PHILIPPINES

PHILIPPINES. Discovered by Ferdinand Magellan in 1521, the Philippine Islands were occupied by Spain from 1565 to 1898. This occupation was continuous, other than for a brief partial occupation by Great Britain from 1762 to 1764. As a result of the Spanish-American War, possession of the islands was assumed by the United States in 1898.

The Colonial Years

Spanish occupation introduced Christianity and western ideas in general to the Filipino people, while restricting the influence of Islam, primarily in Mindanao and nearby regions. After the United States assumed control of the islands, there was a greater focus on educational, commercial, and agricultural development of the Philippines, along with the introduction of democratic principles. Agitation for independence, which began under Spanish rule, continued in the Philippines under American control.

American interest in the Philippines was largely the result of a desire to expand the nation's economic influence into the Pacific and Asia. When the closing of the frontier seemed imminent by the 1890s, many Americans looked to Asia and the Pacific as golden opportunities to expand American trade and avoid future economic depressions like those of the past twenty-five years. American ambitions for trade, investment opportunities, and territory in East Asia, particularly China, were threatened by competition among the other great powers—England, France, Russia, Germany, and Japan. The Philippines were attractive because they could provide a military and commercial base from which the United States could protect its interests in China. As American relations with Spain deteriorated over the crisis in Cuba, the McKinley Administration saw an opportunity to deal with the situations in Asia and the Caribbean simultaneously.

On 1 May 1898, following the outbreak of war with Spain, Commodore George Dewey destroyed the aging Spanish fleet in Manila Bay. An American expeditionary force arrived in Manila seven months later, and Spain formally surrendered the city. After an armistice in August 1898, peace negotiations in Paris resulted in a treaty in December 1898 that ceded the Philippines to the United States in return for $20 million.

The acquisition of the Philippines gave rise to a protracted and bitter debate. Expansion into the Caribbean fit neatly into American perceptions of being the preeminent power in the Western hemisphere, but assuming control of a large, heavily populated territory thousands of miles away was a different and disquieting challenge. McKinley publicly claimed he had been opposed to acquiring the islands, but a night of reflection and prayer supposedly led him to conclude there was no alternative but to keep them. McKinley understood the Philippines would give the United States an Asian presence and make it easier to guard American interests there. Even so, McKinley was reluctant to assume responsibility for governing the islands, since there was a strong Filipino revolutionary army that had been fighting the Spanish and planned to govern the country. The president authorized Philippine acquisition, however, because he was concerned that another great power might seize the islands; because of the need to protect American commercial interests in Asia; and because he was convinced that the Filipinos could not govern themselves. While imperialists such as Theodore Roosevelt applauded the decision and justified the move on the grounds that the United States had an obligation to teach the Filipinos self-government, others justified the action on the basis that the islands would be the American equivalent of Hong Kong, allowing the country to exploit trading opportunities throughout Asia and the East Indies. Many Republicans also recognized the political benefits of expansion, since it was a victorious war fought under a Republican administration.

But there was fierce opposition to acquisition of the Philippines. While the Senate debated ratification of the treaty, a strong anti-imperialist movement began to develop, which included some of the nation's most prominent citizens, including Andrew Carnegie and Mark Twain. One anti-imperialist argument centered on the morality of imperialism, suggesting that it was a violation of an American commitment to human freedom. Others opposed it on racial grounds, fearing the admission of "inferior" Asian races into America. Some voiced concerns about cheap labor and cheap sugar flooding the domestic market, and the resources the country would have to expend to defend the new territories. Nevertheless, the Senate ratified the Treaty of Paris on 6 February 1899, and the reelection of McKinley in 1900 seemed to indicate that the nation as a whole favored imperialism and the acquisition of the Philippines.

The country soon found itself embroiled in a much more difficult conflict than the one recently concluded with Spain. Filipino insurgents had been in rebellion against Spain before the Spanish-American War, and when the United States supplanted Spain, the revolutionaries directed their resistance against the new rulers. Generally ignored today, the Philippine War (1899–1901) was one of the bloodiest in American history. Some 200,000 American soldiers took part, and with 4,300 deaths, the United States suffered nearly ten times the fatalities of

the Spanish-American War. The number of Filipinos who were killed remains uncertain but estimates range upward of fifty thousand. Led by Emilio Aguinaldo, the rebels harassed the American occupation forces for more than three years. The guerrilla tactics used by the Filipinos prompted an increase in brutality on the part of American soldiers, who came to view the enemy as subhuman and who justified increasingly vicious and savage tactics to suppress the insurrection. Although the war continued into 1902, the capture of Aguinaldo in 1901 signaled the turning point. Aguinaldo encouraged his supporters to stop fighting and proclaimed his allegiance to the United States, causing the rebellion to begin losing momentum. Although some fighting continued over the next four or five years, the United States had secured the islands.

