2019 Year 12 IB Extended Essays

The Philippine Insurrection The annexation of the Philippines was highly controversial. Barely any Americans had heard of the Philippines prior to the war and almost nobody had an idea what the situation there was. Unlike the American west, the general public had no economic incentive to expand there. Having an entrepot and coaling station in Manila would have beneficial for the USA, but the American government did not know what to do with the rest of the islands. The Americans could neither return the Philippines to Spain nor grant the Philippines independence as it was believed that another European Power (or even Japan) annexing them instead, and this belief was supported by German warships suspiciously sailing in Manila bay. The Filipinos began to test the American will to fight by probing American defenses in Manila. On February 4 1899, shortly after the annexation of the Philippines a small skirmish escalated into war. Aguinaldo had been unable to defeat the Spanish - who were weaker than the Americans, and thus tried to negotiate with American General Otis. Otis flatly rejected Aguinaldo’s peace overtures and the Philippine Insurrection began. The Philippine Insurrection was a practically direct continuation of the Revolution. (Boot, 2002) The war began with a battle around Manila. Both armies numbered around 13-20,000 men, with the Filipinos being able to levy more men from nearby lands. The American army had superior equipment, naval support and defensive positions. The ill-disciplined Filipino Army of Liberation was easily defeated, and the American armies proceeded to fan out across the Philippines. The defeat at Manila forced the Filipinos to once more abandon conventional warfare in favour of guerrilla warfare. Attempts by Aguinaldo and the Filipino officers to reform the army failed due to the decentralised command and abysmally low morale. The disaster was exacerbated by the fall of the Philippine provisional capital at Malolos and Aguinaldo’s assassination of his primary general, Antonio Luna. Aguinaldo commenced a retreat from the forces of Otis and General Arthur MacArthur, all the while hoping that the US senate would not ratify the Treaty of Paris. He also invited numerous foreign journalists to report on the war. Although we cannot be certain, it seems that Aguinaldo hoped to outlast the Americans, who were suffering from attrition from guerilla attacks, disease, exhaustion and the climate. By outlasting the Americans, turning international opinion against the USA by reporting on atrocities and turning American opinion against the war (notably distributing pamphlets to African-American soldiers who often felt more aligned with the oppressed than the racist Americans), he may have hoped to have the Americans either pull out or allow a great deal of autonomy to the Philippines. Whatever Aguinaldo had hoped, he was forced to abandon the Army of Liberation and flee into the mountains of central Luzon, while independent guerillas continued to fight across the archipelago.