US Colonial Motives in the Philippines

Contrary to the
expectations of the
Americans, the occupation of
the Philippines and its

The Filipinos, though lacking
in arms and munitions, fought
valiantly throughout the

As Mariano Santos, a veteran
of the revolution of 1896 and
the
, recalled when

Economic
Religious

Politico - Military

The Colonial motives of the
United States over the
Philippines were
economic, politico-

The Filipinos, facing a fully
equipped and trained army
for conventional
warfare, were badly beaten.
But the Filipinos ably

The U.S.
responded with
repressive and
violent measures
to end the war –
using water
cure, reconcentration, an
d scorched –
earth tactics. The
people, threatene

Before the signing
the Treaty of
What, shoul
d I do? In
Paris, President
the
Philippines
McKinley said he did
not know what to do
with the Philippines.
He added that one
night he felon his
knees to pray to God
to enlighten him on
what to do with the

God, Please
enlighten
me. On
what to do.

….

We are Interested in
the Philippines
….
….

……….
………
………
….

But he was surrounded by men who
had interests in making the
Philippines an American colony.

market for
American
products

….

These men, representing Pressure
groups were (1) The American

businessmen whose interests included
the Philippines not only as a market for
American products, but also as a

Let’s make
the
Philippines, on
e of our
military base.

….

groups were (2) The military and naval

pressure group, who wanted the Philippines
as a base for American ships and as a first
line of defense.

Let’s make
the
Philippines, fo
r protestant
missionaries
base

….

groups were (3) The religious pressure

group, who wanted the Philippines as a
base for protestant missionaries.

I’m the one ! Who
decide on what
going to the
Philippines!!

All these pressure groups worked hard
to make the Philippines an American

I Proclaim the
Philippine…

President McKinley issued the so-called
Proclamation.
For the first time, McKinley officially
announced the American Policy

The United
States, will
exercise
sovereignty over
the entire
Philippines!

And the
Philippines, will
be one of the
Colony of the
United States.

It clearly indicated the intention of the
United States to exercise sovereignty
over the entire Philippines, making it a

General
Merritt, did not
published the Full
Text of McKinley’s
proclamation for
fear of arousing
the anger of the
Filipinos.
Instead, he
changed some
words to soften
the language of

I will changed
some words to
soften….

Unfortunately for General
Otis, General Marcus P. Miller, who was
in Iloilo, published the original
proclamation. Copies of this unchanged
version fell into the hands of Filipinos.

Aguinaldo knew very
well that a war with
the United States
would bring hardship
and suffering to the
people. He tried to
relax the tension by
suggesting to
General Otis that
their
representatives
should meet to

General Otis appointed his
representatives which were compose of
three military officers. Aguinaldo also
appointed his three representatives.

The six representatives met for almost
one month in January but nothing came
out of the meetings because the
American representatives were
stalling, which heightened the tension

For sure, the
American,
Fooling Us!!

………..

The Filipino military officers
believed that the Americans were
only fooling the Filipinos and that
they were not interested in keeping
the Filipino-American diplomatic

General Otis protested, but
Aguinaldo replied that the
Americans were not arrested but
merely detained because they were
found within the Filipino lines. On
February 2, General MacArthur
protested the presence of the
some Filipino soldiers within the
American lines, The Filipino soldiers
withdrew and MacArthur was

Some incidents which
were originally minor
in themselves became
serious in the face of
the mounting tension
between the two peoples.
On February 1, 1899 a group of
American engineers was arrested
by Filipino troops.

On the night of February 4, 1899,
Private Willie G.
Grayson shot a
Filipino soldier on
the corner of Sociego
and Silencio Streets in
Santa Mesa, Manila.
The Filipino answered
with rifle and the
Philippine American War was on!.

The Filipino commander of the
sector where the firing started was
in Malolos, together with other
officers, attending a dance.
Aguinaldo sent an emissary to
inform General Otis that the
“Firing on our side the night before
had been against my order.” But
General Otis, haughty and arrogant,
said that the “Fighting, having

Aguinaldo, wanting to know how the
incident happened, ordered an
investigation to determine the
truth. Subsequent investigation
showed that even as early as
February 2 and 3, the Filipino
employees in the service of
American ships had been dismissed;
that in the morning of February
4, between 200 and 300 American

Because of their advanced
preparations and superior arms, the
American troops easily captured
town in what is now Rizal Province.
Earlier in the north of Manila, the
Americans won victories in the
Battle of La Loma, near the
Chinese Cemetery, where Major
Jose Torres Bugallon died in
combat.