At first, the military assumed responsibility for governing the Philippines. Then, during the summer of 1901, administrative authority was transferred to William Howard Taft, the first civilian governor of the territory. Taft promptly announced the intention of the United States to prepare the Filipinos for independence, and he permitted a good deal of local autonomy during his term of service. Taft established the Philippines Commission to serve as a legislative body, and a program of education was begun as well. American soldiers served as teachers until trained teachers could arrive from the United States.

American rule brought the construction of roadways, sanitary facilities and schools. Commerce, trade, and agriculture were given additional attention, and, in August 1907, the United States created the Philippine Assembly. Filipinos were given a majority of seats on the Philippine Commission under President Woodrow Wilson and gained greater autonomy during the administration of Francis Burton Harrison, the governor general from 1913 to 1921. The Jones Act of 1916 permitted the establishment of an elective senate and house of representatives to replace the Philippine Commission and Assembly. In 1934, the Tydings-McDuffie Act mandated a ten-year transition to full independence for the Philippines.

As president, Theodore Roosevelt had referred to the Philippines as the Achilles heel of America in Asia and the Pacific, recognizing that the islands could be a tempting prize for another power such as Japan. With the Lansing-Ishii Agreement of 1917, the Wilson administration secured Japanese assurances that they had no ambitions regarding those islands. The Tydings-McDuffie Act, which promised the Philippines independence in ten years, can be further construed as an admission of American vulnerability there.

As population and economic pressures began to squeeze Japan in the late 1920s and early 1930s, that nation embarked on a program of expansion that led to war with China in 1937. That war had reached an impasse by 1941, leading the Japanese to decide on a southern strategy to secure the resources and markets of Southeast Asia and the East Indies. The United States had thus far given China limited support against Japan, but when Japan seized French Indochina in July 1941, the Roosevelt Administration placed a trade embargo on the Japanese. For the Japanese, this meant restoring good relations with the United States or proceeding with plans to secure the resources to the south. American efforts to get Japan out of China were unsuccessful, and the United States was unwilling to accept anything less. From The Japanese perspective, it seemed that the only option was to consider war with the United States. The location of the Philippine Islands further strengthened the possibility of war from Japan's point of view. The Philippines would make it easy for the United States to interdict shipments of vital raw materials from the East Indies. Therefore, to assure those materials would arrive safely in Japan, the Philippines would have to be taken as well, making war with the United States all the more unavoidable.

Ten hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese warplanes struck American air bases in Manila, destroying the small air force of General Douglas MacArthur while it was still on the ground. Perhaps more from ego than sensible military judgment, MacArthur fought the Japanese invaders with an inadequate army, suffering the loss of most of his forces. American and Filipino forces on Corregidor Island held out until 6 May 1942; the captured survivors were led on the infamous "death march" to prison camps. MacArthur, meanwhile, had escaped to Australia after promising to return to liberate the Philippines. Japan set up a puppet government in October 1943, with Jose Laurel as president.

In October 1944, MacArthur did return to the Philippines, along with 200,000 American troops. A combination of bad weather and fanatical Japanese defenders slowed the progress of the invasion, although the American navy decisively defeated the Japanese navy at Leyte Gulf. In February 1945, MacArthur fought a terribly destructive battle for Manila that cost the lives of more than a hundred thousand Filipino civilians. The Philippines were finally liberated on 5 July 1945.

Independence and the Struggle for Autonomy

One year later, 4 July 1946, the United States formally granted the Philippine Islands their independence, with Manuel Roxas as the new nation's first president. This was the first time an imperial power had ever voluntarily relinquished its possession of a colony. Independence, however, did not mean an end to Philippine dependence on the United States, nor was the U.S. willing to cut its ties completely. Concerned about the ability of the Philippines to recover from the ravages of the war, and with the growing exigencies of the Cold War, the United States soon incorporated the islands into its expanding military and economic fold. On 17 March 1947, the United States concluded an agreement with the Philippines that gave the United States leases on military bases there for ninety-nine years. The United States also monitored the Filipino government, often urging reforms that would end corruption and mismanagement. The Philippines would remain

an important location for American air force and naval bases until the early 1990s. American loans, foreign aid, and trade agreements helped support the Philippine economy. A security pact between the United States and the Philippines was signed on 30 August 1951.

