American Involvement in the Philippines

American Involvement in the Philippines

Background

Before 1898, the Philippines belonged to Spain, but after the Spanish American War, the Spanish ceded the islands to the United States through the Treaty of Paris, which had ended the war. However, before the U.S could ratify the treaty, a fight broke out between a group of Filipino nationalists led by Emilio Aguinaldo and American forces, starting the Philippine American War.

Article

The United States acquired the Philippines through the Treaty of Paris that had ended the Spanish American War, but there was much debate in America on what to do with the islands. Americans soon realized that the Filipinos believed that, because the United States defeated the Spanish rule, it would help the Philippines gain its own independence. However, because the United States decided on keeping the Philippines as a colony, fighting broke out on February 4, 1899, between Filipino Nationalists led by Emilio Aguinaldo and American Forces. This was the start of the Philippine American War.

The Philippine American War lasted for three years and can be split up into two phases: the first phase, from February to November of 1899 and the second phase, from November of 1899 to the spring of 1902. The first phase was mostly Emilio Aguinaldo and the Filipino resistance trying to fight a conventional war against better equipped and trained American troops. The Filipinos were always short of weapons and ammunition and the Philippine terrain proved difficult to fight a conventional war against the Americans. the second was when the Filipinos changed their tactics to guerrilla warfare, which was much more effective in fight the war.

During the war, U.S forces burned villages and tortured suspected guerrillas