Spanish American War: Conflict in the Philippines

President William McKinley elected on the Republican ticket in 1896, was cautious but determined to support U.S. interests. He felt compelled in early 1898 to send the USS Maine to Havana harbor, where a few weeks later, it blew up. The “yellow press,” led by William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal, issued the battle cry “Remember the Maine.” Congress declared war in April 1898, but the U.S. fleet had already begun moving into position near Spanish possessions in both the Caribbean (Cuba and Puerto Rico) and the Pacific (Philippines). The small and undertrained U.S. Army was augmented by numerous enthusiastic volunteers, including the famous Rough Riders, organized by Teddy Roosevelt, who benefited from admiring publicity. The navy performed better than the army, but both performed better than the Spanish, and the fighting was over within a few weeks, costing the United States few dead, and most of those from disease rather than battle. During the war, the United States annexed Hawai'i. As a result of the war, although not until 1902, Cuba became independent. Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines became U.S. colonies, technically called “unincorporated territories.”

Filipinos also had been fighting for their independence from Spain. While initially working with U.S. forces or tolerating their presence, Filipino independence fighters soon realized U.S. liberation from Spain would not mean independence, and they took up arms against U.S. soldiers. This part of the war was costly for the United States, with more than 70,000 U.S. troops in the islands at the peak of the conflict and U.S. deaths of more than 4,000. At least 20,000 Filipinos were killed as a direct result of fighting. The Philippine Insurrection, which Filipinos call the Philippine-American War, officially lasted until 1902. Fighting continued in various parts of the islands until 1913, especially in the southern island of Mindanao, which has never fully acquiesced in any kind of rule from Manila, the capital of the Philippines.

The U.S. empire was a layered one. Cuba experienced effective control, but indirectly. Hawai'i was governed as an incorporated territory, theoretically eligible for statehood, but its racial mix made that an unappealing prospect for many Americans. Hawai'i did not become a state until 1959. Guam was ruled directly by the U.S. Navy—which used it as a coaling station—and it remains part of the United States, governed by the Office of Insular Affairs in the Department of the Interior. Both the Philippines and Puerto Rico were governed directly as colonies through the Bureau of Insular Affairs, but their paths quickly diverged. Puerto Rico developed close links with the United States through revolving migration, economic and tourism ties, and increased political rights for its citizens. Puerto Rico is still part of the United States, as the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The Philippines developed more modest and ambiguous relations with the United States, since Filipinos had restricted migration rights, and U.S. economic investment in the islands was limited. The Philippines achieved independence in 1946. The layered and decentralized nature of the U.S. empire developed out of the particular legal and political processes used to decide how to rule over territories acquired in the Spanish-American War. These decisions were widely and publicly debated in the early twentieth century, as Americans wrestled with the changing nature of territorial expansion involving overseas colonies

(born March 23, 1869, near Cavite, Luzon, Phil.—died Feb. 6, 1964, Manila) Philippine independence leader. He was born of Chinese and Tagalog parentage and was educated at the University of Santo Tomás, Manila. He became a leader of the Katipunan, a revolutionary society that fought the Spanish. Philippine independence was declared in 1898, and Aguinaldo became president, but within months Spain signed a treaty ceding the islands to the U.S. Aguinaldo fought U.S. forces until he was captured in 1901. After taking an oath of allegiance to the U.S., he was induced to retire from public life. He collaborated with the Japanese during World War II. After the war he was briefly imprisoned; released by presidential amnesty, he was vindicated by his appointment to the Council of State in 1950. In his later years he promoted nationalism, democracy, and improvement of relations between the U.S. and the Philippines.