with La Loma in his
hands, MacArthur proceeded to
Caloocan where he was met by
General Antonio Luna’s force. In
the battle that ensued, Luna was
defeated. The superior arms of the
Americans could not be neutralized
by bravery and courage alone. Luna
then planned to recapture Manila on
March 22, he lead the attack on the

American reinforcements arrived in
February and March. General Otis
took the offensive in the
north, while General Henry Lawton
started his offensive in the south.
In a few days, Pulo feel to the
Americans and by March 30, they
were at the door of Malolos.
Meanwhile, Aguinaldo evacuated
Malolos and transferred the Capitol

The Filipinos had very few
victories, but these victories were
costly to the Americans. On March
25, the Filipino troops repulsed
General Lloyd Wheaton in the
Battle of Pulo and killed an
American colonel. In Quingua (now
Plaridel), Major Bell of the
American cavalry was killed in

The capture of Malolos by
MacArthur led by General Luna to
retreat farther North of Luzon. He
established his headquarters in
Calumpit, the town immediately
north of Malolos. Here he prepared
his defenses against the Americans
who were pursuing him. General
Luna sent a Telegram to General
Tomas Mascardo in Guagua asking
for reinforcements.

But, General Mascardo refused.
This angered General Luna and
ordered his officers to leave for
Guagua to punish Mascardo. He
brought with him the artillery
units, the cavalry, and elemts of
the infantry battalion. During Luna’s
absence, General Gregorio Del Pilar
commanded the sector at
Bagbag, Calumpit.

The Americans swarmed all over
the place and defeated Del Pilar.
When General Luna returned to
Calumpit at twilight, the Americans
had already captured a large
portion of the town. Luna retreated
farther north, to Pampanga, and

Mabini was the next most powerful
man in the country, after Aguinaldo.
He was president of the Cabinet
and, as such, he was Prime Minister.
He was also Secretary of Foreign
Affairs. Aguinaldo depended on him
because he was honest, hardworking
and incorruptible. He never used his
high position to enrich himself in
office. He was poor when he
entered the government service. He

When the Americans tried to win
over the Filipinos by promising them
freedom and autonomy, Mabini said
this was a trick of the enemy. He
was for the independence of the
Philippines. He would not accept
anything less than independence.
However, his enemies, like Pedro A.

Paterno, Ambrosio Rianzares
Bautista, Felipe Buencamino, and
many others who belonged to the

They believed that autonomy would
be good for the Filipinos. So they
accepted the American offer of
Autonomy. Since the group knew
that Mabini was opposed to their
views, they persuaded Aguinaldo to
remove Mabini from office. On May
7, Aguinaldo informed Mabini that
Paterno was forming a New Cabinet.
Mabini knew what it meant.

So he sent in the resignation of the
entire Cabinet he was heading.
Mabini spent his last years in his
armchair writing articles against
the Americans, and his memoirs of

General Antonio Luna was the most
brilliant among the Filipino military
officers. Belonging to an educated
and a wealthy family of Ilocos
Norte, Antonio Luna was born in
San Nicolas, Manila. He studied
pharmacy in Manila and in
Spain, where the identified himself
with the propagandists. He was also

The members of the Luna Family
had in common; he was shorttempered. He was exiled to spain by
the colonial government; and on his
way back to the Philippines in 1898,
he passed by Hongkong. He asked
Felipe Agoncillo, a family friend, to
give him a letter of

When the Philippine-American War
broke out, Luna was Chief of
military zone that included many
provinces of Central Luzon. He
made many enemies because of his
short temper. He slapped Felipe

Buencamino, Aguinaldo’s Secretary
of Foreign Affairs, who disagreed

Aguinaldo recognized his brilliance
and appointed him to a high position
in the army. Luna saw that the army
had no discipline. So he tried to
instill discipline in the army, but the
common soldiers particularly the
Kawit regiment did not like him for
it.

While he was in
Bayambang, Pangasinan inspecting
the defenses against the advancing
Americans, he received a telegram
from Cabanatuan saying that he was
wanted there. So he went there
with his aide, Colonel Francisco
Roman and some soldiers. On June
5, 1899, He reached the Aguinaldo’s

Then he heard a rifle shot, rushed
downstairs, cursed the soldiers, and
slapped one of them. A captain
named Pedrong Kastila from
Cavite, hacked Luna with a Bolo.

