Name __________________________
Date: ________________
Section: 11.1
11.2
(circle one)
U. S. History II
HW 3.10: The Philippine-American War
Do Now: Read the following summary of the United States’ decision about what to do with
the Philippines after the Spanish-American War. Then, journal (write continuously) on the
question: How do you think Americans, Filipinos, and the rest of the world might
react to American annexation of the Philippines? What problems might arise, and
why?
The Treaty of Paris, signed December 10, 1898, transferred the Philippines, Cuba,
Puerto Rico, and Guam to the United States, in exchange for $20 million.
Two days before the Senate voted to ratify [approve] the treaty, an American soldier
fired on a Filipino patrol that refused to halt. This outbreak may have influenced
some Senators, who were told that the Filipino had fired first.
On February 6, 1899, the U.S. Senate approved the Treaty of Paris by a margin of 57
to 27—just one vote more than the required two-thirds majority. Congress did not
pass a proposed amendment
to grant the Philippines independence once a stable
government was established.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Reading: Insurrection in the Philippines
As we read, highlight or underline major details. Pay special attention to information that
will help you write identifications (date, definition, and significance) for the terms
Philippine-American War and insurrectos.
Even as the Senate was debating the Treaty of Paris, many of
the worst fears of the anti-imperialists were becoming reality.
Tensions between U.S. and Filipino forces had been building
for months. The Filipinos had assumed that they would be
granted independence after the departure of the Spanish, but
U.S. troops had orders to establish control over the islands.
Within hours of the shooting incident, fighting had spread to
much of the area around Manila. The Filipinos believed they
were fighting for their independence.
Over the next three years, U.S. forces in the Philippines fought
the Philippine-American War, one of the United States’
most brutal and least remembered wars. Before it ended in mid-1902, battle and disease
had killed 4,300 Americans—nearly twice the death toll of the Spanish-American War.
Among the Filipinos, fighting as well
as starvation and disease caused by the war killed
20,000 soldiers. As many as 250,000 civilians died.
The war in the Philippines was far different than any conflict in which Americans had
previously fought. Rather than confronting an organized army, as they had in Cuba, U.S.
soldiers faced a quick-striking guerrilla movement. The rules of war that generally
prevailed in battles involving Western nations were largely ignored. Both sides tortured
and executed prisoners and committed other atrocities. The Filipino insurgents, known as
insurrectos, easily melted into the civilian population in the countryside.
The Filipinos were commanded by Emilio Aguinaldo, the same
nationalist figure who had led the struggle against Spain and
had praised the United States as “the friend of our people.”
Aguinaldo’s capture in March 1901 marked a turning point in
the conflict. He agreed to declare his allegiance to the United
States and, in turn, the U.S. government awarded him a
pension.
By then American tactics had deeply scarred relations with the
Filipinos. To put down the insurrection, the United States
adopted many of the same tactics used by the Spanish in Cuba.
U.S. commanders routinely punished civilians in response to attacks by Filipino guerrillas.
In one of the war’s bloodiest episodes, U.S. forces imprisoned virtually the entire
population of the small island of Samar after guerrillas had wiped out an American
garrison. U.S. troops had orders to kill all males on the island above the age of ten who had
not surrendered. In other areas, American soldiers executed Filipino prisoners at random
whenever an American soldier was killed.
Directions: Source Analysis Jigsaw
For the first part of the jigsaw activity, I will assign you to a small group examining one
source. Work with your group to find specific evidence answering the guiding questions for
your source.
Source A. President William McKinley’s “Benevolent Assimilation Proclamation” on
annexing the Philippines, December 21, 1898.
In performing this duty [the extension of American sovereignty throughout the Philippines
by means of force] the military commander of the United States is enjoined [ordered] to
make known to the inhabitants of the Philippine Islands that… the authority of the United
States is to be exerted for the securing of the persons and property of the people of the
Islands and for the confirmation of all private rights and relations. It will be the duty of the
commander of the forces of occupation to announce and proclaim in the most public
manner that we come not as invaders or conquerors, but as friends, to protect the natives
in their homes, in their employment, and in their personal and religious rights. All persons
who, either by active aid or by honest submission, cooperate with the Government of the
United States to give effect to these beneficent purposes will receive the reward of its
support and protection. All others will be brought within the lawful rule we have assumed,
with firmness if need be, but without severity, so far as may be possible….
