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Filipino and American war By Cadet Webb
The Filipino and American war was a war fought between the Filipinos and the Americans over control of the Philippines. After the Spanish and America war the Spanish gave up control of some of their territories, such as Cuba, cede Guam, Puerto Rico, and eventually gave up the Philippines as well because of a peace treaty signed in Paris, France in 1899 agreeing that the Americans get those countries and give Spain $20 million. However…the Filipinos did not know that they were placed under the American rule instead of the Spanish rule, and they very much disagreed with that decision. The Filipinos were also upset because they had no say in whether or not they were going to be placed under a different countries rule during the treaty signing.
On January 5th, 1899, President Aguinaldo (Philippine President) issued a proclamation stating that his army was ready to shoot any American force trying to take over his country. This sounded like a declaration of war to the U.S., but Aguinaldo had no intensions of getting involved in a war and would rather solve the problem peacefully without war. On January 9th, 1899, American General Elwell S. Otis appointed three American officers to meet with three Filipino military officials to make a peaceful compromise…however they accomplished nothing. The three Americans ended up shooting the three Filipinos’ out of fright. However, the Americans believe that the Filipinos’ started firing first. The two sides immediately responded by going to battle. President Aguinaldo was still trying to think of a peaceful compromise instead of war.
After President Aguinaldo attempted more peaceful ways of compromise between the Americans and the Filipinos’ General Otis refused to compromise peacefully. The Americans immediately began to invade the Philippines and take over city by city. The first city was the city Manila and the suburbs. The Americans swept through all the cities easily with few casualties. The Americans left no survivors, they killed all the natives as well including women, children, men, whether they were armed or not it did not matter to the Americans, they killed them all. During the war the Americans used forms of torture to get information or confessions from prisoners. They dragged men from horses, lit fire underneath them as they hung, and other horrible torture ways. President Aguinaldo was finally captured in Palanan, Isabela Province, by American troops who were acting as Filipino reinforcements.
After the capture of President Aguinaldo, a few rebelling Filipinos were left but that was it. The war officially ended on July 4th 1901. The Philippines established a Bill of Rights because of Judge H. Taft giving the Filipinos a civilized government. It took the Americans three years to defeat the Filipinos’. The Americans had a high advantage when it came to weapons and numbers in soldiers. Overall the Filipino and American war was a brutal war for the Filipinos because of the innocent women and children that were killed during battle and also because of the torture that the Filipino soldiers received when captured.
