AMERICAN

COLONIAL RULE IN
THE PHILIPPINES
 OBJECTIVES

• Characterize American motives and policies

• Discuss the nature of benevolent assimilation and its
impact on national development
• Explain how the local elite was made to cooperate
with the American colonial masters
• Assess the success of American colonialism
 A. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

• The coming of the Americans in the Philippines was

not merely coincidental but was a deliberate plan.
• The America was really interested in acquiring the
Philippines manifested by the fact that prior to the
conclusion of the Treaty of Paris, the US already
employed researchers and investigators to translate
and compile facts and information about the
country.
 B. AMERICAN IMPERIALISM

• Manifest Destiny - phrase that expressed the belief

that the United States had a mission to expand,
spreading its form of democracy and freedom.
• Advocates of Manifest Destiny believed that
expansion was not only good, but that it was
obvious (" manifest") and certain (" destiny").
 MOTIVATIONS IN COLONIZING THE
PHILIPPINES
- As a source of raw materials and a market for
American goods
- Offers strategic naval bases in the Pacific that could
protect trade results
- Serves as a gateway to China
 OTHER MOTIVATIONS

• Pressures coming from both the naval and

merchant sectors
• Industrial development
• Pressures coming from American churches
• To annex the entire colony of the Philippines
because she was not in the position to protect its
widespread holding and trade advantages
• Pressures coming from Vatican churches
 TREATY OF PARIS

-signed on December 10,

1898
-Spain ceded the
Philippines to the US
amounting $20, 000, 000
-the Filipinos became
colonial subjects of the US
*In effect, the Philippines once again
became a colony of a foreign power for
another half century.
 THE SCHURMAN COMMISSION
(DR. JACOB SCHURMAN)
(FIRST PHILIPPINE COMMISSION)

• Humanitarian purpose in liberating the Filipinos from

Spanish tyranny and the ideal of political self-rule
through the blessing of liberty
• Americans promised:
(a) the welfare of the Filipinos through the
guarantee of their civil rights
(b) their protection against civil war
 C. THE FILIPINO-AMERICAN WAR
(FEBRUARY 4, 1899)
• CAUSES
-Filipino’s intense desire to become free and
independent
-increasing power of the Americans
-signing of Treaty of Paris
-McKinley’s Benevolent Assimilation on Dec. 21, 1898
-President Emilio Aguinaldo’s Proclamation
*Immediate Cause:
An American soldier shot one of the Filipino
soldiers who was trying to cross the bridge at San Juan
del Monte
*Direct Aftermath:
Filipino distrust of Americans
 D. FILIPINO COLLABORATION WITH
AMERICAN COLONIALISM
• -Securing the allegiance of the intellectual sector

Facilitation of the Co-optation Process

1. System of Patronage
2. Separation of elites from the masses
3. Recognition of the value of language as
an instrument in psychology
4. Educational System
5. Datus and Americans Co-existence
 Strength Weaknesses

• Improvement in • Progress penetrated

sanitation and health only the level of the
• Increased agricultural privileged few and the
production
enterprising aliens who
• Foreign and domestic
trade aligned themselves
• Public finance with Americans’ vested
• School system interests in order to
• Democratization preserve their status
• Abolition of polygamy
and slavery
• Introduction of liberal
ideas
• Public works
 E. AMERICAN RULE:
PROMISE AND PERFORMANCE
• American civilization made its greatest impact
upon Philippine institutions
A. AMERICAN POLITICAL POLICY &
PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENCE

*emphasis on political development of the Philippines

1. The political development of the Philippines
towards self-government was the most aspiration
of the Filipinos.
2. The paramount aim of the US policy was to
prepare the Filipinos for self-government.
3. The US president enunciated a policy with the
political tutelage of the Filipinos as its focal point
4. The American policy focused on political
institutions because they believed from
experience that national problem was to be
found in the democratic process.
 THE PHILIPPINE ASSEMBLY

• Most important single political novelty introduced

by the United States in the Philippines
• It was a matrix from which real Philippine autonomy
evolved and served as the school for national
leaders
 NATURE OF PHILIPPINE ASSEMBLY
DURING TAFT ERA
1. No established antecedents other than the
short lived Malolos Congress and its successor
2. It was comparatively easy for the members of
the Assembly to adopt the organization and
procedure of the House of Representatives of
the American Congress
3. In appearance, the Philippine Assembly was
more an adaptation of the House of
Representative of the US Congress than that of
the Spanish Cortesz, whose rules of procedure
the Malolos Congress had adopted.
 PROBLEMS INCURRED IN THE
PLAN OF AMERICAN JUDICIARY
-recruiting of American lawyers who could
speak Spanish for the various judicial posts
-of appointing or re-appointing a few Filipinos
to responsible positions in the judiciary, need
for political reasons
-an apparent injustice of imposing alien
judges unfamiliar with the customs and
institutions of the Filipinos
RESULT: Judicial branch of the government as
the most Filipinized of all branches
 FILIPINIZATION