The other soldiers, seeing that he
was wounded, started hacking him
as well with their bolos and some
fired gunshots at him. Luna drew
his revolver but he fell outside the
convent and died saying, “Cowards!
Assassins!” he died with more than

The Conquest of the Visayas
Meanwhile, General Otis instructed
Miller to invade Iloilo. To Miller’s
demand that the Filipino troops
surrender, the Visayan patriots
under the leadership of General
Martin Delgado decided to fight
instead. To prevent the enemy from
capturing the city, Delgado ordered
his men to burn it. The Cebu

They resorted to guerilla warfare
under the command of General
Arcadio Maxilom and Landro Fullon.
It took some time and much effort
for the Americans to completely
subdue the brave Cebuanos.
Meanwhile in Negros, many wealthy
Negrenses sympathized with the
Americans. When the enemy
came, they raised the American

A committee composed of
prominent Negrenses was sent to
Manila to ask General Otis to allow
them to arm a battalion to maintain
peace and order. General Otis
approved the petition, for it was a
unusual act of collaboration with
the Americans. On March 1, General
Otis issued an order providing for
the creation of a military district

This was known as the Visayan
Military District. The Negrenses
were allowed to meet in a
convention to frame a constitution.
Known as the Negros
Constitution, it was submitted to
President McKinley for approval.
The American President did not
take it seriously and nothing came
out of it.

The Kiram-Bates Treaty
Upon learning that the Spaniards
failed to completely subjugate the
Muslims, the Americans dealt with
them in a diplomatic way in order to
neutralize their offensive. General
John C. Bates tried to win the
friendship of the Muslims by

The Sultan of Jolo, Datu Kiram,
insisted that the Americans must
not be allowed to occupy any other
part of Sulu except the town
proper of Jolo. Furthermore, the
Sultan insisted in collecting
customs duties in place that were
not occupied by the Americans.

The Sultan of Jolo, Datu Kiram,
insisted that the Americans must not
be allowed to occupy any other part of
Sulu except the town proper of Jolo.
Furthermore, the Sultan insisted in
collecting customs duties in place that
were not occupied by the Americans. On
August 20, 1899 an agreement was
signed by General Bates, representing
the United State and the Sultan of
Jolo and Datus, representing the Sulu

Known as the Bates Treaty, it
provided that the “Sovereignty of

the United States over the whole
archipelago of Sulu and its
dependencies is declared
acknowledged” and that “the rights
and dignities of His Highness, the
Sultan and his Datus shall be fully

The American promised not to
interfere in religious matters and
no to persecute anybody on account
of his religious beliefs. The
Americans also agreed to pay the
Sultan and his leading Datus
monthly salaries. With the
neutralizations of the Muslims, the
Americans proceeded with the socalled pacification of the Christian

With the death of General
Luna, many Filipino field
commanders were demoralized. A
number of Aguinaldo’s Generals
surrendered to the enemy. This
development led General Otis to
make plans to entrap, the
recognized leader of the Filipino
people and his army General Emilio
Aguinaldo.

Because, the Americans were not
familiar with the local terrain and
not used to the tropical climate
would be put to a great
disadvantage with this tactic.
Meanwhile, Aguinaldo and with some
selected men, his
son, wife, mother, and sister fled to
pangansinan. The Americans
followed him and tried to catch

People cooperate to Aguinaldo; they
contributed money, food and other
supplies to the Revolutionary Army.
Later, he left his family behind in
order to spare them from the
hardships of travelling. Aguinaldo
and a handful of faithful followers
walked to Tierra Virgen, Cagayan.
On September 6, 1990, he and his
men reached Palanan, Isabella

While fleeing the
Americans, Aguinaldo reached the
Mountain Province. He ordered his
trusted General Gregorio Del
Pilar, to remain behind as they
continued to advance. Del Pilar was
to intercept the Americans who
were tracking them.

After the departure of
Aguinaldo, Del Pilar chose to delay
the enemy at Pasong Tirad, a
narrow pass of 4,500 feet high
where he had a good view of the
surrounding country. So narrow was
the trail that only one man at a time
could climb it. It was in this place
that Del Pilar and sixty loyal
soldiers positioned themselves.

The American troops under Major
Peyton march to pursued Aguinaldo.
In the morning of December
2, 1899 Major Peyton March and his
well-armed men proceeded toward
Del Pillar’s position. The Filipino
troops guarding the narrow pass
fired at the Americans who had no
recourse but to retreat.

Unfortunately, an Igorot guided the
Americans to a secret trail leading
to Del Pilar’s men. The Americans
slowly and quietly wne up the trail
and surprised the Filipino troops. A
fierce battle ensued and Del Pilar
was killed by a bullet that passed
through his neck.

The American soldiers rushed to
the dead body of the young general
and looted his personal belongings
for souvenirs. The American left
the body there and for two days it
remained unburied. On the third
day, the Igorots buried his remains
in a shallow grave.

Aguinaldo was no longer an
effective leader at this stage of
the war. Through surprise attacks
or ambush, and with the support of
the townspeople including many of
the elites, the war lasted longer
than expected. Many Filipino
military officers were emboldened
to fight with renewed enthusiasm.

