Category: Philippine Insurrection

The Philippine–American War (also referred to as the Filipino-American War, the Philippine War, the Philippine Insurrection, the Tagalog Insurgency; was an armed conflict between the First Philippine Republic and the United States that lasted from February 4, 1899 to July 2, 1902.[2] The war was a continuation of the Filipino struggle for independence that began in 1896 with the Philippine Revolution. The conflict arose when the First Philippine Republic objected to the terms of the Treaty of Paris under which the United States took possession of the Philippines from Spain, ending the Spanish–American War. The war and occupation by the U.S. changed the cultural landscape of the islands, as people dealt with an estimated 200,000 to 250,000 total Filipino civilians dead, disestablishment of the Catholic Church in the Philippines as a state religion, and the introduction of the English language in the islands as the primary language of government, education, business, industry, and among families and educated individuals increasingly in future decades. On February 11, 1899—only one week after the first shots of the war were fired—American naval forces destroyed the city of Iloilo with bombardment by the USS Petrel and the USS Baltimore. The city was then captured. Months later, after finally securing Manila from the Filipino forces, American forces moved northwards, engaging in combat at the brigade and battalion level in pursuit of the fleeing insurgent forces and their commanders with no loss of American lives. Estimates of the Filipino forces vary between 80,000 and 100,000, with tens of thousands of auxiliaries. Most of the forces were armed only with bolo knives, bows and arrows, spears and other primitive weapons which were vastly inferior to those of the American forces. They relied mostly on guerrilla warfare. Both sided committed atrocities. Casualties and losses: American (6,165 killed, 2,818 wounded) Filipino: (Combatant: 16,000–20,000 killed, civilians: 34,000 killed an additional 200,000 died from cholera.