FIGHTING JUST ON TRIBE OUT OF 60

Policymakers reassessed the best way to project American power abroad,

Secretary of War Elihu Root had two major problems facing him.

becoming more comfortable with a policy (by Mckinley) of informal

1. the war in the Philippines,

2. providing reason why prolonged hostilities between Americans and
Filipinos broke out.
solution for the second problem, he could just deny that the war was
occurring to any significant extent. Root insisted that the Philippines in not
a nation but merely a collection of hundreds of islands inhabited by more
than sixty different tribes, and speaking 60 different languages, but all
one, ready to accept American sovereignty. Americans were being sent to
fight the single tribe of the Tagalogs. Root even invented a revisionist
history about the Philippine revolution against the Spanish Rule, insisting
that we never demanded or sought independence from Spain, and labeled
There were 2

central myths that the American imperialists based their logic for
colonialism to deny the legitimacy of the short lived Philippine Republic on
Aguinaldos time.
1. The first myth was that the American presence was benevolent and
welcomed by Filipinos,
2. the idea that American imperialism was a passive occurrence, that
the archipelago had been thrust by God into the hands of the
United States, and that Filipino incapacity for self-government
necessitated American rule.

justified w/ a more humanitarian rhetoric. To a group of Methodists, he

said that, the Philippines has been given by God as a gift and could not

The first problem was the more intractable one, Root had an easier

Aguinaldo as a treachery in the hearts of the Filipinos.

imperialism that involved the political and economic domination and was

give them back to Spain. They were unfit for self-government and that
there is a need to educate, Christianize, and civilize them. When Felipe
Agoncillo, Aguinaldos foreign minister, arrived at the Paris conference to
speak on behalf of his government and the people of the Philippines, he
was summarily ignored by all parties and was not allowed even to issue a
statement. The American peace commissioners dismissed the possibility
of Aguinaldos government ever wielding any real political power. When a
German admiral asked Dewey if he recognized a flying Philippine flag, he
replied that the Filipinos have no government, and that the flag was just
a little bit of bunting that anybody could hoist. In the months after the
American military began occupying the city of Manila proper, the ultimate
purpose of the occupation gradually became clearer, and Filipino
sentiment toward the Americans waned from friendliness to suspicion to
downright hostility. Aguinaldos aides-de-camp said that:
We have been led by America and her representatives to believe that we
should have our freedom. If America has changed her mind or her policy,
and desires to seize our country, well, she can have it; but not till she has
killed every man of us peoplewe love life, but without freedom we prefer
death.

When McKinley announced his benevolent assimilation policy, Aguinaldo

Arthur Mc Arthur restored to more violent methods of warfare and turned

knew then that the US would be a formidable opponent. Desperate to

to harsher tactics. During Otiss tenure, General William Shafter told

avoid war, by early 1899 Aguinaldo sought to reach a diplomatic

reporters in San Francisco that it might be necessary to kill half the

compromise while still preparing for the inevitable. Indirect American

population of the Philippines to bring justice to the other half. Guerillas

domination of the Philippines would involve us in endless wars with the

were classified as public enemies who were not entitled to the

natives and keep us embroiled with other nations, and would entail

privileges of prisoners of war, and allowed the occupying army to expel,

responsibility without power. On the Filipino side, the perception of the

transfer, imprison, or fine civilians who did not avow their allegiance to

United States as a peaceful, liberal republic, once championed by

the United States.

Aguinaldo, gave way to an image of America as a bloodthirsty, racist

country. On February 4, as an American soldier shot a Filipino who had

(ABUSES OF THE AMERICANS TO THE FILIPINOS)

ventured too close to the American lines, and the aftermath of this

MacArthur treated captured guerillas as murderers,

incident quickly became a full-scale battle. Aguinaldos strategy of

rather than as prisoners of war, and allowed the execution of Filipino

conventional warfare, despite its high costs, did succeed in significantly

prisoners as a retaliatory measure for attacks on American troops.

slowing the advance of American troops through Luzon.