The war in Vietnam and continued American presence in the Philippines led to anti-American protests and riots in Manila and elsewhere in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These contributed to the autocracy of Ferdinand Marcos, who, in his second term as president, declared martial law and established a dictatorship in 1972. Although American investments and economic interests in the islands had fallen behind those of the Japanese and Taiwanese, the importance of the American military bases there led the Nixon and Ford administrations to keep silent about the end of democracy in the Philippines.

Increasing criticism of the government in the mid-1970s led to greater repression by Marcos; the policy of the United States was to turn a blind eye in that direction. Unwilling to risk talks about the military bases, the administration of Jimmy Carter carefully avoided criticizing the human rights record of Marcos, despite killings by the Philippine military and the imprisonment of thousands. The Carter administration reached a new accord regarding American military bases with the Marcos regime in 1979, and American economic support continued as well.

Growing unrest in the Philippines created a problem for the Reagan administration. Despite Marcos's repressive regime, Reagan liked the Philippine leader personally, having met him first in 1969, and continued to support him because of the Cold War. But the 1983 assassination of Benigno Aquino, Marcos's chief political opponent, made it clear that American strategic and economic interests were in jeopardy. A significant American financial commitment remained in place, while strategic interests dictated keeping Clark Air Field and the Subic Bay Naval Station, both of which were under leases granted by Marcos and due to expire in 1991. Marcos was pressured to implement badly needed reforms, but the Filipino leader continued his repressive ways. This led to more protests, the revival of a communist insurgency by a Maoist group called the Nationalist People's Army, and renewed attacks by Muslim guerillas.

Marcos tried to win back American support by staging elections in February 1986, which he intended to control. The opposition candidate was Aquino's widow, Corazon, and her calls for reform drew widespread support. Relying on massive election fraud, Marcos claimed victory, which was at first upheld by the Reagan White House. But the fraudulent nature of the election was so obvious that the administration had to back off from its support of Marcos when it became evident that any attempt by Marcos to stay in power would result in civil war. Reagan began to urge Marcos to step aside. Marcos finally gave in to American pressure and fled to Hawaii on an American Air Force transport. Corazon Aquino became president of the Philippines.

Although she reestablished democratic institutions, Aquino could not solve the economic problems of her country. Nor could she win the support of the military and the Filipino elite, halt the rampant corruption, or stem the communist insurgency that had now spread to nearly every province. She did implement some political and economic reforms, survived more than a half dozen coup attempts, and supported the 1992 election of her successor, General Fidel Ramos, one of the early defectors from Marcos. Ramos attempted to revitalize the economy, eliminate corruption, and attract foreign investors.

American strategic influence in the Philippines began to diminish in the 1990s. American financial aid stopped almost completely, partly because of domestic economic woes in the first part of the decade. Clark Air Force Base was abandoned after it was destroyed by a volcanic eruption, and, when no agreement on acceptable financial compensation could be reached, the Philippine Senate refused to renew the lease on the naval base at Subic Bay. These actions gave the country greater autonomy, while reflecting its lessened importance in American foreign policy.

A twenty-four-year insurrection led by the Moro National Liberation Front came to an end in 1996, with the signing of a peace accord that would grant the movement greater independence in many of that island's provinces. However, a splinter group, the militant Moro Islamic Liberation Front, rejected the agreement and continued to resist the government.

Joseph Estrada, a popular, though politically inexperienced motion picture actor, replaced Ramos as president in 1996. Elected on promises that he would revive the economy, Estrada headed a corrupt administration. Impeached in 2000 and brought to trial on charges of taking bribes from gambling syndicates, Estrada and his supporters tried to block the prosecutor's access to his financial records in order to delay or end his trial. This led to mass demonstrations that forced Estrada to resign in January 2001. His successor, Gloria Arroyo, promised to wipe out poverty and corruption and refused to grant Estrada amnesty for his alleged crimes. The Arroyo regime struggled to establish its political qualifications, revitalize the country, and deal with Islamic rebel groups, such as the Abu Sayyaf separatists. Just one of many Muslim separatist groups that have been fighting for independence for thirty years or more in Mindanao, the group has been accused of associations with the Al Qaeda network. As of 2002, the Philippine army was still fighting these rebels with assistance from the United States.

PHILIPPINES

The Colonial Years

Independence and the Struggle for Autonomy

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