To protect their interests in Cuba during the revolt of the Cubans against their Spanish masters, the US government sent its battleship USS Maine to Havana in January 1898. A few days later in February, the forward gunpowder magazines of the battleship exploded killing nearly three-quarters of its crew. The cause of the explosion was unclear but it was not hard for the Americans to blame the Spaniards and war was declared.
With the US declaration of war against Spain, the fate of the Spaniards in the Philippines was also sealed. Expecting war with the Spaniards and the inclusion of the Philippines in that war because of the presence of the Spaniards here, the Americans assembled a squadron in Hong Kong to wait for an order to strike the Spanish navy in Manila. Once the order was given, the squadron sailed for Manila.
Before the order to strike came, Commodore George Dewey in Hong Kong came to know of the presence of Emilio Aguinaldo, the leader of the failed Philippine revolution to oust the Spaniards. After agreeing to surrender to the Spaniards, Aguinaldo and some of his trusted men were exiled to Hong Kong. With the surrender, there was supposed to be a treaty between the rebels and the Spanish government in Manila for reforms to be implemented which included, among others, the expulsions of the friars whose abuses caused great pains on Filipinos.
Realizing that Aguinaldo could also help the fight against the Spaniards, Dewey helped Aguinaldo return to the Philippines. His return was greeted with much jubilation by the Filipinos who found no change in the way they were treated by the Spaniards while he was in exile. Once back on Philippine soil, the fight against the Spaniards resumed.
On May 1, 1898 Dewey crushed the Spanish navy whose guns mostly missed their targets compared to the more accurate salvos of the Americans. But they could not just remove the Spaniards from Manila with the navy alone. They needed the troops on foot to attack the Spaniards who were waiting for them inside the much secured walled City of Manila.
Aguinaldo’s men soon took control of much of the areas near and around Manila and they could have entered the walled city and taken it by their sheer number for most of the Filipinos were already behind him. But no such plan was made in deference to Dewey who was still waiting for reinforcements and to avoid more unnecessary bloodshed especially since the rebels were not fully armed and trained.
Meanwhile, Aguinaldo formed the revolutionary government with him at the helm as dictator. On June 12, from the balcony of his house in Kawit, Cavite, Aguinaldo proclaimed the independence of the Filipino people from Spain. Later on Sept. 15, 1898, he convened the Malolos Congress to lay the legal and constitutional foundations of what was to become the First Philippine Republic.
But the new republic did not last long.
First, when the American troops finally arrived, they attacked Manila on Aug. 13, 1998 without the Filipinos being allowed to participate. The glory of defeating the Spaniards was reaped mainly by the Americans who could not have done it easily without the Filipino rebels pinning the Spaniards in Manila and preventing them from getting reinforcements.
Second, on Dec. 12, 1898, U.S. and Spanish negotiators, again without the participation of the Filipinos signed the Treaty of Paris, officially ending the Spanish-American War. The treaty, which was clearly treacherous to the Filipinos, ceded the Philippines to the U.S. for $20 million. Despite this treachery, the Americans refused to dispel Filipino suppositions that the Americans might yet recognize Philippine independence while continuously building its forces in preparation for the full occupation of the Philippine archipelago.
This time it became clear that the Americans had no desire to leave and let the Filipinos live and govern themselves. Aguinaldo was not hopeless, however. On Jan. 23, 1899, he formally proclaimed the establishment of the First Philippine Republic at Malolos in Bulacan province.
However, on Feb. 4, 1899, U.S. sentries shot and killed four Filipino troopers at Santa Mesa Bridge. From here began the Philippine-American War which ended in the defeat of the poorly armed Filipinos. At the time the Filipinos numbered around six million. In this lopsided war, the Filipinos lost an estimated 400,000 to 600,000 lives against American losses of just about 10,000.
Was Philippine independence promised by the Americans? Aguinaldo thought so based on his talks with Dewey, whose words, he was made to believe were equivalent to the most solemn pledge that could not be classified with the promises of the Spaniards.
But Dewey was no President of the US and the US government, like any government, is also beholden to the real power behind it which in an industrial society were the captains of industry. Why give up the Philippines immediately after taking it from Spain when more profit can still be had from its occupation? In truth, even before their coming, the Americans were the biggest buyers of Philippine exports. If they profited much from it, why not from its occupation? Then there was China that was breaking up with its unequal treaties and the rising Japan. More business there, so why leave?