By the fall of

Although the execution of captured or wounded Filipinos and rampant

1899, the American military controlled little territory outside of Manila. As

disregard for civilian property had occurred throughout the war, MacArthur

the Philippine Republic withered away and the remnants of the Army of

gave legitimacy and encouragement to these actions. American soldiers

Liberation retreated to the mountains, the jungle, and the illusion of

wrote home bragging how they shot the enemy as if they were chasing

civilian life in preparation for a guerilla campaign, the excessively

jack-rabbits, but the ruthlessness of American conduct in the Philippines

optimistic

States

is most evident in simple numbers. Official reports from both Otis and

misinterpreted the lull in fighting as its end. Gen. Otis informed

MacArthur claimed fifteen Filipinos killed for every one wounded. In the

Washington that the war in the Philippines is already over, and that

American Civil War, to contrast, five soldiers had been wounded for every

there will be no more real fighting and in April of 1900, that the

one killed; this astounding gap in the casualty ratio indicates that the

insurrection in the Philippine Islands has been overcome. But guerillas

murder of wounded Filipinos was the norm, rather than the exception. On

attacked again, contradicting the claim. Due to this, the time of Gen

one occasion, Father August Pea, a local priest and alleged rebel

military

and

political

leadership

of

the

United

sympathizer, was tied to a ladder, his head held back, and his mouth held

people found outside of the zones were captured or killed. By April of

open while gallon after gallon of water was poured into it through a cane.

1902, thousands of Batangueo civilians had died of disease and

He acted the same as any other man. He would not talk until he got so

malnutrition while in the camps. On September 26, 1901, shortly after the

much. Cross recalled seeing Father Pea being buried in the parade

assassination of William McKinley and the inauguration of Theodore

ground late one night after another prolonged interrogation.

Roosevelt, fifty-nine American soldiers stationed in Samar, in the town of

Balangiga,

were

killed

in

an

intricately

plotted

massacre.

The

The Philippine Commission headed by William Howard Taft represented a

townspeople had smuggled knives by hiding them in coffins, and attacked

return to a policy of uplifting our little brown brothers. This attempt at

the Americans in a night raid.

collaboration earned him the scorn of both officers and enlisted men, who

soldiers. Smiths outrageous, Kurtzian orders to pacify the island seemed

sang that the Filipino may be a brother of William H. Taft, but he aint no

custom-made to blare on the front page of every newspaper in the United

friend of mine. In the months after capture of Aguinaldo, warfare ended in

States. I want no prisoners. I wish you to kill and burn, the more you kill

somebut certainly not allprovinces, William Howard Taft was at a loss

and burn the better it will please me. I want all persons killed who are

to explain how bringing liberal democracy to the Philippines would not

capable of bearing arms in actual hostilities against the United States, he

result in increased Filipino nationalism and calls for independence. My

told Major Littleton Tony Waller. When Waller asked to know the limit of

impression is that as they become better educated, as they understand

age to respect, Smith replied ten years of

what self-government is, as they realize what an immense advantage it

age. On July 4, 1902, Theodore Roosevelt declared the war to be over for

will be to them to be associated with the United States, the oratorical use

the last time.

of the word independence will cease to have such weight with them. In

Philippines, continued for another decade, but the most intense fighting

the Tagalog province of Batangas, in southern Luzon, resistance to

had ended. After three years of warfare, the Philippines had been won at

American rule continued under Philippine general Miguel Malvar for over a

a very high cost.

year after Aguinaldos capture. Batangueos were rounded up and fenced

dearly: about 50,000 died in the fighting, while at least 250,000 more died

in like so many cattle, while anything outside of the concentration zone

of war-related disease and malnutrition. For Americans, the Philippine

became fair game for American soldiers to destroy. Food and buildings

War was a bad memory, but one that could easily be forgotten. By 1903,

outside of the zones were burned so as to deny them to the guerillas;

Henry Cabot Lodge believed that the American public had lost all

Chaffee tasked of avenging the fallen

Sporadic fighting, especially in the Muslim southern

The fight for their independence had cost Filipinos

interest in additional colonial expansion, and policymakers soon followed

suit