They took advantage of the
cooperative attitude of the wealthy
Filipinos to help the people in the
resistance. Faced with the
effective guerrilla warfare,
Americans used cruel methods to
persuade the Filipinos to cooperate
with them. For Example, they used
the “Water Cure” on many Filipinos
to punish or extract information

This form of torture was done by
forcing water into the stomach of a
person until it gets filled. Then the
person would be made to lie on his
back and an American soldier would
jump on his stomach. Another form
of torture was placing a rope
around a person’s neck and then
twisting it to choke him.

Another form of torture was
beating the victim until he became
blue in the face. In Samar, the
Americans also resorted to
massacre to avenge the death of
their comrades who were killed by
the Filipino Guerrillas under the
command of General Vicente
Lukban.

The Americans also burned down
the whole town of Balangiga and
killed all men and even boys over
ten years old. Many are
surrendered/died because they
could not take any more of these
brutalities.

With the help of a Spaniard, Lazaro
Segovia, who joined the Filipino
forces against the
Americans, Colonel Frederick
Funston planned the capture of
Aguinaldo. The Spaniard led some
men from Macabebe and pretended
to have captured some American
soldiers.

They walked to Palanan and
informed Aguinaldo through a
courier that they were bringing in
the Americfan captives. Aguinaldo
was happy to hear the news and
made preparations for the soldiers
who had captured the enemy.

When Segovia arrived in the house
where Aguinaldo was staying, he and
his men signaled to their comrades
to start firing. When Aguinaldo
rushed to the window to see what
was happening, Funston and his men
told Aguinaldo to surrender.

Aguinaldo was brought to Manila
where, on April 1, 1901, he took the
oath of allegiance to the
government of the United States.
In a proclamation of April 19, he
appealed to the Filipino people to
accept the “Sovereignty of the
United States.”

Upon Aguinaldo’s capture many
Filipino field commanders
surrendered, while the wealthy
Filipinos happily collaborated with
the Americans. However, there
were still a few Filipino generals
who refused to give up the fight.

General Miguel Malvar of Batangas
took over the leadership of the
Filipino Government and fought the
enemy in running battles. He was so
successful that the Americans
tried to frighten the civilian
population by re-concentrating
them in a place where food supply
was supposedly assured.

To live outside thse zones or sona
meant lack of protection and sure
hunger. At this
time, Virus(rinderpest) killed over
90% of carabaos, thus, rice planting
was greatly affected causing
severe shortage of food. The
American continued their relentless
campaign against the guerrillas.

On February 27, 1902, they
captured General Vicente Lukban in
Samar. This was the end of the
guerrilla war-face in that province.
Two months later, April 16, 1902
General Malvar surrendered in
order to save his people from the
brutality of the enemy and from
hunger.

With the surrender of General
Malvar, systematic opposition to
American sovereignty ceased. The
case of Macario Sakay, patriots
refused to surrender, but at this
point, their effect on the
Americans was negligible. The
guerrilla war-face was crushed.

Despite the official declaration of
the end of the war by President
Theodore Roosevelt on July 4,
1902, recent studies point to the
continuation of the fight against
the colonizers by politico-religious
groups called ladrones by the
Americans, which means thieves and
bandits.

Composed of the poor and
uneducated peasants, these groups
continued to harass the newlyorganized Philippine Scounts or the
Filipinos now serving in the U.S.
Army. These groups who believed in
the power of prayers, rituals, and
amulets (Anting-anting) were not
only anti-foreigners (Friars,
Spanish and Americans) but also

Among them were the samahans
and confradias of Ruperto Rios in
Tayabas; Apo Ipe Salvador in
Bulacan, Pampangan, Nueva
Ijica, Tarlac and Pangasinan; and
Papa Isio of Negros who was
greatly feared by the elite who
welcomed the Americans and put up
their own Republic.

There were also the Pulajanes in
Cebu (led by the Tabal brothers),
“Dios-Dios” in Leyte led by Faustino
Ablan and by Papa Pablo in Samar.
War was ended in these places in
piecemeal fashion 1903 to 1913,
using violent means.

The Non-Christian Filipinos like
those in the Cordilleras of Luzon
and the Muslims in the Sulu
archipelago on the south, were
“Pacified” through the creation of
two special provinces; The Moro
Province in 1903 and the Mountain
Province in 1908. In the Moro
Province warfare would continue for
a decade up to 1916.

The brutal military campaigns of
the U.S. against them was revealed
in the massacre at Bud Dajo in
1906 in Sulu, where after four days
of fierce fighting, the U.S forces
suffered 20 casualties and 70 men
wounded. All the Tausugs –
men, women and children about a
thousand of them, were all killed.

US Colonial Motives in the Philippines

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