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Path To War

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Path to war

[edit]
The First Philippine Republic was declared on January 21, 1899. [100] Lack of
recognition by the United States led to rising tensions and, eventually, to hostilities.
On January 31, 1899, the Minister of Interior of the Republic, Teodoro Sandiko,
signed a decree saying that President Aguinaldo had directed that all idle lands be
planted to provide food, in view of impending war with the Americans. [101]
On the evening of February 4, Private William W. Grayson fired the war's first shots
along Sociego Street towards a sub-post of blockhouse 7 located at the turn towards
the blockhouse.[102][d] A study done by Ronnie Miravite Casalmir places this spot at
the corner of Sociego Street and Tomas Arguelles Street, not at the corner of
Sociego-Silencio.[102] According the National Historical Commission of the Philippines,
two unarmed soldiers were killed.[104] According to Grayson's account, his patrol
ordered four Filipino soldiers to "Halt!" and, when the men responded by cocking
their rifles, they fired on them and then retreated. [105][e] The outbreak of violence
triggered the 1899 Battle of Manila. Later that day, Aguinaldo declared "That peace
and friendly relations with the Americans be broken and that the latter be treated as
enemies, within the limits prescribed by the laws of war." [107]

Historical marker installed by the Philippines Historical


Committee in 1941 to commemorate the shot that started the war
The following day, Filipino General Isidoro Torres came through the lines under a flag
of truce to deliver a message from Aguinaldo to General Otis that the fighting had
begun accidentally, and that Aguinaldo wished for the hostilities to cease
immediately and for the establishment of a neutral zone. Otis dismissed these
overtures, and replied that the "fighting, having begun, must go on to the grim
end".[108] On February 5, General Arthur MacArthur ordered his troops to advance
against Filipino troops.[109]
Wounded American soldiers at Santa Mesa, Manila in
1899
In the U.S., President McKinley had created a commission chaired by Jacob G.
Schurman on January 20[f] and tasked it to study the situation in the Philippines and
make recommendations on how the U.S. should proceed. Members included General
Otis and two other civilian appointees. The three civilian members of the
commission arrived in Manila on March 4, 1899, a month after hostilities began. [110]
General Otis viewed the arrival of his fellow commission members as an intrusion
and boycotted commission meetings.[111] The civilian members of the commission
spent a month meeting with Ilustrados who had deserted Aguinaldo's Malolos
Republic government and studying the Malolos Constitution and other documents of
Aguinaldo's revolutionary government. Meanwhile, with U.S. forces advancing
northwards from Manila, the seat of Aguinaldo's revolutionary government had been
moved from Malolos to San Isidro, Nueva Ecija. When Malolos fell at the end of
March, it moved further north to San Fernando, Pampanga.[112]
The commission published a proclamation containing assurances that the U.S. did
not intend exploitation of Filipinos, but their "advancement to a position among the
most civilized peoples of the world", and announced "that the United States is ...
anxious to establish in the Philippine Islands an enlightened system of government
under which the Philippine people may enjoy the largest measure of home rule and
the amplest liberty."[113]
Though not authorized to discuss an armistice, civilian commission members held
informal discussions with a representative of Aguinaldo. Progress on a path without
war ended after General Luna arrested Aguinaldo's then-cabinet and replaced it with
a more hawkish one headed by Apolinario Mabini. [g] On June 2, 1899, the First
Philippine Republic declared war on the United States. [114]
American strategy
[edit]
The Battle of Caloocan, February 10, 1899. Major
General Arthur MacArthur with binoculars at the front line.
American annexation was justified in the name of liberating and protecting the
peoples in the former Spanish colonies. Senator Albert J. Beveridge, a prominent
American imperialist, said: "Americans altruistically went to war with Spain to
liberate Cubans, Puerto Ricans, and Filipinos from their tyrannical yoke. If they
lingered on too long in the Philippines, it was to protect the Filipinos from European
predators waiting in the wings for an American withdrawal and to tutor them in
American-style democracy."[115]
On February 11, 1899, one week after the first shots were fired, Iloilo was
bombarded by American naval forces from the USS Petrel (PG-2) and
the USS Baltimore (C-3). Filipino forces lit the town on fire before retreating. The city
was captured by ground forces led by Brigadier General Marcus Miller, with no loss
of American lives. 25 to 30 Filipinos were wounded. The "native" part of the city was
almost entirely destroyed.[116]
Months later, after finally securing Manila, American forces moved northward,
engaging in combat at the brigade and battalion level in pursuit of the fleeing
insurgent forces.[117] In response to the use of guerrilla warfare tactics by Filipino
forces, beginning in September 1899,[118] American military strategy shifted to
suppression of the resistance. Tactics became focused on the control of key areas
with internment and segregation of the civilian population in "zones of protection"
from the guerrillas.[119] Many of the interned civilians died from dysentery.[120]
General Otis gained notoriety for some of his actions. Although his superiors had
directed Otis to avoid military conflict, he did little to prevent war. Otis refused to
accept anything but unconditional surrender from the Philippine Army. He often
made major military decisions without first consulting Washington. He acted
aggressively in dealing with the Filipinos under the assumption that their resistance
would collapse quickly.[121] Even after this assumption proved false, he continued to
insist that the insurgency had been defeated, and that the remaining casualties
were caused by "isolated bands of outlaws". [122]
Otis was also active in suppressing information about American military tactics.
When letters describing American atrocities reached the American media, Otis had
each press clipping forwarded to the original writer's commanding officer, who
would convince or force the soldier to retract his statements. [123]
Filipino strategy
[edit]

