Philippine-American War Begins - Liberation Becomes Brutal Occupation

Fighting erupts between U.S. forces and Filipino independence fighters led by Emilio Aguinaldo, transforming America’s supposed “liberation” of the Philippines from Spain into a brutal three-year war of imperial conquest. The conflict begins just two days before the Senate ratifies the Treaty of Paris that cedes the Philippines to the United States for $20 million, revealing the fundamental contradiction of American policy: Filipinos who fought alongside Americans against Spanish colonialism discover they have simply exchanged one colonial master for another. Aguinaldo’s forces, which declared Philippine independence on June 12, 1898 and established the First Philippine Republic with a constitution modeled on America’s own, refuse to accept U.S. sovereignty over their homeland. What McKinley administration officials characterize as suppressing an “insurrection” against legitimate American authority is actually Filipinos defending their independence against foreign occupation.

The war rapidly devolves into a counterinsurgency campaign marked by systematic atrocities that violate both American law and the 1899 Hague Conventions. American forces employ “concentration zones” (reconcentration camps), scorched earth tactics, indiscriminate retaliation against civilians, and widespread torture including the “water cure”—a drowning technique where soldiers force water into victims’ mouths and noses until they “swell up like toads,” then jump on their bellies to force vomiting so the torture can begin again, often using salty or filthy water. A soldier reports that of 160 natives subjected to water cure, 134 died. The technique, inherited from Filipino methods during Spanish rule, becomes front-page news in American newspapers when letters from ordinary soldiers surface containing graphic accounts of torture. Major Edwin Forbes Glenn receives only one month suspension from command and a $50 fee for using water cure on November 27, 1900, despite the Army judge advocate saying the charges constitute “resort to torture with a view to extort a confession” that “the United States cannot afford to sanction.”

The war’s brutality intensifies after the April 19, 1901 “Peace Manifesto” when Aguinaldo acknowledges American sovereignty, but fighting continues on islands like Samar where Filipino forces resist occupation. American economic interests drive the occupation: Samar is a major center for Manila hemp production (vital for U.S. Navy rope and agricultural industries), and American businesses are eager to control the hemp trade financing Philippine resistance. Between 1899 and 1902, estimated Filipino casualties reach 20,000 military deaths and 200,000-250,000 civilian deaths from violence, famine, and disease caused by American counterinsurgency tactics. The war is intensely criticized domestically by anti-imperialists including Mark Twain and William Jennings Bryan who recognize the hypocrisy of America conquering peoples fighting for self-determination. The Philippine-American War establishes the template for American counterinsurgency: military occupation justified by economic interests, systematic torture and civilian targeting, and accountability failures that allow war criminals to escape meaningful punishment while the United States proclaims civilizing missions abroad.