Finally, it should be the earnest and paramount aim of the military administration to win
the confidence, respect, and affection of the inhabitants of the Philippines by assuring them
in every possible way that full measure of individual rights and liberties which is the
heritage of a free people, and by assuring them in every possible way that full measure of
individual rights and liberties which is the heritage of a free people, and by proving to them
that the mission of the United States is one of benevolent assimilation, substituting the mild
sway of justice and right for arbitrary rule. In the fulfillment of this high mission,
supporting the temperate administration of affairs for the greatest good of the governed,
there must be sedulously [diligently, consistently] maintained the strong arm of authority,
to repress disturbance and to overcome all obstacles to the bestowal of the blessings of
good and stable government upon the people of the Philippine Islands under the flag of the
United States.
Guiding Questions for Source A
1) According to McKinley, what are the United States’ main goals in occupying the
Philippines?
2) According to McKinley, how will American occupation affect the Filipinos?
3) According to McKinley, for what purpose will the United States wield “the strong
arm of authority” (i.e., military power) against Filipinos?
Source B. Testimony of Corporal Richard O’Brien, U.S. Army, at Senate hearings on
the Philippine-American War.
As we approached the town the word passed along the line that there would be no
prisoners taken. It meant that we were to shoot every living thing in sight—man, woman,
and child. The first shot was fired by the then first sergeant of our company. His target was
a mere boy… The boy was not struck by the bullet, but that was not the sergeant's fault. The
little Filipino boy… fled in terror up the mountain side. Half a dozen shots were fired after
him. The shooting now had attracted the villagers, who came out of their homes in alarm,
wondering what it all meant. They offered no offense, did not display a weapon, made no
hostile movement whatsoever, but they were ruthlessly shot down in cold blood—men,
women, and children. The poor natives huddled together or fled in terror. Many were
pursued and killed on the spot.
Two old men, bearing between them a white flag and clasping hands like two brothers,
approached the lines. Their hair was white. They fairly tottered, they were so feeble under
the weight of years. To my horror and that of the other men in the command, the order was
given to fire, and the two old men were shot down in their tracks. We entered the village. A
man who had been on a sick-bed appeared at the doorway of his home. He received a bullet
in the abdomen and fell dead in the doorway. Dum-dum bullets [which were designed to
expand on impact, producing a larger wound] were used in that massacre, but we were not
told the name of the bullets. We didn't have to be told. We knew what they were.
In another part of the village a mother with a babe at her breast and two young children at
her side pleaded for mercy. She feared to leave her home, which had just been fired
accidentally, I believe. She faced the flames with her children, and not a hand was raised to
save her or the little ones. They perished miserably. It was sure death if she left the
house—it was sure death if she remained. She feared the American soldiers, however,
worse than the devouring flames.
Guiding Questions for Source B
1) What does it mean for an army to “take no prisoners”? (Use your own words.)
2) How did the American soldiers treat Filipino civilians? According to O’Brien, was
this treatment justified?
3) Why do you think that, according to O’Brien, the Filipina woman might have “feared
the American soldiers… worse than the devouring flames”?
Source C. Letters from American soldiers in the Philippines
Source C-1. Frank Erb of the Pennsylvania Regiment, February 27, 1899
We have been in this nigger-fighting business now for twenty-three days, and have been
under fire for the greater part of that time. The niggers shoot over one another’s heads or
any old way. Even while I am writing this the black boys are banging away at our outposts,
but they very seldom hit anybody. The morning of the 6th a burying detail from our
regiment buried forty-nine nigger enlisted men and two nigger officers, and when we
stopped chasing them the night before, we could see ‘em carrying a great many with them.
We are supposed to have killed about three hundred… We will, no doubt, start home as
soon as we get these niggers rounded up.
