Term paper on Philippine Insurrection

Philippine Insurrection (1899–1902)

The United States acquired the Philippine Islands as a result of the Spanish-American War, despite demands for independence by Filipino nationalists, who had fought against Spanish rule. Led by Emilio Aguinaldo, insurgent forces clashed with U.S. troops as soon as word reached the islands of the terms of the peace treaty. Even before that treaty was ratified by the U.S. Senate by a close vote, America found itself at war again. The war deeply divided Americans at home. The U.S. military captured Aguinaldo in 1901, but the insurrection lasted until mid-1902. More than 4,000 American troops and possibly as many as 20,000 insurgents died; the death toll among civilians, largely from disease, was much higher. William Howard Taft’s patient and compassionate work as governor of the Philippines did much to pacify the situation, and American missionaries made a significant contribution to public health and education in the islands in the forty years of U.S. occupation. Still, the moral legacy of the war remained vexatious. Not until the 1930s, however, was any plan put into effect to give Filipinos self-government; the Philippine Republic was granted independence in 1946. This occasion closed a troubled chapter in American foreign policy.

Suggestions for Term Papers

1. Compare contemporary arguments for and against the annexation of the Philippines .

2. Analyze the reasons for eventual U.S. military success against the Filipinos, as well as the methods Aguinaldo’s guerrillas used to keep the Westerners at bay so long.

3. Discuss the long-range results of American rule in the Philippines on the native population, or compare America ‘s occupation of the Philippines with the briefer military occupation of Cuba .

4. Why did it take the United States nearly half a century to grant independence to the Philippines ?

5. Compare the opposition at home to America ‘s war in the Philippines with later opposition to the war in Vietnam .

Suggested Sources: See entry 1 for related items, especially Bradford ‘s Crucible of Empire.

REFERENCE SOURCES

The War of 1898 and U.S. Interventions 1898–1934: An Encyclopedia. Benjamin R. Beede, ed. Hamden, CT : Garland, 1994. Contains lengthy articles by nearly 100 scholars, as well as maps; treats all phases of intervention during that time period, including the Philippine War.

William Howard Taft: A Bibliography . Paolo E. Coletta. Westport , CT : Meckler, 1989. Guide to work about the man whose personality shaped early American occupation policy in the islands.

GENERAL SOURCES

Clymer, Kenton J. Protestant Missionaries in the Philippines , 1898–1916: An Inquiry into the American Colonial Mentality . Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 1986. Interesting study of America ‘s most influential nonmilitary representatives in the Philippines .

Collin, Richard H. Theodore Roosevelt, Culture, Diplomacy, and Expansion: A New View of American Imperialism . Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, 1985. Survey of Roosevelt ‘s policies.

Damiani, Brian P. Advocates of Empire: William McKinley, the Senate, and American Expansion, 1898–1899 . New York : Garland , 1987. Treats foreign relations and territorial expansion, including the Philippines and Spanish-American War.

Perry, John Curtis. Sentimental Imperialists: The American Experience in East Asia . New York : Harper&Row, 1981. American attempts to justify policy in the Philippines and other parts of Asia through religious and social arguments.

Pomeroy, William J. American Neo-Colonialism: Its Emergence in the Philippines and Asia . New York : International Publishers, 1970. Reprint. Books on Demand. Leftist analysis of the American presence in the Far East .

SPECIALIZED SOURCES

Bain, David H. Sitting in Darkness: Americans in the Philippines . Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1984. Interesting and informative account of the capture of Aguinaldo by Major General Frederick Funston.

Brands, H. W. Bound to Empire: The United States and the Philippines. New York : Oxford University Press, 1992. Good, up-to-date survey and analysis beginning with the period prior to U.S. annexation to independence in 1946.

Hahn, Emily. The Islands: America ‘s Imperial Adventure in the Philippines. New York : Coward, McCann,&Geoghegan, 1981. Focuses on early decades of American occupation.

Karnow, Stanley. In Our Image: America ‘s Empire in the Philippines . New York : Random House, 1989. U.S. attempts to ‘‘educate” Filipinos for Western-style democracy.

Linn, Brian McAllister. The United States and Counterinsurgency in the Philippine War: 1899–1902 . Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989. Operations on the island of Luzon ; generally favorable conclusion regarding U.S. Army performance.

May, Glenn Anthony. Battle for Batangas: A Philippine Province at War . New Haven , CT : Yale University Press, 1991. Good description of life of both soldiers and civilians.

Miller, Stuart Creighton. ‘‘Benevolent Assimilation”: The American Conquest of the Philippines , 1899–1903 . (1982). Reprint. New Haven, CT : Yale University Press, 1984. Well-balanced coverage of the topic—an interesting contrast with the Sexton study listed next.

Sexton, William T. Soldiers in the Sun: An Adventure in Imperialism. (1939). Reprint. Freeport , NY : Books for Libraries Press, 1971. A history of U.S. forces in the Philippines at the turn of the century by a U.S. Army officer who served in the islands thirty years later and offers a soldier’s view of the conflict.

BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES

Burton, David H. William Howard Taft in the Public Service. Malabar, FL : Krieger, 1986. 2 vols. Focuses on Taft’s public life.

Pringle, Henry F. The Life and Times of William Howard Taft. New York:

Farrar&Rinehart, 1939. The best overall life of Taft, although somewhat dated.

Steinbach, Robert H. A Long March: The Lives of Frank and Alice Baldwin. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990. Concise, interesting, and informative account of the lives of a forty-four-year career officer and his wife; Baldwin was cited by President Roosevelt for his success in the Philippines.

Young, Kenneth R. The General’s General: The Life and Times of Arthur MacArthur. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1994. Excellent biography of Douglas MacArthur’s father, whose career spanned nearly fifty years in the military; his success in the Philippine war led to his appointment as military governor.

AUDIOVISUAL SOURCES

The U.S. and the Philippines: In Our Image. Alexandria, VA : PBS Home Video, 1989. Videocassette. 3-hour video dealing with America ‘s first uneasy experiment with colonialism in Asia.

WORLD WIDE WEB

Zwick, Jim. ‘‘A Collaborative Exploration of the Cultural and Political Impacts of the Philippine Revolution and the Philippine-American War.” Sentenaryo/Centennial: The Philippine Revolution and the Philippine-American War. June 1998. Updated continuously. http://home.ican.net/ zwick/centennial/ Numerous links to useful sites and contributed materials relevant to historic al perspective such as Philippine-American War and Philippine history prior to the revolution.