20th Kansas Volunteers marching through Caloocan at


night, 1899
Estimates of the Filipino forces vary between 80,000 and 100,000, with tens of
thousands of auxiliaries. Most of the forces were armed only with bolo knives, bows
and arrows, spears, and other primitive weapons, which were vastly inferior to the
guns and other weapons of the American forces. [124]
A fairly rigid indigenous caste system existed in the Philippines before the Spanish
colonial era, which partially survived among the natives during Spanish rule. The
goal, or end-state, sought by the First Philippine Republic was a sovereign,
independent, stable nation led by an oligarchy composed of members of
the educated class (known as the ilustrado class). Local chieftains, landowners,
businessmen, and cabezas de barangay were the principales who controlled local
politics. The war was at its peak when ilustrados, principales, and peasants were
unified in opposition to annexation by the United States. The peasants, who
represented the majority of the fighting forces, had interests different from
their ilustrado leaders and the principales of their villages. Coupled with
the ethnic and geographic fragmentation, aligning the interests of people from
different social castes was a daunting task. [125] The challenge for Aguinaldo and his
generals was to sustain unified Filipino public opposition; this was the
revolutionaries' strategic center of gravity.[126]
The Filipino operational center of gravity was the ability to sustain its force of
100,000 irregulars in the field. The Filipino general Francisco Macabulos described
the Filipinos' war aim as, "not to vanquish the U.S. Army but to inflict on them
constant losses". In the early stages of the war, the Philippine Revolutionary Army
employed the conventional military tactics typical of an organized armed resistance.
The hope was to inflict enough American casualties to result in McKinley's defeat
by William Jennings Bryan in the 1900 presidential election. They hoped that Bryan,
who held strong anti-imperialist views, would withdraw the American forces from
the Philippines.[127]
McKinley's election victory in 1900 was demoralizing for the insurgents, and
convinced many Filipinos that the United States would not depart quickly.
[127]
Coupled with a series of devastating losses on the battlefield against American
forces equipped with superior technology and training, Aguinaldo became
convinced that he needed to change his approach. Beginning on September 14,
1899, Aguinaldo accepted the advice of General Gregorio del Pilar and authorized
the use of guerrilla warfare tactics in subsequent military operations in Bulacan. [118]

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