, Philippine–American War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that also would have links to other websites that provides more detailed information.

Other PH members here are free to add more details about this war.

Just like the Korean War, the PH-American war is one of those "forgotten wars" of America which is in contrast to the Vietnam War which was also fought in South East Asia and involves Americans.

Though I think the Filipino-American war was really a horrible thing, I still believe that the American colonization of the Philippines was ultimately a great thing for the country. Manila was considered the "Paris of the Pacific" until WWII when during the Japanese battles against the United States in Manila, much of the "old city" containing the Spanish colonial buildings, monuments, and museums were destroyed.

The Philippines was helped immensely by American colonization, and soon after WWII, The Philippines was finally granted its independence by the US. The result was the Philippines being one of the wealthiest nations in Asia at the time, though recently corruption in the government and some horrible presidents have made the Philippine's economy suffer.

 

[Aepsilons]

Though I think the Filipino-American war was really a horrible thing, I still believe that the American colonization of the Philippines was ultimately a great thing for the country. Manila was considered the "Paris of the Pacific" until WWII when during the Japanese battles against the United States in Manila, much of the "old city" containing the Spanish colonial buildings, monuments, and museums were destroyed.

Kamusta amigo.

When Japan Imperial Army took Philippines in 1942, we targeted mostly American bases such as Clarke Air Force Field, and Corregidor. We had utilized limited bombings in Manila. In fact, Manila was seized by the 14th Imperial Army led by Gen. Masaharu Homma. There was a peaceful occupation of the country and we had purposely maintained the infrastructure.

The damage that Manila sustained was not by Japanese doings, friend. It was collateral damage , mostly done by US Carpet Bombing during the Battle of Manila in 1944. The infrastructure loss was due in part to US Army's artillery shelling , as well as B-52 Stratofortress.

 

[Bob Ong]

Kamusta amigo.
When Japan Imperial Army took Philippines in 1942, we targeted mostly American bases such as Clarke Air Force Field, and Corregidor. We had utilized limited bombings in Manila. In fact, Manila was seized by the 14th Imperial Army led by Gen. Masaharu Homma. There was a peaceful occupation of the country and we had purposely maintained the infrastructure.

The damage that Manila sustained was not by Japanese doings, friend. It was collateral damage , mostly done by US Carpet Bombing during the Battle of Manila in 1944. The infrastructure loss was due in part to US Army's artillery shelling , as well as B-52 Stratofortress.

Genki desu amigo. Okay that was a collateral damage. Sadly, Manila has not regained much of the "old city" from the devastation of the war and going over over post-war pictures and video footages just sends me the creeps.