President Wilson’s message thru Harrison:

-giving the Filipinos the right to rule over
the country ( the giving of independence to
Filipinos)
 Reasons for Rapid
Filipinization Effects

1. Americans returned to 1. Filipinos were given

the US because of the chance to govern
resentment 2. Competent handling
2. Reduction in the of government affairs
salaries by the Filipinos
3. Passage of Retirement 3. Temporary efficiency
Law of 1916 4. Dislocation of
bureaucracy
 THE JONES LAW
(WILLIAM JONES)
- The best that could be won from Congress
- The law provided for the establishment of a
Philippine legislature with two houses:
1. House of Representatives
2. Senate
 SUMMARY
• Taft Era started: one sizable group
among Filipino elites advocated
statehood within the US

• Middle of Taft Era: Filipino elite

embraced a program of political
independence as they realized that
independence was the only and best
means they could have a total control
of the government

• From then on: several missions and bills were passed and
introduced.

Thus, due to the Filipino constant aspiration to gain back their

long lost independence., it was then granted to them on July 4,
1946, after Second World War
 AMERICAN ECONOMIC POLICY

• A. introduction of free enterprise and business

• Enactment of legislation thought to be conducive
to such development
• Institution of certain practices such as Homestead
and Torrens titles
 TAFT POLICY

• 1909 – expiration of Article IV of the Treaty of Paris

*all American goods and products except rice
were admitted duty free into the Philippines
 PAYNE-ALDRICH
TARIFF ACT
• Most significant bill passed in the House of Congress
Provisions:
1. all products and manufacturers of the US except
rice were to be admitted free of duty in the Philippines
2. any amount in excess of the following were to be
charged with tariff:
a. 300,000 gross tons of sugar
b. 300,000 pound of wrapper tobacco & filter
tobacco mixed with more than 15% wrapper tobacco
c. products or manufacturers that may contain
foreign materials but not in excess of 20% of their value
 OPPOSITION ON FREE TRADE

• It would divert Philippine sugar and tobacco from

their natural outlets in neighboring asia and at the
same time make the Philippines an economic
dependent of the US
• It would lead to the American’s eventual control of
Philippine commerce, industry and agriculture
• It would delay the attainment of Philippine
Independence
• It would result to loss of revenue
 INTERNAL REVENUE LAW

*provided that corporation property was taxed like

an individual property
REASONS FOR OPPOSITION:
1. the law was enacted at the wrong time
2. the needs of government did not justify the
new taxes created by the internal revenue law
3. the law itself had been encted by the wrong
people
 LAND TAX

• Large proprietors and landowners benefitted

directly from the tax which went to the support of
public shools and maintenance of roads and
bridges
• Establishment and improvement of several roads
and bridges as well as plantaion colony and
commercial centers
 LAND AND AGRARIAN POLICY

*to strengthen the system of land ownership

introduced by the Spaniards
-instituted systematic procedure for land ownership to
secure documentary titles
-liberalized and simplified methods to acquire public
agricultural lands
-took immediate steps to purchase the friar lands and
allotted some to the cultivators
PHILIPPINE ORGANIC ACT OF 1902

• Authorized Philippine Commission to classify the

public lands
• Authorized the issuance of free patents
• Limited the amount of land or occupation

“innumerable abuses”
*sociedad anomia (anonymous corporation)
 CULTURE AND EDUCATION

Public education – only second in importance to the

political development of the Filipinos
- the handmaiden of political
progress

“Thomasites” – American teachers

“pensionados” – brightest high school graduates
numbering about 300 sent to US for higher and
professional education
 ENGLISH: THE MEDIUM OF
INSTRUCTION
REASONS:
1. Most of the higher officials were Americans
2. American’s limited command of Spanish and no
knowledge of any Philippine language
3. Cost of translating textbooks and other reading
materials
4. Many Filipinos preferred English as the medium of
instruction
5. The desire of the Americans to impose their own
language
FILIPINOS AND AMERICAN TEACHERS

• Filipino teachers welcomed the American teachers

warmly
- They were never threathened by the arrival of
American teachers who soon helped organize
vocation and normal institutes to improve the training
of native teachers
 EDUCATION AS AN INSTRUMENT OF
SOCIAL CHANGE
• Means to abolish caciquism

Importance of the Civil Service Examination

-vehicle for education
-designed to develop people supportive of the
colonial government
-promotions were based on merit
-guaranteed better pay if passed the examination
given in English
 SUMMARY

Characteristic of the American colonial program

1. Systematic – they first gained information about the
colony
2. Democratic – they taught the Filipinos to govern
themselves
3. Economic – intensive development in agriculture and
also the development/ improvement of roads, bridges
and infrastractures
4. Liberal – they taught the Filipino people liberal ideas
5. Technological – Americans brought with them
machines and tools useful for the development of
Filipino lives
*Benefitted only the elites or illustrados