Source C-2. Anonymous private of the First Regiment, Washington State Volunteers, date
unknown
[The private is describing his company’s march into the forest in pursuit of Filipino
soldiers.] I never stood such a hot fire, but we kept right on, and killed fifty-two of them,
while about three hundred got away. Pretty good, wasn't it, for about sixty men? ... They
sent four companies to reinforce us, but they could not catch us, as our blood was up, and
we wanted revenge for [another soldier’s] death. The men were just crazy. I got three of
them. We had one man killed and five wounded. Soon we had orders to advance, and we
rose up from behind our trenches and started across the creek in mud and water up to our
waists. However, we did not mind it a bit, our fighting blood was up and we all wanted to
kill 'niggers.' This shooting human beings is a 'hot game,' and beats rabbit hunting all to
pieces.... We soon charged them again, and such a slaughter you never saw. We killed them
like rabbits; hundreds, yes, thousands of them. Every one was crazy. I tell you it was awful
after it was over. But it was war.... We will soon round them up and kill them all off. No
more prisoners. They take none, and they torture our men, so we will kill wounded and all
of them.... The weather is intensely hot, and we are all tired, dirty, and hungry, so we have
to kill niggers whenever we have a chance, to get even for all our trouble.
Guiding Questions for Source C
1) How do these two soldiers characterize the Filipinos? What does their use of the
term “n*****” suggest about their views of Filipinos?
2) How does Frank Erb (Source C-1) describe the fighting skills of the Filipinos? How
does this fit into his view of their nature?
3) How does the anonymous private (Source C-2) justify American soldiers’ brutal
treatment of Filipino soldiers?
Reading: American Occupation of the Philippines
There were two phases to the Philippine-American War. The first phase, from February to
November of 1899, was dominated by Aguinaldo’s ill-fated attempts to fight a conventional
war against the better-trained and equipped American troops. The second phase was
marked by the Filipinos’ shift to guerrilla-style warfare. It began in November of 1899,
lasted through the capture of Aguinaldo in 1901 and into the spring of 1902, by which time
most organized Filipino resistance had dissipated. President Theodore Roosevelt
proclaimed a general amnesty and declared the conflict over on July 4, 1902, although
minor uprisings and insurrections against American rule periodically occurred in the years
that followed.
The United States entered the conflict with undeniable military advantages that included a
trained fighting force, a steady supply of military equipment, and control of the
archipelago’s waterways. Meanwhile, the Filipino forces were hampered by their inability
to gain any kind of outside support for their cause, chronic shortages of weapons and
ammunition, and complications produced by the Philippines’ geographic complexity. Under
these conditions, Aguinaldo’s attempt to fight a conventional war in the first few months of
the conflict proved to be a fatal mistake; the Filipino army suffered severe losses in men
and material before switching to the guerrilla tactics that might have been more effective if
employed from the beginning of the conflict.
The war was brutal on both sides. U.S. forces at times burned villages, implemented civilian
reconcentration policies, and employed torture on suspected guerrillas, while Filipino
fighters also tortured captured soldiers and terrorized civilians who cooperated with
American forces. Many civilians died during the conflict as a result of the fighting, cholera
and malaria epidemics, and food shortages caused by several agricultural catastrophes.
Even as the fighting went on, the colonial government that the United States established in
the Philippines in 1900 under future President William Howard Taft launched a
pacification campaign that became known as the “policy of attraction.” Designed to win
over key elites and other Filipinos who did not embrace Aguinaldo’s plans for the
Philippines, this policy permitted a significant degree of self-government, introduced social
reforms, and implemented plans for economic development. Over time, this program
gained important Filipino adherents and undermined the revolutionaries’ popular appeal,
which significantly aided the United States’ military effort to win the war.
In 1907, the Philippines convened its first elected assembly, and in 1916, the Jones Act
promised the nation eventual independence. The archipelago became an autonomous
commonwealth in 1935, and the U.S. granted independence in 1946.
Homework
1. Based on our work in class, add the following identifications (date, definition,
significance) to the key terms section of your binder:
a. Philippine-American War
b. insurrectos
2. Respond to the following questions in one well-constructed paragraph each. Each
paragraph must refer to at least two of the sources we studied in class. (For this
purpose, Source C-1 and Source C-2 count as different sources.)
a. How did the American military treat Filipinos during the PhilippineAmerican War? How did this treatment compare with America’s stated
purpose for occupying the Philippines?
b. How did American soldiers view Filipino soldiers and civilians? How might
these views help explain Americans’ treatment of the Filipinos?